FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – In its best offensive performance of the season, the Eastern Washington University volleyball team went on the road and swept Northern Arizona Thursday night (Oct. 5). As a team, the Eagles hit a season-high .341 clip and only committed 11 errors on the night (54k-11e-126ta).
"Our senior leadership and our underclassmen competed really well tonight," said head coach
Michael King. "I am proud of how everyone contributed to tonight's win. We needed everyone tonight and they each played their role with passion and character."
Eastern opened up the first set with a 3-0 run. After that, both sides would go point-for-point as neither team led by more than three points at a time. With the set tied 23-23,
Chloe Weber and
MaKenna Davis would hammer down consecutive kills to get EWU off to a 1-0 lead, taking the first set 25-23. Eastern would hit .500 during the opening set after only committing two attack errors.
EWU found themselves in a 7-4 lead in the second before NAU would come back to tie it 7-7. A 4-0 run helped Eastern open its lead back up 14-10. The Lumberjacks would cut EWU's lead to 23-21 later in the second set, but kills from
Catelyn Linke and
Taylor Larsen helped the Eagles take set two 25-22.
Following the intermission, Eastern looked to take its first sweep of the season over the Big Sky Conference foe. EWU used a trio of kills from
Ashley Seiler,
Leanna Shymanski and
Kahle Elliott to open a 14-9 lead over the Lumberjacks. The Eagles had a seemingly comfortable 21-14 lead over NAU when the Lumberjacks stormed back with an 8-1 run to tie the set up at 22-22, forcing an EWU timeout. However, the Eagles broke out of the timeout with kills from Seiler and Elliott to go up 24-22. Linke would deliver the match point off a set from
Regan Harr as Eastern went on to take the match 3-0.
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: Eastern Washington improves to 6-8 on the year and 3-2 in conference play. Northern Arizona drops to 6-10 and 2-3 in the Big Sky. This was the second straight victory the Eagles took from the Lumberjacks, improving the all-time series to 37-28 and 16-14 in Flagstaff.
TOP PERFORMANCES: Ashley Seiler led all players with 17 kills, followed by
Catelyn Linke and
Taylor Larsen who had 10 each.
Leanna Shymanski and
Kahle Elliott led the team with three blocks.
Regan Harr dished out 26 assists and two service aces, while
Megan LaFond paced the Eagles with 14 digs.
KEY STATS: Eastern was able to hit at a season-high .341 clip while limiting NAU to .295. The Eagles also outblocked NAU 4-3, and had 54 kills compared to the Lumberjacks' 46.
NOTEABLES: Freshman
Leanna Shymanski made her first start for the Eagles. She contributed with a .636 hitting percentage after committing no attack errors with seven kills. She also added three blocks.
This was Eastern's first 3-0 victory since topping Montana on Nov. 12, 2016. The Eagles are now 1-4 in three-set matches this season.
Both
Ashley Seiler (17k-13d) and
Regan Harr (26a-12d) garnered double-doubles. It was Harr's fifth straight match with assists and digs into the double figures, her eighth of the season and 15th of her career. It was also Seiler's 15th career double-double and seventh of the season.
Seiler has now led the team in kills in 13 of 14 matches and has also totaled kills into the double-digits in all but one.
Catelyn Linke tied her career-high of 10 kills and was one dig short of her second career double-double.
UP NEXT: Eastern looks to take its second straight victory this Saturday (Oct. 7) at Southern Utah. First serve is set for 10:30 a.m. Pacific time and can be watched on Pluto TV or WatchBigSky.com.
