Tulsa Volleyball Sweeps East Carolina

The Tulsa volleyball team swept East Carolina (25-16, 25-14, 25-16) Sunday, to improve its Conference USA ledger to 3-0 and its overall record to 10-7.

The Golden Hurricane hit .303 (47-11-119), while holding the Pirates (1-13, 0-3) to a .069 attack percentage (27-19-116). Tulsa forced ECU into 19 attack errors, nine block errors and four ball handling errors. The Hurricane has won nine straight tilts against the Pirates.

Senior libero Jessica Adams collected 23 digs go along with four assists to lead the Hurricane defense.

Tulsa featured a very balanced attack as four players had more than eight kills. Senior outside hitter Tyler Henderson tallied 10 kills and hit .360, while fellow senior outside hitter Diana Silva added 10 kills and seven digs. Freshman outside hitter Paige Panfil set a career high with nine kills and hit .462. Junior outside hitter Kellie Culbertson recorded eight kills, six digs, hit .421 and earned two service aces.

"I thought that Paige Panfil came in and did really good job on the right side," Head Coach Steven McRoberts stated. "It was the first time she's seen extensive action there, and she came in and did a great job. Overall, as far as hitting, we had a couple of really good hitting percentages and kept our hitting errors low. I felt like our defense did a really good job of extending rallies, which allowed our hitters to have more opportunities."

Senior setter Jordan Clampitt collected 21 assists and nine digs, while sophomore setter Bailey Clampitt had 19 assists and five digs.

Fourteen Golden Hurricane players saw action during the match, including Alexis Mitchell and Kelsey Parks, who both made their collegiate debuts.

In the first frame, the score was tied 8-8 before TU went on a 5-0 run. Tulsa took the set 25-16 as Culbertson recored five of her eight kills in the stanza. Tulsa and East Carolina held match-best attack percentages of .349 and .179, respectively.

Tulsa jumped out to a 4-0 advantage in the second set as the Hurricane won the frame 25-14. TU hit .324 in the set, while holding ECU to a .056 clip.

The third set was similar to the first frame as it went back and forth early on. The score was tied at 6-6 before TU went on a 12-3 run to put the set out of reach. The Hurricane took the match 25-16 as freshman middle blocker Nicole Newton tallied four kills in the frame.

"Overall I'm really pleased that we were able to take care of our matches against Marshall and ECU in three sets," McRoberts said. We look forward to a tough weekend coming up as we travel to Houston to play Houston and Rice."

Tulsa will travel to Houston, Texas next weekend to face Houston on Friday, September 28 and Rice on Sunday, September 30.