Aug. 31, 2007

Box Score

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The East Carolina volleyball team had its two-game winning streak snapped Friday evening as it fell 3-0 to William and Mary at the Tribe Classic inside Kaplan Arena. The Pirates dip to 2-3 on the season while the Tribe improves its record to 2-1.

William and Mary jumped out to a 12-7 lead in game one to force ECU head coach Chris Rushing to call a timeout. The Pirates took his words to heart as they came within 21-18. From there, ECU went on a 7-5 run that induced the Tribe to call their first timeout of the game. The Pirates would pull no closer as William and Mary shut the door to take a 30-26 win and 1-0 lead in the match. Senior Mignon Dubenion led ECU in game one, hitting a blistering .625 with five kills, eight attempts and no errors. Junior Trish Monroe and sophomore Melissa Zentner combined to lead the defense, each recording three digs. Despite dropping the game, the Pirates out-hit the Tribe .256 to .216 but were outdone on defense 14-9.

At the start of game two, the teams fought tooth and nail until William and Mary established a 12-8 advantage. ECU stayed within striking distance, finally taking its first lead at 24-23. The teams traded points until, with the score tied at 28, the Tribe used an Abbi Owens kill and Dubenion attack error to close out the frame 30-28 and take a commanding 2-0 match lead. Dubenion continued her offensive show, again notching five kills on nine attempts with one error to hit .444. Sophomore Hannah Fenker stepped up her defense, turning in six digs in the game while Monroe tallied five for the set. The evenly-matched game saw William and Mary out-hit the Pirates .256 to .191 and ECU out-dig the Tribe 16-14. William and Mary also notched eight blocks in the game.

The Pirates, determined to stretch the match to four games, raced to a 14-9 advantage in game three, only to see the Tribe come right back to cut the deficit to 14-13. With the score tied at 18, William and Mary went on an 8-3 run to seize control of the game at 26-21. Additionally, Fenker was called to set after freshman Katie Koop went down to injury. ECU never recovered as the Tribe closed out the game 30-24 and completed the sweep. Sophomore Stephanie Turner, senior Kelley Wernert and Dubenion contributed three kills each in the frame while Wernert also dug up seven balls. William and Mary took care of business in the final game, out-hitting the Pirates .356 to .114 and out-digging them 17-15 while recording two blocks to ECU's one.

Dubenion slapped a season-high 13 kills on the evening while Koop dished out 38 assists before leaving the game. Wernert recorded her second double-double of the season, smacking 11 kills while turning in 10 digs. She has earned double-digit kills in her last 32 of 35 matches played. Monroe also contributed 10 digs for the Pirates as she has notched double-digit digs in four of five contests this season.

ECU continues play at the Tribe Classic tomorrow as it will battle Southern Illinois at 11 a.m. while taking on Kent State at 5 p.m. Live webcasts of all tournament matches can be found at http://www.tribeathletics.com/story.php/4961/

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