Moscow, Idaho – Suffering its first setback in nearly two weeks, the Eastern Washington University women's volleyball team fell to Portland, 3-1, in its opening match of the Idaho Nike Invitational Friday, Sept. 12.

Won-Loss Records
EWU has its two-match winning streak snapped and falls to 4-3 with the loss while Portland improves to 4-2. Set scores for the match were: 25-22, 19-25, 25-19, 25-17.

Turning Point
Consecutive kills from senior Melissa Waelter and junior Allie Schumacher spotted Eastern a 15-14 advantage midway through the third set, giving the Eagles enough momentum to force Portland to call timeout. EWU committed a service error out of the break, however, evening the score at 15-15 and igniting a 6-0 run for the Pilots as UP opened up a 20-15 lead late in the frame.

Schumacher snapped Portland's run with a kill to pull the Eagles to within four, 20-16, but EWU would get no closer as the Pilots scored five of the match's final six points to seal the win.

Top Performers
Schumacher recorded a team-high 15 kills on 36 swings, hitting .361 for the match. She added 11 digs for her third double-double of the season.

Junior Talia Fermantez was the only other Eagle in double-figures with 11 kills.

Waelter tallied a team-best 12 digs to go along with seven kills, hitting .312 (7-2-16) on the day.

Freshman Nicole Rigoni notched 21 assists and seven digs while sophomore Sophie Miller finished with 20 assists and eight digs.

Junior Kellen Barfield registered four blocks while freshman Ashlee Vaoifi put away a pair of service aces.

Key Stats
Eastern hit .226 for the match compared to Portland's .275 clip. The Eagles hit .371 in the second set to even the match at 1-1 heading into the break but swung at a .073 clip in the decisive fourth set.

Both teams finished the match with five blocks apiece while EWU recorded 61 digs to the Pilots' 58.

Quoting Coach King
"We just didn't come out with the necessary energy this morning. Portland served well and we just didn't answer back. I thought we let down emotionally at key times during the match."

Match Notes
* Schumacher now has 13 double-doubles in her career and has notched double-figure kills in 28 career outings and double-figure digs in 17 career matches.

* Schumacher's 15 kills were the most by an Eagle in a four-set match this season.

* Fermantez moved within three blocks of cracking Eastern's all-time top-10 list. She now has 290 career blocks.

* The Eagles had not lost this season when hitting better than .200 as a team.

* EWU drops to 1-2 in four-set matches on the year.

* Eastern falls to 6-5 all-time against Portland and 2-3 versus the Pilots on neutral courts.

Up Next
Eastern concludes its stay in Moscow with a pair of matches tomorrow. The Eagles' day begins at 9:30 a.m. against Missouri before they take on Boise State at 4 p.m.