Pirates win AAC thriller in Tampa

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10/01/2021 | 6:00 p.m.

TAMPA, Florida – East Carolina earned a split on Sunday’s opening weekend of the American Athletic Conference by beating South Florida 3-1 (28-26, 25-21, 25-27, 32-30) in front of a lively crowd at The Corral.

The Pirates (5-6, 1-1 AAC) avenged two spring losses to the Bulls (6-7, 0-2 AAC) and won a third time in their last four trips to Tampa.

Sunday’s affair marked the first time in the entire season that East Carolina had played past the third set, as three of the four frames went into the volleyball version of overtime.

ECU accumulated a season high of a total of 13 blocks. That total included the top eight of her career (two solos) from middle blocker Aaliyah Griffin. Classmate and middle blocker Amelia Davis also interfered with five things of her own.

Senior right side Bri Wood led all players with 19 kills along with a .364 hit rate and nine digs. Senior outside hitter Natalie Tyson scored a double-double of 14 kills and 16 digs, while senior setter Janiece Jefferies himself scored a double-double of 21 assists and 10 digs. The newly minted Libero Tia Shum paced up and down the back row with 20 strokes. Marta Cvitkovic led the USF offensively with 20 kills and a hit rate of 0.277.

Thanks in large part to its blocking abilities, East Carolina beat the home side .204 to .188 while also winning the defensive battle – with 71 hits on the Bulls’ 63. The teams combined 12 aces when Griffin led all the players with three.

The Pirates took advantage of an early break, 10-6 back in the opening set after a solo block from Amiree Hendricks-Walker. South Florida even led 16:11, but a quick 3-0 sprint from ECU forced the home team to take advantage of their first time-out. The Bulls stayed in the lead during the verse and took advantage of a 21:19 lead with a kill. A 3-0 run, crowned by a rejection by Davis and Tyson, brought the Purple and Gold up by one.

Tyson later set up an East Carolina setpoint with an ace, scoring 24-22, but USF responded with two straights to tie things up. The teams switched the lead back and forth and scored additional points before a service error and a block from Griffin and the newcomer on the right, Sophia Kruczko, sealed the victory for the Pirates.

ECU built a 14-10 cushion in the second set thanks to a Davis kill. South Florida then used a nice serve from Cvitkovic to take the lead at 17:14. Unimpressed, the pirates pushed back with eight points in a row to take control with 23:18. That would be enough for East Carolina to win the frame by four and take a 2-0 lead during the break.

A wrong third verse was decided late with a Kruczko-Griffin block, which gave the pirates the match point at 24:23. The Bulls battled it out, stealing four of the last six rallies to keep the game going.

It was all ECU at the start of the fourth quarter when an offensive mistake by Cvitkovic made the score 10-5 in favor of the Pirates. South Florida was able to forge a 10-10 deadlock, but the Pirates held on and took the lead 18-12 after a Davis kill. East Carolina seemed to be in control late at 23:16. The cops made one last big push, however. With ECU at the match point, 24-21, USF scored three quick to cover the result. From then on, a total sprint followed, when the pirates were able to exploit a handful of service errors and one final attack error to finally defeat their opponent with additional points.

Next: East Carolina will open a home stand for four games against American Athletic Conference opponents, SMU, starting Friday night. The first serve in the Williams Arena in the Minges Coliseum is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. The competition will be broadcast live on the ESPN + service.

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