Eastern hopes to rebound against Vikings in ‘Dam Cup' matchup

FROM NEWS SERVICE REPORTS

With only one match on tap this weekend, the Eastern Washington University volleyball team hopes to make it count, as it travels to Portland State to take on the Portland State Vikings Saturday at 7 p.m. The Eagles will be looking for their first conference road victory of the season when it battles the No. 2 team in the Big Sky Conference at the Peter W. Stott Center.

Saturday's match between the Eagles and Vikings will also mark the first volleyball event of the newly created “Dam Cup” rivalry.

The Eagles are coming off a taxing week, in which the team fell in four sets to Sacramento State last Friday, and then returned home for a non-conference match-up with Seattle University that had an even less favorable result. The Redhawks swept Eastern in three quick sets after the Eagles conceded 27 points off unforced errors.

Eastern will look to bounce back when it returns to Big Sky action this weekend against Portland State, who currently owns the second-best record in the league at 4-1. Eastern will enter the contest with a 2-3 overall record in the BSC, which ties for seventh in the league standings.

In order to have success on PSU's home court this year, the Eagles will have to find a way to shut down the Viking's star hitter in Whitney Phillips. The senior ranks sixth in the nation in kills (4.98/set) and seventh in points (5.53/set), and has hit in double-digits in 14 of 15 matches this season. She has also recorded nine double-doubles, which ranks second in the Big Sky.

The Eagles, however, may have an answer for Phillips, as the team boasts the third-best blocking statistics in the conference. Since the start of Big Sky play on Sept. 17, the Eagles have averaged 2.57 blocks per set, which includes double-digit team blocks in five of its last seven contests.

Eastern turned in its best blocking performance of the year and the second-best recorded in the Big Sky against Sac State, as it tallied 15 total blocks. Senior Chenoa Coviare contributed to 11 of those 15, which marked a season-high for the Medford, Ore., native. In Big Sky contests, Coviare ranks second in blocks per set at 2.57. Her overall season average of 1.99 per set is fourth in the league and among the top 100 in the nation.

With this meeting, Eastern and PSU will begin play in a five-sport series called The Dam Cup. The Dam Cup will celebrate the friendly rivalry between the states of Oregon and Washington within the Big Sky Conference. The rivalry refers to the four dams linking Oregon and Washington that one passes on the 339-mile drive between the campuses.