GREENVILLE, N.C. – The William & Mary volleyball team showed great resilience in its season opener against East Carolina, but fell 3-0 (22-25, 22-25, 19-25) on Friday evening in the Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum. With the setback, the Tribe falls to 0-1, while the Pirates improve to 1-0.
 
Senior Sydney Biniak and sophomore Casey Foote led W&M's offense with nine kills each. Sophomore Autumn Brenner dished out a team-high 17 assists, and junior Katie Kemp added 10 more. In her collegiate debut, freshman Katie Turner dug up 12 attacks and chipped in four assists.
 
The Green and Gold made a strong push toward the end of the first set, but couldn't overcome the early deficit. Out of a time out, Foote hammered three kills in a row to narrow the Pirates deficit to 23-20. However, ECU closed out the frame on a couple of side outs.
 
During the second set, the Tribe scored four straight points, highlighted by kills from Biniak and Foote, to even the frame at 8-all. The Pirates then responded with a 5-0 run, claiming a 19-14 advantage. Nonetheless, W&M continued to show grit after Brenner found Biniak to close the gap to 23-21. ECU then clamped down, surrendering just one more point in taking game two. In the third period, the Pirates closed out the contest on the strength of a late 6-2 spurt.
 
Notes

• Despite the loss, the Tribe still leads the all-time series with ECU 31-14.
• Five out of the six freshmen saw action tonight, competing in all three sets.
• Freshman Julia Brown was impressive in her debut for the Green and Gold, clubbing seven kills on 10 attempts with no errors (.700 attack percentage) and totaling three blocks. Also in their first collegiate match, Kate Dedrick tallied six kills and Lauren Moussaid added a pair of kills and six digs.
• Biniak recorded an efficient .300 attack percentage, reaching her nine kills in just 20 attempts with three errors. She needs just 17 more kills to rank third all-time in program history in the current scoring era
• Foote provided solid defense with eight digs on the evening.

Quotable
"I'm really proud of this team and how hard they fought. I think we had some first match jitters that we had to work through at times but when we were taking care of the ball and communicating, great things happened. I have no doubt that this team will continue to get better and better as they play. They represented Tribe volleyball well and I am looking forward to watching them play again tomorrow. The future looks bright for Tribe volleyball." – Head Coach Melissa Ferris
 
Up Next
W&M will look to finish out the ECU Invitational on a high-note tomorrow with contests against Rutgers (12 pm) and Georgia State (4:30 pm). The matchup with the Scarlet Knights marks the first-ever meeting between the programs. On the other hand, the Panthers are a familiar foe as a former member of the Colonial Athletic Association.