University of Houston
East Carolina
Volleyball Cruises To 3-0 Win Over East Carolina
11/12/2010 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 12, 2010
HOUSTON - The University of Houston volleyball team cruised to a 3-0 (25-19, 25-17, 25-14) win over East Carolina Friday night at the Athletics/Alumni Center. The win pushed the Cougars win streak to six matches and they improve to 18-10 on the season and 12-4 in Conference USA play.
Stephanie Nwachukwu led the Cougars in the win over the Pirates with a game-high 12 kills and Marluci Toazzi added 11 kills. Amanda Carson finished with a game-high 12 kills and Chandace Tryon turned in five blocks.
"We continue to get better at our system play, offensively and defensively," head coach Molly Alvey said. "There are still detail aspects of the game that we have got to continue to improve on. That attention to detail will help us to continue to grow into a stronger program."
"Stephanie did an incredible job tonight. She made some smart swings and not only did she attack well but she did a great job blocking and forcing East Carolina's attackers to make errors. Marluci also took some very smart swings tonight and created strong offense for herself."
After trading points to open the match, Charuk slapped back-to-back kills and Zauere added a third to give Houston a 6-2 lead. Despite the deficit, East Carolina was able to pull within two, 9-7, but UH quickly stole the next three points to force the Pirates to call a timeout trailing 12-7.
Off the bench, the two teams battled for every point before Houston was able to reach the 20-point mark on an ECU service error. With a two-point lead at 20-18, the Pirates were called for an attack error and a second timeout call quickly came from the ECU bench. Out of the break, Houston extended its lead to four, 22-18, and only allowed one point the rest of the way to earn the 25-19 win.
The Cougars jumped out to an 8-2 lead to start the second set. They would match points with the Pirates after that but still hold a 13-5 lead into a timeout by East Carolina. Off the bench, Houston extended its lead to 10 at 16-6. Despite allowing the Pirates to pull within six, however, the Cougars coasted to a 25-17 win.
After scoring the first point of the third set, the Pirates took their first lead of the set at 5-4 but the lead was short lived as the Cougars quickly scored the next four points to regain the lead, 8-5. UH scored four of the next seven point and held a 12-8 lead into an ECU timeout. Houston scored the first three points out of the break and a second timeout was quickly called from the visitor's bench.
The Cougar added to their total, scoring the first two points out of the second break and went on to take the set, 25-14.
The Cougars have now swept their last five opponents and notched seven sweeps in league action.
UP NEXT
Houston will close out the home schedule at 1 p.m. on Sunday against Marshall. Following the match against the Thundering Herd the Cougars will honor seniors Amanda Carson and Marluci Toazzi as part of Senior Day.
