Volleyball

This past weekend, the East Carolina University women’s volleyball team took home two wins and a loss when they traveled to Jacksonville, Florida for the UNF Invitational.

In their opening match, they matched up against the host, the University of North Florida. The Pirates had a two-set lead over UNF and were able to hold them off, winning three sets to one (25-17, 25-23, 23-25, 27-25).

"It's always nice to win on the road," head coach Julie Torbett said. "I feel we had mostly everything clicking during the match as we dominated the stat sheet, but we were poor in serve-receive. I look forward to improvement in that aspect this afternoon."

Junior outside hitter Sydney Kleinman out-paced all players having 18 kills. She also had only five errors in 30 attempts giving her a high hitting percentage. Redshirt sophomore middle blocker Sydney Hall had a career-high 12 kills with two errors, giving her a .455 percentage. Junior setter Shelby Martin got her third double-double of the season with 29 assists and 12 digs.

ECU dominated the stat sheet over the Ospreys. They had a hitting percentage of .311 to the home team’s .207. The Pirates also had more kills (58-47), digs (54-45) and blocks (10.0-5.0) than the Ospreys. Both teams as a whole had 24 missed serves with the Pirates having 14 of those errors.

In their next match of the weekend, ECU took on Mercer University, defeating them three to one (20-25, 25-19, 25-20, 25-20). This improved the Pirates record to 4-0 and dropped the Bears down to 3-3.

Junior right side Bri Wood went to have a match-high of 14 kills and a .565 hitting percentage against the Bears. Kleinman also had 12 kills with a .304 clip. Redshirt Junior libero Brandee Markwith collected her own match-best of 16 digs as well.

ECU was able to finish the match with a hitting percentage of .227 to the Bears .215. They also went to have more digs than Mercer (51-46).

Finishing out the weekend the Pirates matched up against Wake Forest University. The Pirates were defeated by Wake Forest in a three set decision (19-25, 18-25, 17-25), making that their first loss of the season.

East Carolina was led by Wood as she would put down nine kills and had no errors in 17 attempts for a .529 hitting percentage. Markwith came on top for both teams in digs with 13.

The Pirates had a lower hitting percentage than the Demon Deacons (.184-.374). They also had 33 kills to Wake Forest’s 48. The Demon Deacons also doubled the Pirates in blocks eight to four. However, the Pirates came out with 41 digs to their 40.

The Pirates will host the Pirate Invitational this upcoming weekend where they will take on George Washington University, Norfolk State and USC Upstate inside of Minges Coliseum beginning Friday at noon.

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