Tulane University
at East Carolina*
Green Wave Rolls As Volleyball Dumps East Carolina 3-0
Nov 2, 2002 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 2, 2002
GREENVILLE, S.C. - Senior outside hitter Britney Hurst had 17 kills and the Green Wave defense held the Pirates to a .018 attack percentage as the Tulane University volleyball team defeated Conference USA foe East Carolina 3-0 Saturday night at Williams Arena.
The Green Wave tallied seven service aces - three by sophomore outside hitter Anastasia Kenon and two each by Hurst and sophomore middle blocker Deva Fowler - and11.0 team blocks in the victory. With the win, Tulane improves to 17-13 on the year and 6-4 in league play. ECU, meanwhile, falls to 6-21 overall and 0-9 in conference action.
"I felt that our serving game-plan was pretty good tonight," head coach Betsy Becker said. "I felt that ECU was a very good serving game, but our passing was able to stabilize that and gave us a good variety of shots and we can run more things if we pass well. We also formed good, tight blocks, and it's much easier to play defense that way.
"We were still a little flat tonight, but I think that part of that is because of the long road trip. We were on the bus four hours last night and have another four-hour ride tonight. But the team played well enough to win and we're one step closer to accomplishing our goal of 20 victories in 2002."
Fowler led the Tulane block party with five, followed by Kenon with four and junior middle blocker Kim Swafford with three. Defensively, freshman setter Kelli Dickson led the way with nine digs while Hurst tallied seven and junior right-side hitter Lauren Jones-McClain and Kenon had five each. Dickson also let the team with 29 assists.
Tulane was able to take control early on in game one, jumping out to an 8-2 lead. ECU, however, would make it a tight ball game throughout most of the stanza as the Pirates cut the lead to one at 11-10 and again at 17-16. From there, the Green Wave used a 5-1 rally to push their lead to five, and Tulane was able to cruise from there to a 30-23 win.
Game two followed a similar script as the Green Wave once again staked claim to an 8-2 lead. This time, though, Tulane did not let the Pirates into the game as the Green Wave pushed their lead to as many as 10 at 22-12. ECU made a push and cut the lead to seven at 24-17 and again at 26-19, but that was as close as Tulane would allow as the Green Wave would roll to a 30-20 decision.
It was East Carolina that would jump out the early lead in game three as the Pirates sailed out to an 8-4 advantage. Tulane had an answer, though, using a 5-0 run to take a 9-8 lead. ECU tied the score one point later, but that would be as close as the Pirates would get the rest of the way as the Green Wave used a 6-2 run to retake the lead and would cruise the rest of the way to a 30-21 victory.
Alexis Jones and Robyn Drewes led the ECU attack with seven kills each while Jessica Vick had six. Pam Ferris paced the Pirates with 10 digs, while Vick and Erica Wilson tied for team-high assist honors with 14 apiece.
The Green Wave returns to action on Tuesday, Nov. 5 when they travel to Baton Rouge to take on Southern University at 7 p.m. Tulane's next home match is on Saturday, Nov. 9 when they play host to C-USA foe Southern Miss at 7 p.m. at Fogelman Arena.
