SMU Volleyball Sweeps East Carolina
DALLAS (SMU) – The SMU volleyball team hit .429, third all-time in a match by the Mustangs, in a sweep of East Carolina (25-12, 25-14, 25-8) that last just one hour and 11 minutes Friday night in Moody Coliseum. Morgan Heise had 26 digs, which ranks third at SMU in a three-set match.
SMU (13-3, 3-1 American Athletic Conference) gave up just eight points in the third set, the fewest since beating the Pirates 25-7 in the second set of the last match of the 2014 season. East Carolina (8-6, 1-2 The American) hit -.038 in the third set, scoring six kills with seven errors, while SMU hit .556 with 17 kills and two errors in the final set.
Avery Acker recorded her 10th double-double of the season with assists on 43 of SMU’s 49 kills, and had 11 digs. The Mustangs had just seven errors in 98 attack attempts to finish with the top-three hitting percentage. Janelle Giordano hit a match-high .583 with seven kills, andCailin Bula hit .500, scoring match-high nine kills with one error.
Katie Hegarty and Abbey Bybel each added eight kills for SMU. The Mustangs had 50 digs as a team, with Heise recording more than half. Ashley McRae led the Pirates with seven kills, and Sabrina Gonzalez had 10 digs.
The Mustangs took a 12-5 to start the first set and cruised to a 25-12 victory for the early advantage in the match. SMU held East Carolina to a .000 attack percentage with just nine kills, while hitting .424 with 15 kills and one error. Bula led the offense with four kills. Acker had 13 assists and eight digs, and Morgan Heise posted eight in the set. The Pirates had just 16 digs as a team.
The second set saw the Mustangs take a 14-5 lead, extending the
advantage to 10, 16-6, before East Carolina used its first timeout. The Pirates scored the next point, but never got within nine points the rest of the way. SMU claimed another double-digit win, 25-14, for a 2-0 lead in the match. SMU hit .342 with 17 kills. The Pirates cut their errors in half from the first set, committing just four, but still only managed eight kills. Heise had nine digs in the set, and Acker assisted on 15 of SMU’s 17 kills.
SMU plays Temple Friday night in Moody Coliseum at 7 p.m. The volleyball program will celebrate its 20th season during the match, with a birthday celebration following the match in the Miller Event Center.
