The East Carolina women’s soccer team picked up two American Athletic Conference honors after a successful week.
Goalkeeper Maeve English, a former D.H. Conley High School standout, and Lucy Fazackerley each picked up Player of the Week awards, the league announced. The Goalkeeper of the Week nod is English’s seventh of her career, while Fazackerley was named the Defensive Player of the Week.
The duo earned honors after the Pirates’ 1-0 win on the road against Tulsa on Thursday. It was ECU’s first outright win over the Golden Hurricane since the 2021 spring season.
English earned her Goalkeeper of the Week recognition thanks to a four-save clean sheet, holding Tulsa’s offense in check. It was her 27th career clean sheet, moving her closer to the ECU career record of 30 set by Amber Campbell.
Fazackerley scored the game-winning goal, her first goal of the season and the fourth of her career. It was also her third career game-winning goal. While this is Fazackerley’s first Defensive Player of the Week nod, the sophomore was twice named Rookie of the Week last season.
They are the fifth and sixth Pirates to earn weekly honors this season with Kylie Alvarez, Sydney Schnell, Abby Sowa and Caitlen-Star Dolan Boodram also picking up honors.
The Pirates host South Florida at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
Volleyball
ECU picked up a five-set win over North Texas, 3-2 (24-26, 25-22, 16-25, 25-23, 15-12) in a pivotal early-season American Athletic Conference match inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.
The Pirates (10-4, 3-1 AAC) kept pace near the top of the standings and in are position for one of the eight available spots in the conference tournament. The Mean Green (6-9, 3-1 AAC) suffered their first AAC loss of the season.
ECU’s Angeles Alderete, the AAC Preseason Player of the Year, paced all players and led three Pirates in double figures with 22 kills. She added five assists and 10 digs to notch her fifth double-double of the season. Alderete also became the 11th player in program history to record 1,000 career kills with her 15th of the day in the fourth set.
Ellie Pate smashed her career high in kills by exploding for 20 and a .326 hitting percentage while Fran McBride matched her season and career best with 16 and hit a stout .481 with just three errors in 27 swings. The setter tandem of Payton Evenstad (34 assists, 12 digs) and Taryn Gilreath (24 assists, 12 digs) also logged double-doubles — the first of Gilreath’s young career in the purple and gold.
The Pirates are back in action on Friday at Tulane and Sunday against Rice.
Women’s tennis
The Pirates picked up 14 wins over the weekend at the ITA Hidden Dual hosted by William & Mary.
ECU won nine singles matches and five doubles matches after battling athletes from the host Tribe, Davidson, Virginia Tech, Old Dominion and North Carolina.
Ines Bachir and Xenia Jeromin remained unbeaten during the fall slate, winning all three of their doubles encounters against William & Mary, Davidson and Virginia Tech. Bachir and Anne Lou Champion also notched two singles wins apiece.
ECU was especially successful against Davidson, sweeping doubles play while taking six of seven in singles matches.
Up next, the Pirates will play at the ITA Carolina Regional on Oct. 17-20 at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center in Chapel Hill.
Swimming & diving
The Pirates began the 2024-25 season by sweeping the Pirate Duels on Saturday inside Minges Natatorium. The Pirates defeated Barton (218-42), Gardner-Webb (207-51) and Catawba (174-87).
“I thought we swam well for the first meet,” ECU coach Matthew Jabs said in a release. “We still have some work to do, but overall, the staff and I are pleased.”
In her first meet with the Pirates, junior Laura Lopez was a member of the 200-yard medley relay team with Kaylee Hamblin, Laura Kellberg and Carlie Clements that finished first with a time of 144:32. She also finished first in the 100-yard backstroke (57.34) and the 200-yard backstroke (2:05.48), while placing third in the 200-yard IM (2:10.71).
Sophomore Sophie Benkusky and the 200-yard medley relay team with Meghan Armstrong, Juliana Kratka and Sara Kalawska finished second with a time of 1:46.65. Benkusky won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:54.02 and took third in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 53.65. She closed out her day as a member of the 400-yard freestyle relay team that finished second (3:36.41) with Elena Dinehart, Sophie Knepper and Kalawska.
Senior Hamblin claimed first in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:03.09) and the 200-yard breaststroke (2:17.89), while helping also helping the Pirates win the 200-yard medley relay (1:44.32).
Kalawska won the 100-yard butterfly (56.49) and 200-butterfly (2:04.21) while helping her squad to second-place finishes in the 200-yard medley relay (1:46.45) and the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:36.41).
The Pirates return to the pool on Oct. 25 when they host Campbell. ECU’s diving team will open its season on Oct. 18 hosting N.C. State.
Cross country
The ECU men’s cross country team finished seventh and the women took 11th at the Pirate Cross Country Invitational on Oct. 4 at Overton’s Lake Kristi. Erin Pope led the Pirates with a Top 10 finish while J Henry Lyon paced the men with a Top 15 result.
Lyon keyed the Pirates with a 13th-place finish in 24:26.4. Alex Sawyer finished just behind in 15th, closing hard over the final few kilometers for a 24:31.3 result. Ryan Tarapchak (65th), Ashton Tolson (80th) and Judah Lacroix (84th) rounded out the scoring for the men while Nick Willer (89th), Elliott Kleckner (96th), Zach Willer (135th) and Sam Dewar (174th) represented the rest of the ECU lineup.
On the women’s side, Pope had a terrific day with her sixth-place finish in a time of 21:49.6 while Kaylee McCullough took 13th in 22:04.9. Hayley Whoolery took 74th before Ava Elliott and Bella Wood crossed the line in 91st and 117th to finish up the scoring. Katrina Ford (122nd), Navaya Zales (145th) and Madelyn Mead (170th) rounded out the ECU lineup.
Local News
Comments / 0