The door finally closed on Eastern Washington’s slim chances at qualifying for the Big Sky Conference’s postseason volleyball tournament, but it took until the very end — a five-set loss to North Dakota last Saturday at Reese Court.
The Eagles jumped to a two-set to none lead on Senior Night, but were not able to maintain and lost 3-2. Set scores were 25-20, 25-23, 13-25, 17-25 and 7-15.
Eastern needed to defeat UND while Southern Utah had to fall at Sacramento State since the Thunderbirds owned the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Eastern finished with a 9-20 overall won-lost record and 5-11 in conference play under interim head coach Michael King, filling in while Wade Benson recovers after a bout with cancer. North Dakota wound up 25-8 overall and 13-3 in league play.
After winning three of four matches in mid-October, Eastern finished the season with six straight losses.
Saturday’s match was the final appearance at Reese Court for both seniors Talia Fermantez and Kelsey Julian. Fermantez led all players with a season-high 16 kills, she hit .500 for the match and added three blocks and two digs.
Fermantez finished her career ranking fifth in assisted blocks (300), sixth in total blocks (350) and 10th all-time in hitting percentage (.271). Julian closed out her career with 689 kills.
Following a 3-1 loss Thursday to Northern Colorado, because of a crazy log jam in the middle of the conference’s two-division standings, the Eagles were still in the running for the tournament.
EWU’s Allie Schumacher led her team with 14 kills. Julian had 11 kills to go along with a team-best five blocks.
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