A road losing streak, and a home winning streak were on the line as Florida Atlantic faced off against ECU (14-6, 7-3 AAC). The Owls had no answer for the Pirates as ECU dominated the match from start to finish.
Set one was all Pirates to start. A 10-6 lead led to an Owls timeout with ECU owning a 100 Side out percentage. The lead only extended for East Carolina as a 15-8 lead for the Pirates led to another FAU timeout. Florida Atlantic was not down yet, as a three-point run led to a Pirates timeout as the Owls trailed 20-15. Sadly the ECU lead was too much as the Pirates won set one 25-19.
The same as set one, the second set was dominated early by the Pirates. ECU gained an 8-1 lead as FAU had a -.04 hit% up to that point. A clear sign of domination by East Carolina. The remainder of the set stayed in favor of the Pirates 25-12 as the Pirates commanded the match 2-0.
Florida Atlantic went to the locker room during the short intermission between set two and three. A rare thing to do, but coach Fernanda Nelson expected more from her team heading into the third set.
The start of set three was a great sight for the Owls as they had a 9-5 advantage after a Kaila Ru kill. A five-point run brought the FAU lead to seven, 12-5. ECU then responded with a run of their own; a 9-1 run by the Pirates forced the Owls to call a timeout as ECU took a 16-13 advantage. The set finished off in dominant fashion as ECU won the set 25-20, earning the sweep over FAU.
The Owls had their worst hitting percentage of the season as they tallied a .029%. Kaila Ru, Katelynn Robine (pictured above Angelina LaBelle), and Valeria Rosado led in kills with eight each. The two largest factors on the night were attack errors and blocks. FAU had 30 attack errors, while ECU had eight. For blocks, FAU only had two compared to ECU’s 6. Victoria Hensley (pictured above, Angelina LaBelle) led once again in assists with her total of 27 as she sits sixth in the NCAA in assists.
A bright spot for FAU was Valeria Rosado as she earned her 1,000th career in the match.
The North Carolina road trip continues for Florida Atlantic (12-9, 4-5 AAC) as the Owls travel four hours East to face Charlotte (4-18, 1-8 AAC). The last time the 49ers and FAU met the Owls swept Charlotte. This time around FAU should once again make easy work of the 49ers who are on a five match losing streak. Florida Atlantic has not won a road game this season as they are 0-6 as the away team. The match between Florida Atlantic and Charlotte is on Sunday, Oct. 27 at 2 p.m.