Eastern Washington University Athletics

24-6; Coach Pamela Parks

Eastern earned the first of two-straight at-large berths into the NCAA Tournament and finished the season 24-6. Led by the record-breaking exploits of two-time Big Sky Player of the Year Kim Exner, EWU was an impressive 10-1 in non-conference play and 13-3 in the Big Sky Conference standings to finish second. The Eagles then swept Montana State in the opening round of the league tournament. Eastern fell 3-1 to Sac State in the title match, but still advanced to the NCAA Tournament where the Eagles lost 3-1 to Notre Dame. The Eagles started a streak of 29-straight home victories that ended during the 2001 season. The 1998 season was also the second of 10-straight seasons (1997-2006) in which EWU ranked in the top 30 in attendance.
 
Kim Exner capped her incredible Eastern career with her second-straight Big Sky Player of the Year honor, and was on the American Volleyball Coaches Association All-District team. Earlier in the year, Exner was the MVP of the Portland Mikasa Pilot Preview and the University of Washington Invitational, and was on the Indiana Invitational All-Tournament team. On Sept. 14 of that year, she earned AVCA National Player of the Week honors after EWU beat Washington and Georgia by identical 3-1 scores to capture the UW Invitational championship. Exner was EWU’s lone first team All-Big Sky selection, with Kim Maxwell earning second team honors and Lacey Coover and Whitney Lewis earning honorable mention. In addition, Exner was joined by Jessica Clish on the Big Sky All-Tournament team. Maxwell was honored by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) as a first team Academic All-District VIII selection, and Exner earned second team accolades. Coover, Exner, Lewis and Maxwell were among the 11 Eagles selected to the Big Sky All-Academic team, joining Stephanie Dahlstedt, Jennifer Gabel, Angie Hall, Tarah Pond, Lea Ruhl, Andrea Schell and Toni Schwinn. As a team, Eastern earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award.
 
Hitting .373 on the season with a school-record total of 561 kills, Exner averaged 5.29 kills (also a school record), 2.47 digs and 1.21 blocks per set in dominating the league during her senior year. She had at least 21 kills in four league sweeps, equaling her own school record (in a three-set match) with 24 against Montana State on Oct. 16, 1998. Coover averaged 3.01 kills and a team-leading 4.08 digs, while Maxwell averaged a school-record 12.64 assists. Schwinn had a team-high 44 service aces and Lewis chipped in 1.09 blocks per set.
 
Previously, Exner was inducted into the Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007 along with the team’s head coach Pamela Parks. Maxwell.will join them as an individual inductee in 2018.


Front Row (left to right): Monica Lynch, Jennifer Dick, Stephanie Dahlstedt, Kim Exner, Jennifer Gabel, Jessica Clish, Whitney Lewis, Angie Hall.
Back Row: Andrea Schell, Toni Schwinn, Lacey Coover, JoEne Heimbigner, Lea Ruhl, Kim Maxwell, Michelle MacCarthy, Tarah Pond.