Eagles miss upset of defending Big Sky champs

CHENEY – Eastern Washington University's volleyball team missed a golden opportunity to knock off the defending Big Sky Conference champions Northern Colorado Monday evening, Feb. 1, falling in a five-set thriller that featured 28 ties and 13 lead changes. Despite two sets being decided by extra points, the Eagles came up short against the Bears, 25-23, 13-25, 25-21, 25-27 and 14-16.

"I'm so proud of them," Eagles head coach Leslie Flores-Cloud said. "We were so close and that is a veteran Northern Colorado team. Our young players stood with them and I credit Northern Colorado because that's what we're striving for."

Eastern overcame several deficits in game one with strong runs, eventually erasing a 14-6 Bears lead to tie the match at 23 on a Sage Brustad kill. A block from Ashlyn Blotzer and Lindsey Russell gave the Eagles the lead, and a Bears error sealed the wind.  

Northern Colorado swiftly responded in set two with a 25-13 victory to tie the match. The third set saw 14 ties and six lead changes when knotted at 18, Blotzer hammered home a kill and followed with an ace giving Eastern a 20-18 lead they never relinquished. 

A 5-0 run that included back-to-back aces from Blotzer gave EWU a 12-6 lead in the fourth set and another of 4-0 helped the Eagles hold a 17-9 lead that later extended to 20-11. The Bears cut the margin with a 6-0 run, and eventually tied it at 22 with another 4-0 run. 

Back-to-back kills from Maya McClellan and Catelyn Linke gave EWU set point, 24-22, only to have the Bears even things back up, 24-24. Eastern pulled back ahead following a Bear service error, but Northern Colorado was able to hammer down three-straight kills to take the set in extra points, 27-25, and even the match 2-2. 

The fifth and final set featured four lead changes and eight ties, including at 13 and against at 14 before the Bears scored consecutive points for the win and match victory.

Blotzer led Eastern with 13 kills against just three errors for a .345 average. She led with three of the team's six service aces. McClellan was the other Eagle to garner double-digit kills with 10. She hit .269 with three errors on 26 total attempts.

Russell had her third double-double in four games with 38 assists and 12 digs while collected two blocks and a service ace. Linke 21 digs and moved into eighth all-time on EWU's career dig list. Renata Lopez Morales led the team with four blocks and she also had nine kills and only one hitting error.

The loss came 24 hours after the Eagles fell in four sets to the Bears, winning the first 25-16 but then losing 18-25, 14-25 and 19-25. Blotzer led Eastern with 10 kills and one error in 24 attempts for a .375 hitting percentage to go with one ace and two blocks. 

Ka'ehukaiiha'amaina'e Keala had seven kills and nine digs, with Burstad serving five of Eastern's seven aces to go with six kills, six digs and a block. Russell had 21 assists and seven digs while Linke chalked up 14 digs.

The Eagles notched their only win of the season on Jan. 27, cruising 3-0 over visiting Northwest Nazarene, 25-17, 25-16 and 25-13. In the match, Linke recorded 22 digs to become the ninth player in program history to reach 1,000 career digs.

McClellan led the team with nine kills while Blotzer, Lopez Morales and Brustad each has seven. Lopez Morales posted a .438 hitting percentage with no errors on 16 attempts while Burstad recorded 10 digs and an ace.

Eastern goes to 1-4 overall and 0-4 in Big Sky play. The Eagles homestand continues next Feb. 7 and 8, when they host Portland State. First serve for both matches is set for 2:05 p.m. on Pluto TV Ch. 1053.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].