Tulane University
East Carolina
Volleyball Falls In Straight Sets At East Carolina
Nov 9, 2014 | Women's Volleyball
Tulane/East Carolina Box Score In PDF Format 
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The Tulane University volleyball team's road woes continued on Sunday afternoon at Minges Coliseum as a pair of late-set rallies fell short in the Green Wave's 3-0 decision to American Athletic Conference foe East Carolina.
The Wave dropped the first two sets by identical scores of 25-22 and never got within two in what proved to be the final frame as the Pirates pillaged their way to a 25-13 victory. The loss was the seventh in a row for Tulane, which fell to 5-21 overall and 3-11 in American play. With six more matches remaining on the schedule, the Green Wave are just 1-14 outside the city of New Orleans with the lone win coming on a neutral court. East Carolina, meanwhile, snapped a three-match skid to even its record at 12-12 and improve to 4-10 in league action.
"We basically were not able to play at a standard level that we know we can play at," Tulane head coach Sinisa Momic said. "When we're up, we have the ability to make big runs but we were not able to do that throughout the match today - especially in game three - for whatever reason. We did not play anywhere close to the potential that we have. We know we can play well, but we just haven't been able to show it."
Sophomore right-side hitter Tea Juric led the offense with 11 kills but was the lone Green Wave player to post finish in double figures as freshman outside hitter Sarah Ray was next with seven. Sophomore setter Ally Frank recorded 24 of the team's 26 assists and Ray led the Tulane defense with seven digs while freshman Maggie Singleton (1 solo, 1 assist) and sophomore Sarah Strasner (both assisted) paced the front-line unit with two blocks each.
As a team, the Green Wave were held to a .096 attack percentage with 29 kills and 19 errors in 104 swings. East Carolina, meanwhile, countered with a .281 clip on the strength of 43 kills and just 16 errors in 96 attacks while piling up 42 assists, five service aces, 50 digs and seven blocks.
"We have to look at this as a team, and we were not able to compete at a high enough level," Momic said. "Every now and then, we have one or two good points from different players, but that's not how we want to play. We want to play good volleyball as a team and we simply weren't able to do that today.
"Our defense is far from being where it needs to be. Not being able to stop their tips and roll shots is what really got us into trouble. We were not able to get a majority of their kills, and that's disappointing. I know what we can do seeing us every day practice but for some reason when we have to compete, we're not performing well."
East Carolina got off to a good start and raced out to an early 8-4 lead. Tulane answered with a 9-4 run to take a 13-12 advantage and the two teams traded points over the next nine serves. With the score knotted at 17-all, however, the Pirates rattled off three straight points and never trailed the rest of the match. The Wave held off set point three times before Sydney Darden scored the winner on a kill to give the Pirates the opening-set win.
The Pirates scored the first six points of the second set and led by as many as 10 at 10-2 before Tulane outscored East Carolina 18-13 over the next 31 serves to cut the deficit to three at 23-20. ECU scored on a kill by Ashton Mares to make it set point, and the Green Wave made it a two-point affair at 24-22 on a kill by Ray and an offensive miscue by the Pirates. An errant serve, however, spelled doom for Tulane and gave the home team a commanding two-sets-to-none lead heading into intermission.
The third set was all ECU a the Pirates scored the first three points of the frame and never looked back. Tulane got back-to-back kills by senior middle blocker Anna Wruck and Ray to make it a 3-2 affair only to see the Pirates score 14 of the next 18 points to take a commanding 17-6 lead and go on to win by a dozen.
Mares and Sydney Darden shared match-high kill honors with 12 apiece to lead East Carolina while Zarah Cecich posted a double-double with 38 asssists and dozen digs. Natalie Montini logged five assisted blocks and Darden had a match-best three aces.
The Green Wave return to action on Friday, Oct. 14, when they travel to Ohio to take on Cincinnati at 3 p.m. From there, Tulane will close out its four-match road swing on Nov. 16 at Memphis and the Wave's next home match is slated for Friday, Nov. 21, when they play host to UCF in Devlin Fieldhouse.
For ticket information to that match, as well as future Green Wave events, contact the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office. The ticket office is located on the first floor of the James W. Wilson, Jr., Center and is open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. For additional information, call (504) 861-WAVE (9283) or log onto the internet at www.TulaneGreenWave.com.
