Pirates Earn Two Sweeps To Open 2025 Season

Friday, August 29

Hampton, Va.

10:00 a.m.

East Carolina University

1-0,0-0American

Florida A&M

0-1,0-0SWAC

East Carolina

Florida A&M

August 29, 2025 | Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Hampton, Va. – The East Carolina volleyball team got their 2025 season off to a strong start as the Pirates recorded sweeps of Florida A&M and UMES at the Hampton Tournament inside Holland Hall on Friday.

East Carolina faces Hampton on Saturday at 10 a.m. to close out tournament play.

American Preseason All-Conference Team member Ellie Pate paced the Pirates' offense with 23 kills over the two matches while Aulie Huff added 21 kills. The Pirates also tallied 21 service aces over the two matches and never trailed in four of the six sets played.

Match One: East Carolina 3, Florida A&M 0
The Pirates opened their 2025 campaign in dominant fashion, sweeping Florida A&M 25-19, 25-18, 25-23.

Ellie Pate led the Pirates' attack with 14 kills and a .346 hitting percentage while Aulie Huff, Teegan Charapata and Carlia Northcross each recorded seven kills. Taryn Gilreath was stellar setting up her teammates with a career-high 30 assists. ECU outhit Florida A&M as a team with a .256 hitting percentage compared to .138 from the Rattlers.

East Carolina's 11 service aces marked the most by the Pirates in a single match since the team recorded 12 at South Florida on Nov. 10, 2023.

The Pirates jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the first set behind three service aces from Charapata, but the Rattlers slowly worked their way back, pulling within two points on a kill to make the score 12-10. Northcross' kill and an attack error by Florida A&M swung momentum back to ECU's side and the Pirates were able to keep the Rattlers at bay and finish off the set on one of Pate's five first set kills.

Florida A&M scored the first two points of the second set, but ECU answered with back-to-back points of their own to knot the set at 2-2. The teams traded leads eight times as neither side could gain any separation until the Pirates closed out the set with another 5-0 spurt, 25-18.

The third set was just as tightly contested as both clubs exchanged leads throughout. The Rattlers looked poised to send the match into an extra set after turning a 22-21 deficit into a 23-22 lead but an attack error from Florida A&M tied the set up at 23-23 and left the door open for the Pirates. Pate notched another kill to put ECU back in front and Northcross delivered an ace to clinch the season-opening win for the Pirates.

Match Two: East Carolina 3, UMES 0
East Carolina continued its strong opening day play with its second sweep of the day, dispatching UMES in three sets 25-15, 25-14, 25-16.

The Pirates' attack was once again efficient as the team posted a hitting percentage of .307 and ECU never trailed in any of the three sets against the Hawks.

Huff led the team with 14 kills, Gilreath had another huge match in assists with 20 and Elle Jackson recorded a career-high 17 digs.

ECU jumped out to big leads in the first two sets but the Hawks gave more resistance in the third set as the teams were tied at 11 after a service ace from UMES. The Pirates quickly dashed any hopes of a competitive set, outscoring the Hawks 14-5 to pick up their second sweep of the day.