GREENVILLE, N.C. – The Eastern Washington University volleyball team took on East Carolina on the first day of the Pirate Invitational (Sept. 6). Eastern was unable to claim a set from ECU, falling 3-0 (18-25, 26-28, 21-25). The Eagles now move to 5-3 on the year while the Pirates improve to 6-3.
 
"I'm not sure if it was the travel to the East coast, but we lacked intensity today. The fire that we normally have wasn't there," said head coach Leslie Flores-Cloud. "Our serving and passing was the best in set two. I think that Kamille Langford played an amazing game on the outside, leading us in kills and blocks. She did well and is chipping away at becoming our starting outside hitter."
 
Eastern struggled to find its footing in the first set, hitting at a .162 clip and only recording nine kills to fall 25-18. Kamille Langford paced the Eagles with three kills in the first set and Taylor Larsen recorded three of her four total blocks.
 
Things began to look up in the second set as the Eagles jumped out to a 3-0 lead, capped off by a service ace from Catelyn Linke. Despite keeping the set closely contested early on, the Eagles found themselves down 22-14. That's when MaKenna Davis and Larsen sparked the Eagle offense with back-to-back kills. A trio of Pirate errors then helped Eastern come within three points, 22-19. Facing set point, EWU found themselves down by three. Kamille Langford fired off consecutive kills and Kaitlin Sugai joined in with a kill of her own to tie the set, 24-24 as they fought off set point four times. The Eagles found themselves up 26-25 and looked to put it away, but the Pirates strung together three straight points to take the second set 28-26.
 
Despite swinging .241 with 12 kills and only five errors, the Eagles would fall in set three. Falling behind 7-2 early on, EWU would have to play catchup for the remainder of the match. Down 23-15, the Eagles used a 4-0 run to put themselves within four points. They were also able to fight off match point twice, but it wasn't enough as they dropped set three 25-21 and the match 3-0.
 
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: With the loss, the Eagles fall to 5-3 on the year and are now 1-2 in three set matches this season. East Carolina improves its overall record to 6-3. This marked the first time the two teams have played each other in program history.
 
TOP PERFORMERS: Sophomore Kamille Langford led the Eagles with 11 kills, her second-straight match with kills into the double digits. Langford also swung at a .261 clip (11k-5e-23ta) and led the team with four blocks.
 
Samantha Boever led the way with 27 assists, she now has accumulated over 20 assists in every match this year. Catelyn Linke led EWU with seven digs and two service aces. Taylor Larsen had four blocks and also added seven kills along with MaKenna Davis.
 
KEYS TO THE MATCH: Although Eastern had less attack errors (14-16) and service errors (3-9), they hit at a .215 clip compared to ECU's .352. The Pirates also garnered 53 kills to Eastern's 34.
 
UP NEXT: The Pirate Invitational concludes tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Pacific time with a matchup against Charlotte and at 1 p.m. PT against Gardner-Webb.
 
"Tomorrow, I'd like to get back to how Eastern Washington plays volleyball. We're good at serving and passing and we're scrappy," added Flores-Cloud. "Tonight, we didn't have the fire to be scrappy because that takes a lot of intensity and we didn't have that tonight."