College Notebook:  The East Carolina women’s tennis team captured four singles flights and tied for one Tuesday during its final home tournament of the fall. Yilian Zhang, Nicole LaDuca, Danielle Terpko, Dana Gray, Abby Richmond and Karling Watson went undefeated against Campbell and N.C. Central.

East Carolina’s players could hear it around town all week and they could see it in the half-full stadium Saturday. Pirate Nation was not happy. It was time to deliver a message, one way or another, fight or flight.

East Carolina 48, Houston 28:  What a difference a week makes. Seven days after getting run over by a Navy team that posted 512 rushing yards in its win over East Carolina, the Pirates defense responded to its critics by holding Houston to a season-low 28 rushing yards in its 48-28 victory on Saturday.

With just decent defense – even by Conference USA standards – ECU’s three-season league record under Ruffin McNeill would be 17-4 rather than the 13-8 (4-1 thus far in '12) mark the Pirates take into Saturday’s game against favored Houston in Greenville.

ECU’s noon game against Houston highlights East vs. West week in the C-USA.

Duke, East Carolina, N.C. State and Wake Forest all have conference games this week.

Navy handled East Carolina 56-28 in Greenville on Saturday, and that wasn’t even ECU’s biggest loss of the week.

Navy 56, East Carolina 28:  Navy torpedoed any thoughts East Carolina had of clinching bowl eligibility Saturday as it brutalized the Pirates 56-28 behind a dominant rushing performance on a rain-soaked field that appeared to favor its style of play.

ECU and Central Florida can join Tulsa and become the league’s second and third bowl-eligible teams with victories Saturday.

A preview of this weekend's games in area college football.

The Pirates continue to beat the teams they're supposed to beat, which bodes well for Saturday night's game at Alabama-Birmingham.

When the Pirates play at UAB on Saturday night, it could mean much more than just winning their second road contest this year. A victory improves the odds of returning to a bowl game and giving third-year coach Ruffin McNeill his first winning season.