Cheney, Wash. – The Eastern Washington University women's volleyball team made quick work of visiting Weber State Saturday, Oct. 25, sweeping the Wildcats in a Big Sky Conference match at Reese Court.

Won-Loss Records
EWU evens its Big Sky record at 5-5 and improves to 9-14 overall with the win while Weber State drops to 6-18 overall and 2-8 in league matches. Set scores for the match were: 25-22, 25-22, 25-20.

What It Means
The victory keeps the Eagles firmly in the conversation for one of the eight bids to the upcoming Big Sky Tournament. After tonight, EWU sits tied for sixth in the league standings with Portland State, but due to its loss at PSU earlier this season, Eastern would be the tournament's seventh seed if it started tomorrow.

Turning Point
After taking the first set, Eastern saw Weber State come out in the second frame determined to make things difficult, forcing the Eagles to call timeout after an attack error spotted the Wildcats a 17-14 lead. EWU would score the next two points before tying the score at 19-19 on a kill from sophomore Sophie Miller.

After a quick response from WSU, senior Talia Fermantez put away a pass from Miller before she combined with classmate Kelsey Julian on a momentum-changing block, giving Eastern a 22-21 lead late in the set. Weber State would call timeout, using a kill from Audrey Briggs to knot the score at 22-22. Julian responded with back-to-back kills to put EWU up two, 24-22, forcing the Wildcats to take their second timeout.

Julian wasn't done yet, perfectly placing a kill set up by junior Ana Jakovljevic to give the Eagles a 2-0 advantage heading into the break. Weber State would never recover as Eastern led by as many as seven points in the third set, cruising to victory.

Top Performers
Junior Kellen Barfield tied her career high with 11 kills, hitting .471 on the night (11-3-17). She added three blocks to her impressive stat line.

Julian added eight kills and two blocks while Fermantez chipped in with eight kills to go along with a team-high four blocks and two service aces.

Miller led EWU with 18 assists, adding six digs and three kills.

Junior Ryann Ensrud came up with 11 digs to lead the Eagles while freshman Ashlee Vaoifi put away a match-best three service aces, tying her season high.

Key Statistics
Eastern hit .290 as a team on the night compared to Weber State's .168 clip. The Eagles were particularly efficient in the second set, hitting .429 as a team.

EWU came up with seven big service aces while the Wildcats put two serves past a stout Eastern back line. The Eagles also recorded more blocks that WSU, recording 7.5 stops to the visitors' 6.0.

Quoting Coach King
"The team certainly had a lot of energy and a lot of belief and determination to change the course after Thursday. They came out tonight and executed the game plan perfectly. I thought offensively, the team did a great job, and I thought we serve-received tonight as well as we have all year. When those things happen, great things happen offensively for us."

Match Notes
* Eastern improves to 41-28 all-time versus Weber State, and 24-9 all-time against the Wildcats at Reese Court.

* After failing to win a match in three sets in its first six victories, the Eagles' last three triumphs have come in three sets.

* EWU improves to 7-1 when hitting at least .250 as a team and 8-2 when swinging at a higher percentage than its opponent.

* Barfield tied her career high with a season-best 11 kills, her third double-digit kills outing of the season. She finished the weekend with 21 kills on 37 swings, committing just three attack errors. She had ed the Eagles in kills only once this season prior to tonight's victory.

Tweet of the Night

Video Highlights

Up Next
Eastern will hit the road for its next four Big Sky matches, beginning with a tilt at Montana this Thursday, Oct. 30. First serve is set for 6 p.m. PT.