Lady Eagles Blank East Carolina, Sweep Weekend Matches
11/1/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Files associated with this release:
Box Score
Lady Eagles Blank East Carolina, Sweep Weekend Matches
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The Southern Miss volleyball team picked up its second-straight Conference USA win Saturday night with a 3-0 victory over visiting East Carolina at the USM Payne Center.
The Lady Eagles (23-5, 8-2 in C-USA) got a balanced scoring attack en route to the 30-26, 30-22, 30-23 win. With the loss, the Pirates fell to 10-17 overall and 1-8 in league play.
The win kept Southern Miss near the top of the league standings, currently tied with Tulane for third-place in the league.
"It's always important to get a conference win," Head Coach Santiago Restrepo said. "The wins are going to keep us up in the standings, and that's important because we want to concentrate on finishing in the top four teams in the league. If we do that, then we can get a bye on the first day of the conference tournament."
Saturday's win capped off the weekend sweep of conference matches and was a good rebound from last weekend's two-match skid, featuring losses to Cincinnati and then-No. 20 Louisville.
"These two matches this weekend were really important to us," senior Nicki Tribble said. "We were coming off two losses, and it was important for our confidence to do well. Everyone played very solid tonight, and we did well. These were important wins for us."
Tribble and fellow seniors Andrea Bush and Bridget Files paced the Southern Miss attack. Tribble and Bush both had a match-high 16 kills, while Bush added four aces for a team-high 20 points. Tribble also added two aces and two block assists for 19 points. Files had 15 points in the match, 12 of which came on kills.
Setter Amy Truong added 43 assists and also had two aces. Freshman libero Amanda Blunck had a match-high 10 digs.
"Any time you play a team that is playing well, you have to play well because anything can happen," Restrepo said. "So we were ready for them tonight. We didn't play as well last weekend, but we came back and played well this weekend. That's a very good sign for our team."
Southern Miss struggled from the floor in the opening game with a .273 attack percentage and had seven errors. The team improved, however, in the next two games, tallying a .412 attack percentage and a .333 percentage.
"In the first game, we have a tendency to feel out the other team and see how they're going to play," Tribble said. "We just picked it up after that. We just played our game, and when we do that, we'll be all right."
For East Carolina, Jaime Bevan had 12 kills and 14 points, while Erica Wilson added 11 points (nine kills). Jessica Vick had a team-high 39 assists.
Southern Miss next steps out of conference for a Wednesday match at Alabama, before returning home to host Tulane on Saturday.