BLACKSBURG, Va. – East Carolina recorded its seventh sweep of the season Friday afternoon, taking care of Duquesne 3-0 (25-14, 25-20, 25-16) in the opening match of the Virginia Tech Classic inside Cassell Coliseum.
 
The Pirates (8-2) will face either Queens University or the host Hokies in tomorrow’s tournament title match.
 
ECU fired at a .255 clip offensively while holding the Dukes (5-2) to .010 efficiency. The Pirates also held the upper hand in most statistical categories, including kills (41-23), assists (39-20), aces (5-3), digs (50-43) and total blocks (5.0-4.0).
 
Senior right side Francesca McBride posted a season and match-high 10 kills while freshman right side Aulie Huff notched a career-high nine kills and a .471 hitting percentage. Sophomore outside hitter Angeles Alderete just missed a double-double, finishing with eight kills and 10 digs. On the defensive end, junior libero Lara Uyar paced all players in the contest with 17 digs.
 
Set One: East Carolina blitzed Duquesne out of the gate, rattling off 14 of the first 16 points and forcing the Dukes to utilize both timeouts. A kill by Huff pushed the Pirate lead to 19-5 and Duquesne did not threaten the rest of the way.
 
Set Two: The Dukes kept things a little closer in the second, drawing within 14-13 on an ECU bad set. The Pirates scored five straight from there, however, to establish some breathing room. A kill by Madison Floyd cut the East Carolina lead to 23-19 later in the frame, but that was as close as Duquesne would come.
 
Set Three: More attacking errors plagued the Dukes in the third stanza as the Pirates ran out to a 10-3 advantage following a Duquesne miscue. ECU had little interest in seeing the match extended as it built a 17-6 lead off a Dukes ball-handling error before cruising to the finish line.