ECU women's volleyball falls in four to Tulsa

ECU ended its four-match road swing with a 3-1 (11-25, 19-25, 25-23, 19-25) American Athletic Conference loss to Tulsa Sunday afternoon inside the Reynolds Center.

The Pirates (12-6, 4-3 AAC) hit .050 in the match, committing 32 attacking errors, while the Golden Hurricane (13-6, 5-2 AAC) ended up at .218 with 49 kills on 142 attempts. ECU out-dug Tulsa 64-62 and the teams combined for 13 total blocks.

“I thought hitting errors and serve-receive really hurt us today,” head coach Julie Torbett said. “Sydney Hall came in and did a nice job so I was proud of her. We need to work on a lineup going forward to will put us in the best position to succeed.”

Sydney Kleinman led the Pirates with nine kills to go along with 16 digs while Maggie Hallow tied for the match high with 17 digs. Maggie Hembree paced the Golden Hurricane with 11 kills and Rachel Moore recorded a double-double of 10 kills and 13 digs.

Tulsa got off to a quick start, leading ECU 10-4 after a Pirate attacking error. The Golden Hurricane continued to push, using a kill by Mariah Pardo to extend its advantage to 14-6 and force an ECU timeout. The Pirates never recovered as Tulsa limited ECU to just 11 points in the frame.

The second stanza was much tighter and the Pirates were able to pull ahead 13-9 after a kill by Kleinman, prompting the Golden Hurricane to call a timeout. The lead vanished though as Tulsa scored five of the next six points to tie the score at 14. ECU could not hold on in the end and the Golden Hurricane took the set by six to grab a 2-0 lead in the match.

The Pirates began to put some space between the teams in the third, going up 20-12 after a kill by Sydney Hall. After Tulsa rallied to within 24-23, Natalie Tyson put a ball down with authority to clinch the set for ECU and extend the match to a fourth frame.

Trailing 13-8 in the fourth, the Pirates used an early timeout. The Golden Hurricane kept their distance the rest of the way and eventually sealed the match by a six-point margin.

ECU returns home Friday, Oct. 19 for an American Athletic Conference encounter with UCF. First serve inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum is set for 7 p.m.