24-8; Coach Pamela Parks
A hot stretch of 16 victories in a 17-match span and two victories
after the conference tournament helped Eastern secure a second-straight at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament. The Eagles started the season 2-3, but then had winning streaks of six and 10 victories in a row – including a collective total of 11 sweeps – to help finish 12-4 in the Big Sky Conference season. One of the team’s league losses came on Sept. 30, 1999, when the Eagles had school records of 103 kills and 182 digs in a five-set victory over Sacramento State in front of 1,273 fans at Reese Court. But Eastern went on to fall to fourth-seeded Northern Arizona in the Big Sky Tournament semifinals, thus making sweeps over Boise State and Idaho much more important in helping EWU clinch a NCAA berth. Eastern finished the season 24-8 after it was swept by UCLA in the NCAA tourney. As part of the celebration for the 25th anniversary of the Big Sky Conference for women in the 2013-14 school year, the inclusion of three league teams in the NCAA Tournament in 1999 was selected as No. 12 on the list of the league’s 25 Greatest Women’s Moments.
The 1999 season marked the end of the illustrious career of head coach
Pamela Parks, who won 291 matches in 18 seasons at the helm. Setter
Kim Maxwell earned first team All-Big Sky Conference honors, with
Angie Hall honored on the second team and
Lacey Coover receiving honorable mention. Maxwell was also honored by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) as a second team Academic All-District VIII selection. He was named to a trio of all-tournament teams, highlighted by MVP honors at the Fresno State Tournament. Nine Eagles were selected to the Big Sky All-Academic team, including Coover, Hall, Maxwell,
Jennifer Dick, Jennifer Gabel, Whitney Lewis, Tarah Pond, Janelle Ruen and
Lea Ruhl. As a team, Eastern earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association Team Academic Award.
Eastern set a school record with 2,150 digs in the 1999 season, led by Coover’s total of 529 and 4.6 digs per set. She also averaged 2.92 kills per set, with Hall averaging a team-high 2.98 kills per set, in addition to 2.96 digs. They recorded the top two digs performances in school history when Coover had 41 at Montana and Hall had 39 in the epic home win over Sacramento State. Maxwell averaged 12.01 assists per set, and set school records with 1,381 on the season and 90 in the victory over Sac State.
Previously, head coach Parks was inducted into the Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007, and Ruen was inducted in 2014. Maxwell will join them as an individual inductee in 2018.
Left to Right: Jennifer Gabel, Stephanie Dahlstedt, Jennifer Dick, Janelle Ruen, Lea Ruhl, Jessica Henry, Kim Maxwell, Lacey Coover, Tarah Pond, Amber Goodson, JoEne Heimbigner, Julia Weatherred, Angie Hall, Michelle Etter, Tamara Van Engelen, Monica Lynch, Whitney Lewis
