Pirates Travel To Charlotte On Thursday, Host Rice On Sunday

Charlotte, N.C. – The East Carolina soccer team returns to the pitch this Thursday night when the Pirates battle in-state foe Charlotte at Jen Gaber Field before returning to their home pitch to battle Rice on Sunday afternoon at Bill Clark Homes Field at Johnson Stadium.

Thursday’s game at Charlotte will kick off at 7 p.m. on ESPN+ with Claire Geary on the call while Sunday’s game will also be on ESPN+ with Zach Berly calling the action.

Last Time Out

Isabella Gutiérrez scored on a penalty kick with 14 seconds remaining as East Carolina rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to earn a draw at Temple last Thursday. Gutiérrez was named to the American Conference’s Honorable Mention on Monday.

Scouting Charlotte/Series History

Charlotte comes into Thursday evening having won or tied its last three games including a 3-1 win at Tulsa on Friday. Evie Craven leads the Niners in goals and points with six and 14 respectively and is coming off back-to-back American Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors. Harlee Head leads the Niners at goalie with 42 saves. Charlotte leads the all-time series with East Carolina 11-8-2 as the Niners won last season’s meeting in Greenville by a score of 1-0. The last time that the Pirates won in Charlotte was on Sept. 15, 2019 when ECU escaped with a 1-0 win.

Scouting Rice/Series History

Rice faces UAB at home on Thursday before traveling to Greenville on Sunday. The Owls are led on offense by Sloane Popov’s six goals and Lauren Pickup’s five goals. Rice is led at goalie by Kirsten Ruf who has 33 saves on the season and was named American Conference Goalkeeper of the Week on Monday. ECU leads the all-time series against Rice 6-2-3 and the Pirates enter Sunday with a nine-game unbeaten streak against the Owls. The last meeting with Rice was a 1-1 draw last season on Oct. 23.

Up Next

East Carolina travels to Florida Atlantic on Thursday, October 15 for a 7 p.m. contest on ESPN+.