The East Carolina volleyball team suffered its first loss of the season on Tuesday, falling to host South Carolina 3-0 (20-25, 9-25, 9-25) in a non-conference matchup inside the Carolina Volleyball Center.
The Pirates (7-1) allowed the Gamecocks (8-2) to hit .507 on 46 kills while firing at just .158 efficiency themselves. South Carolina also led in aces (7-1), assists (43-24) and digs (36-20) while ECU ended up winning the total blocks battle by a 6-5 margin.
Ellie Pate recorded a team-best nine kills while Fran McBride continued her strong campaign by hitting .500 with seven kills in 12 attempts with no errors. Taryn Gilreath experienced her first collegiate action and finished with eight assists and two digs.
The Gamecocks’ Riley Whitesides paced all players with 18 kills while hitting .615 and adding six digs.
The Pirates remained close through much of the first set, working an 18-18 tie, but South Carolina ended up winning the set by five points and went on to claim the next two.
Up next, the Pirates face No. 1-ranked Pittsburgh at 7 p.m. on Friday. The match will stream live via ACC Network Extra.
Women’s soccer
The Pirates dropped their first game of the season when they lost, 2-0, to James Madison on Sunday.
It was the first defeat of the season for the Pirates, who had opened the campaign without a loss in the first seven chances.
JMU’s Ginny Lackey scored both goals in the second half. ECU (4-1-3) had plenty of chances in the game with 11 corner kicks while holding a 10-8 margin in shots but were unable to tally a goal. The team looked to have broken through in the first half when Mackenzie Smith’s corner found the back of the net, but the Pirates were called for a foul on JMU keeper Sofia DeCerb and the goal was waved off.
ECU is back in action at 7 p.m. on Thursday when it hosts UTSA in its home conference opener.
Dolan Boodram honored
The Pirates’ Caitlen-Star Dolan Boodram has been named the American Athletics Conference’s women’s soccer freshman of the week, the league announced.
The London native earned the honor after scoring her first career goal in the Pirates’ 2-1 win at Temple on Thursday night, helping the team to a 1-0 start in conference play.
The honor is the first for the star freshman and the third for the Pirates this season, as she joins Abby Sowa and Kylie Alvarez who previously earned Defensive Player of the Week recognitions.
Women’s golf
The ECU women’s golf team finished strong in the final round of the Cardinal Cup on Sunday, shooting a tournament-low 288 as the Pirates finished third with a final scorecard of 20-over-par 884.
The Cardinal Cup was contested at the par-72, 6,374-yard University of Louisville Golf Club.
Marta Perez led the way for the Pirates, shooting three-over 219 for the tournament to tie for seventh. Perez shot two-under 70 over the final 18 holes.
“Real proud of the fight from our team this week in Louisville,” director of golf Kevin Williams said in a release. “Beating the University of Louisville on their home course is tough to do but we played really solid golf this weekend. Struggled in Round One but bounced back with the second lowest-team score yesterday and the lowest team score today.”
Macie Burcham placed 12th (74-76-71=221), followed by Danielle Modder’s tie for 21st place (76-72-76=224) and Nicole Nash’s tie at 25 (77-73-75=225). Freshman Lisa Forss carded a final scorecard of 12-over 228 to tie for 32nd and Andrea Miralles shot 15-over 231 to tie for 43rd as an individual.
ECU returns to the links Sept. Monday at the Tot Hill Farm Invitational in Asheboro.
Women’s tennis
The Pirates picked up 15 wins at the Jimmy Powell Invitational hosted by Elon over the weekend.
ECU faced opponents from Elon, Liberty, N.C. Central and Virginia Tech and earned nine singles victories and six doubles wins.
Freshmen Lilly Lancaster and Xenia Jeromin registered their first collegiate singles victories while Jeromin teamed up with Ines Bachir to win all three of their doubles bouts. Brooke LaFrenz also collected two singles wins during the event.
The Pirates will next play in the ITA All-American Championships beginning Saturday throug Sept. 29 at Cary Tennis Park in Cary.
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