PORTLAND, Ore. – The Eastern Washington University volleyball team came out aggressive and took the opening set, but fell at Portland State Saturday afternoon (Nov. 3) by a score of 3-1 (25-18, 17-25, 12-25, 23-25).

"Today was a tough loss. We did some really good things in set one, I was proud of how we started out strong. We have to work on our transition from set one to set two, set two has been our Achilles heel this weekend," said head coach Leslie Flores-Cloud. "Our best player today was by far Kahle Elliott. She took a lot of swings for us and she was terminal and effective and was great at placing the ball. Overall, she had a great weekend, she's taking a lot of steps to become a great hitter for us and today she absolutely was. It was also great to have MaKenna Davis back."
 
In the first set, Eastern Washington swung .304 with nine kills and two errors on 23 attempts and held the Vikings to .000 and 11 errors. Trailing 4-2, Kamille Langford would hammer down a kill that sparked a 5-0 run for the Eagles to give them a 7-4 advantage and later a service ace from Catelyn Linke extended the lead to 9-5.
 
A quick 3-0 spurt by Portland State would cut Eastern's lead to one, 15-14. A block by MaKenna Davis and Kennedy Kaminsky helped EWU outscore Portland State 6-1 in the final exchanges as Eastern went on to win, 25-18.
 
Portland State bounced back and opened the second set on a 6-0 run. Consecutive kills from Kahle Elliott and Langford put Eastern within three, 7-4. The teams exchanged 3-0 runs midway through the set, but it was PSU who was on top 16-9. A kill from Linke sparked a 3-0 run late in the set, but it wasn't enough as Eastern fell 25-17 and the match evened at one a piece.
 
Both sides exchanged points in the beginning of the third set, but PSU broke away 11-5 to force an EWU timeout. Trailing 18-10, the Vikings outscored Eastern 7-2 to win 25-12 and take a 2-1 lead.
 
A kill by Davis and a block from Kaminsky and Davis helped Eastern only trail by one, 8-7, in the fourth set. That's when PSU used a 4-0 run to extend the lead to 12-7 and force an EWU timeout. Eastern was able to capitalize on a trio of Portland State errors and cut PSU's lead to one point, 15-14. Down 20-16, EWU used a 5-2 run to come within one point, 23-22, and the Vikings would call timeout. Facing set point, Linke delivered a kill but Eastern came up short dropping the fourth set 25-23 as Portland State claimed the victory.
 
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: Eastern Washington falls to 8-18 on the season and 0-14 in Big Sky Conference play. Portland State improves to 5-21 and 4-10.
 
PSU takes the season sweep after beating EWU in five sets back on Oct. 4 in Cheney. The series history now moves to 29-27 in the Vikings' favor and Eastern has dropped the last four meetings to Portland State.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: Kahle Elliott led the team with a season-high nine kills while hitting .292 with only two errors on 24 attempts. MaKenna Davis followed with eight kills while Catelyn Linke and Kamille Langford each had seven.
 
Davis led the way with three service aces and also had three blocks. Kennedy Kaminsky led the team with five blocks while Samantha Boever dished out 32 assists and Puaoolelagi Sao had 14 digs.
 
KEY STATISTICS: The Eagles outblocked Portland State eight to six. Both teams had 11 service errors, while EWU recorded seven aces and the Vikings had nine. Eastern Washington hit .149 (36-19-114) while Portland State hit .260 (53-21-123).
 
UP NEXT: The Eagles return home to Reese Court to Montana State and Montana on back-to-back nights beginning on Thursday, Nov. 8. Both matches are complimentary to the public.