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Oct. 22, 2004

Final Stats

GREENVILLE, N.C. - The Green Wave had to play catch-up, but used a balanced offensive attack and solid defense to defeat Conference USA foe East Carolina, 3-0, Friday evening at Williams Arena.

Tulane trailed in all three contests, including a 21-12 deficit midway through game two, but managed to rally on each occasion to defeat the Pirates 30-22, 30-28, 30-26. With the win, Tulane improves to 13-4 on the year and 4-2 in C-USA play. East Carolina, meanwhile, falls to 8-14 overall and 2-5 in league action.

"We did not play particularly well tonight and fell behind at times, but we had the wherewithal to bear down and come from behind and win in three," head coach Betsy Becker said. "We were down pretty big in game two and came back, and that just proves that if we play hard, good things are going to happen."

Senior outside hitter Anastasia Kenon posted a double-double with 12 kills and 16 digs, and fellow senior outside Lindsey Norman tallied a double-double of her own with 11 kills and 16 digs Friday night. The game, however, was won in the middle as the senior duo of Deva Fowler and Iman Houston combined for two solo blocks and nine block assists. As a team, the Green Wave recorded 11.0 blocks, forced 25 ECU errors, and held the Pirates to a .128 attack percentage.

In her first start at setter since last year, junior Kelli Dickson posted a match-high 44 assists and helped the Green Wave tally a .255 attack percentage with 51 kills and just 16 errors in 137 swings. Dickson also chipped in with eight digs and a pair of block assists.

"Our middles did a nice job of East Carolina's middles, who had been scoring for them all night," Becker said. "Kelli did a stellar job of running our offense. She did not try to do anything too fancy; just stayed within herself and ran a very efficient attack. We played a much-improved ECU team, but we all know that we've got to come out and play better Saturday against Charlotte."

The Green Wave got off to a rough start in game one as the Pirates led by as many as five at 11-6. From there, however, Tulane outscored the Pirates 24-11 the rest of the way to take the opening stanza.

Tulane scored the first three points of the second game, but East Carolina used a 22-9 run to take what appeared to be a commanding 22-12 advantage. From there, the Green Wave defense held the Pirates to just six points over the remainder of the period, and the offense came alive with 13 kills and just one error to go into the break with a 2-0 lead.

Game three began as a back-and-forth battle as the two teams traded the first 18 points. With the score knotted at 9-all, East Carolina went on a 12-6 run to take a 21-15 lead, and Tulane appeared to be on the ropes as the Pirates held a 25-20 advantage late in the game. As they had done all night, however, the Green Wave stormed back with a 10-1 surge to send the Pirates away wondering what might have been.

Joining Kenon and Norman with double-digit kill totals was Fowler, who finished with 11, and sophomore right-side hitter Blair Moon narrowly missed becoming the fourth Green Wave student-athlete on the list with nine. Freshman libero Linsey Karlin finished three digs off the team lead with 13.

East Carolina was led by Mignon Dubenion with 13 kills, and Erica Wilson chipped in with 11. Johanna Bertini led all players with 26 digs while Heidi Krug added 15.

Tulane returns to action on Saturday, Oct. 23, when they travel Charlotte to take on the C-USA member 49ers at 7 p.m. at Halton Arena. Following the weekend in North Carolina, Tulane returns home on Friday, Oct. 29, when the Green Wave plays host to C-USA foe Louisville at 7 p.m. in Fogelman Arena. For ticket information, contact the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office at (504) 861-WAVE.