ABOUT THE PIRATES
East Carolina finished the regular season with a record of 11-17 overall and 5-8 in Conference USA play. ECU split home matches on the final weekend of the regular season, defeating DePaul, 3-2, on Nov. 12 before falling to Marquette, 1-3, in the season finale on Nov. 13.

The Pirates five conference wins this season are the most for ECU since joining the league in 2001. ECU finished in a tie for eighth place in Conference USA with four other teams who finished with a 5-8 conference record. ECU will be the ninth seed and will face the eighth seeded Houston Cougars Friday, Nov. 19 at 1 p.m. in Cardinal Arena.

ECU is led on offense by junior outside hitter Erica Wilson who has 288 kills (2.91 kpg) this season. Junior middle blocker Paige Howell (274 kills) and sophomore middle blocker Jaime Bevan (255 kills) rank second and third respectively on the team. Howell leads the Pirates with an attack percentage of .313.

The Pirates are hitting .187 as a team while their opponents are hitting .244 this season.

Howell and Bevan lead ECU with 94 and 91 blocks respectively this season. Junior libero Johanna Bertini leads the Pirate defense with 438 digs (4.25 dpg) this season. Bertini is currently fourth on ECU's all-time dig list with 1,040 and is one of four players all-time at ECU to collect 400 digs in a season.

Sophomore Heidi Krug finished the regular season with 1,170 assists (11.36 apg). Krug ranks seventh on ECU's all-time career assist list with 1,525 in her career. Krug also ranks second on the team with 216 digs this season.

ABOUT THE COUGARS
Houston (8-20, 5-8 C-USA) is led on offense by Kelly McAnelly who has recorded 432 kills (4.19 kpg) this season. Becca Sartori, Loure Dews and Kariny Ritter have each collected over 200 kills for Houston this season.

The Cougar offense is set up by the duo of Jennifer Hohl and Mirela Vasconcellos. Hohl leads all players with 840 (8.08 apg) set assists while Vasconcellos serves as a secondary setter with 423 (4.45 apg) assists this season. Defensively, Houston is led by Jaci Gonzalez. Gonzalez finished the regular season with 576digs (5.49 dpg). In addition to Gonzalez, four other players have recorded triple-digit digs for the Cougars.

Loure Dews led all Cougars with 97 total blocks during the regular season. Houston is hitting .163 as a team this season while their opponents are hitting .219.

THE HOUSTON SERIES
East Carolina and Houston have met four times with the Cougars taking all four matches. The most recent match-up between the two squads was in Greenville on Oct. 8, when Houston swept the Pirates, 24-30, 24-30, 20-30.

UP NEXT
The winner of East Carolina's game against Houston Friday will play top-seeded and nationally-ranked Louisville at 1 p.m. Saturday in the second round of the 2004 ChevronTexaco Volleyball Tournament in Cardinal Arena.