CHENEY, Wash. – The third set came down to final points, but the Eastern Washington University volleyball team dropped a 3-0 (12-25, 22-25, 24-26) decision to Montana on Friday evening (Nov. 9).
 
"I'm proud of our team's hustle, they are staying together and grinding together, each set we're getting better. I think a lot of teams would've given up at this point, but our team isn't. Montana had to work to beat us, we didn't give them anything and that shows in our numbers," said head coach Leslie Flores-Cloud.
  railing 12-6 in the opening frame, Eastern went on a quick 3-1 spurt to come within four points. Montana responded with a 6-0 run to lead 19-9 and outscored Eastern 6-3 from there to take the opening set, 25-12.
 
In the second set, Eastern found themselves down 12-6 when they used a 3-0 run to come within three points. Montana worked their advantage to 19-15, but couldn't put the Eagles away as another 3-0 spurt cut the deficit to one point. The teams would go point-for-point the remainder of the set. Facing set point, 24-21, Catelyn Linke hammered down a kill to try and spark Eastern's offense, but came up short and dropped 25-22 in the second frame.
 
Both teams exchanged points to open the third set and found themselves tied at 10 apiece. The Grizzlies held a 16-14 lead when MaKenna Davis stepped up and went on a 5-0 scoring run by herself. It began with a kill and then four straight service aces to give Eastern a 19-16 lead.
 
Montana quickly responded with a 6-1 run to take the lead back, 22-20. Eastern wouldn't back down, as a Linke kill started three-straight points from the Eagles. UM then scored two points to lead 24-23 and looked to take the match when a Kamille Langford kill fended them off. However, the Grizzlies capitalized on two Eagle errors and took the set in extra points, 26-24 and the match 3-0.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: MaKenna Davis led the Eagles with 10 kills and a career-high five service aces and a block. She also hit .222 with only four errors on 27 attempts.
 
ShaRae Niu dished out 26 assists while Puaoolelagi Sao had eight digs to lead Eastern. Catelyn Linke added nine kills and seven digs.
 
KEY STATS: Eastern was only able to hit .108 (35k-22e-120ta) to Montana's .330 (42k-11e-94ta). EWU had six aces to Montana's two, but were out-blocked nine to one.
 
UP NEXT: The final week of the season awaits the Eagles next week. Eastern begins the week at Southern Utah on Thursday, Nov. 15 at 5:30 p.m. Pacific time. The final home game of the year, Senior Night, follows on Saturday, Nov. 17 against Northern Arizona at 7:30 p.m.
 
MORE FROM COACH FLORES-CLOUD:
 
On MaKenna Davis' Performance: "MaKenna really wanted it tonight. She's doing a great job and shows a lot of leadership as a sophomore. She leads by example and gets the team going and I'm really proud of her for going out there and pushing. She needs to continually get better and we keep asking that of her and she keeps rising to the occasion."
 
On Wrapping up the Season Next Week: "We're still going for that win in the Big Sky. At the end of the day, I want to be proud of our attitude and our effort. I think that our attitude and our effort in the last two nights have gotten tremendously better and we have to pick up the way we defend the serve, so I'd like to see that continues."