East Carolina kept its perfect record intact Tuesday night in a 3-2 (25-10, 25-14, 22-25, 23-25, 15-7) victory at Campbell.
The Pirates (7-0) remained unbeaten and kept pace with the 2016 squad (10-0) for the best start in program history.
Fran McBride led the offense with a career-high 16 kills while hitting .448. Angeles Alderete put down a season-best 13 kills to go along with 19 digs to complete her third double-double of the campaign. Lara Uyar paced the defense with a match-high 22 digs.
The Camels (2-5) struggled to hit in the positive as ECU limited the home side to .019 efficiency on 41 kills and 38 attacking errors in 162 attempts. The Pirates collected 54 kills and finished with a .193 hitting percentage while owning a 13.0 to 8.0 advantage in total blocks.
East Carolina met little resistance in the first two frames, hitting .409 and .233 to grab an easy two sets to none lead at the intermission. However, Campbell came out a side determined in the third and fourth sets to force a fifth and deciding stanza.
The Pirates really proved their mettle in the fifth frame, jumping out to a 6-1 lead. A kill by Alderete ballooned the advantage to 12-3 before the Camels netted three straight to draw within six. Aulie Huff terminated the run with a kill, putting ECU two points away from the win, before Alderete ended the match with a kill and service ace to subdue Campbell for good.