TU Volleyball Sweeps East Carolina In Last Game Of The Season

The University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane volleyball team (22-9, 14-6 The American) swept the East Carolina Pirates (15-16, 6-14 The American) on the road Saturday afternoon, 25-19, 29-27, 25-16, concluding its 2014 season and its first year under head coach Ryan Wills.

Erica Bohannon led all players with 19 kills (6.33 kills/set), while Ashley Hooper also recorded double figure kills for the Hurricane, finishing the match with 10 kills on 14 attacks.

TU concludes its season as strong as anyone in The American, winning 14 of its final 16 matches.

It was the Golden Hurricane who raced out to a fast start, jumping out to a 7-3 lead early on. The home side came back to tie the match at 9-9, before going ahead and taking the lead for the first time at 13-11.

The Pirates were able to hold on to the lead momentarily, however, the Golden Hurricane retook the lead after a 7-2 run to go up 18-15. The Hurricane would hold ECU to just four more points the rest of the set to take the early 1-0 lead in the match.

Hooper was perfect in the frame, as the junior recorded four kills on four attacks, while Bohannon finished the set with six kills.

The Hurricane jumped out to another 7-3 lead in the second frame, this time Tulsa kept the hammer down, and at one point led 10-3.

Following a Pirate timeout, ECU rallied off three-straight to cut its deficit to 10-6, then continued to rally to chopped Tulsa's advantage to 12-11.

TU bounced back after a timeout of its own, winning six of the next eight points to go ahead 19-13.

ECU made a valiant effort and came all the way back to tie the game at 22-22 to force the Hurricane to use a late timeout.

After the break in action, the Pirates were up set point on three occasions, 24-23, 25-24, and 26-25, but the Hurricane refused to go away and took the second set to go up 2-0 at halftime.

Like the other two sets, the Hurricane took a 7-3 lead, but as the Pirates have consistently done all match, they battled back to cut the score to 9-8, which forced TU to use a timeout.

ECU was able to even the frame at 10-10 following the break. The Hurricane put a stop to the Pirate run and took over the frame by going up 21-13.

TU would take the final three points of the third set, to earn the season sweep over ECU.

The Golden Hurricane finishes the season fourth in the league, a spot where they were predicted to finish in the preseason poll.