SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Eastern Washington University volleyball team fell to Sacramento State in straight sets (22-25, 8-25, 17-25) on Thursday evening (Nov. 1).
 
"I thought we came out of the gates and we served really well, which was a big game plan of ours. Efficiency wise, we weren't able to bring that into the second set. Our serving and sideout percentage went down and when that happens you end up with 25-8," said head coach Leslie Flores-Cloud. "We rallied behind Kahle Elliott's serve tonight and she was doing some great things for us in set one. Kassandra Thomazin hit well for us efficiency wise and Puaoolelagi Sao dug the ball well."
 
The Eagles were trailing 5-4 when they used a 6-1 run to lead 10-6 and force a Sacramento State timeout. The Hornets worked to tie the set back up at 11-all, but Eastern continued to extend its lead to 18-16 following a kill from Kassandra Thomazin. Sacramento State wouldn't back down as they used a 6-1 run to lead 22-19 and forced an Eastern Washington timeout. Out of the timeout, Catelyn Linke fired off back-to-back kills to put EWU within one. Eastern's late push was not enough as they Hornets closed on a 3-1 to take the opening set, 25-22.
 
Eastern Washington opened a 3-1 lead over the Hornets in the third set, but Sacramento State outscored the Eagles 24-5 in the remainder of the set to claim the frame, 25-8.
 
After the Hornets opened the third set on a 4-0 run, Eastern played catch up for the remainder of the set. Sacramento State took its largest lead of the set, 20-13, and two Hornet errors put Eastern within two, 20-15. It was all Sacramento State from there as they took the third set 25-17 and won the match 3-0.
 
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: With the loss, Eastern drops to 8-17 overall and 0-13 in Big Sky Conference play. The Hornets improve to 15-12 overall and 10-3 in conference match.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: Catelyn Linke led the team with eight kills, followed by Kahle Elliott who had five. Linke and Elliott each had one ace along with Kennedy Kaminsky. Puaoolelagi Sao had 19 digs while Samantha Boever dished out 17 assists.
 
KEY STATS: Sacramento State hit .330 while holding Eastern to a .029 percentage. The Hornets had 13 service errors and four aces while EWU had seven errors and three aces. The Eagles were also out-blocked, 7-1.
 
UP NEXT: The Eagles look to bounce back at Portland State on Saturday, Nov. 3 at 2 p.m. for their second-to-last road match of the season.
 
MORE FROM FLORES-CLOUD: "On Saturday, I want to be more efficient as a team. We had a lot of blooper mistakes tonight and several net and service errors and I want to clean that up, that's not how Eastern plays volleyball. We need to be more efficient with the ball and not make as many errors. They did a nice job blocking us and we need to be better at covering."