GRAND FORKS, N.D. – The UND Classic ended on a high note for the Eastern Washington University volleyball team this morning (Sept. 1). The Eagles took on Louisiana Tech for the second time in two days, topping them by a final score of 3-1 (22-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-20). With the win, Eastern improves to 5-2 on the year while LA Tech drops to 1-5.
 
"Today, we needed to make sure that when we played this team again we kept their offense down compared to the first time we played them because they had a lot of offense against us yesterday. I thought we also did a better job of serve receiving," said head coach Leslie Flores-Cloud, who has the Eagles off to their best start through seven matches since 2005. "We didn't do a great job in the first set defensively, but as the match went on we did much better."
 
Both sides exchanged runs of two or three points in the early stages of the first set. With the set tied 8-8, Eastern exploded with five straight points to take a 13-8 lead and force an LA Tech timeout. Later on, a 3-0 spurt that included kills from Kennedy Kaminsky and Catelyn Linke gave EWU a 17-11 lead and forced another Tech timeout. Eastern held what seemed to be a comfortable 19-14 lead when the Techsters began to creep back and brought the score within two. EWU led by two points when Tech fired off five straight points to come from behind and win 25-22, taking a 1-0 lead.
 
Eastern came out swinging in set two, hitting .353 in the frame with only four errors and 16 kills. Tied 7-7, EWU emerged with a 6-0 run to lead 13-7 and later led 16-9. LA Tech would not be buried, using a 5-0 spurt to come within two points and later tied the set up 18-18. Eastern remained in the lead, ahead 22-20 when they fired off a trio of kills – two from Kamille Langford and one from Taylor Larsen, to put the set away 25-20 and tie the match 1-1.
 
The Eagles wasted no time jumping out to a 10-3 lead in the third frame and continued to lead 19-12, looking to put LA Tech away. However, the Techsters would string together five unanswered points to cut the lead to two, 20-18. Eventually, LA Tech worked to a 22-21 lead. Langford and MaKenna Davis fired off two kills, but Tech would come back to tie it 23-all. With the set and match tied, freshman Kaitlin Sugai delivered a kill and then teamed up with Kaminsky with the set-winning block, giving EWU a 25-23 victory and a 2-1 lead.
 
Much like the first three sets, set four was a back-and-forth affair that came down to the wire. EWU led 8-5 when Tech used a 6-0 run to lead 10-8. A 6-2 spurt gave EWU a 14-12 lead. Trailing by two points, Sugai came through with consecutive kills to put Eastern back in it and tied the set 17-17. Later, a 4-0 run that included two aces from Grace Nelson gave Eastern a 21-18 lead. Kills from Larsen and Langford put EWU ahead 24-19 and LA Tech would threaten facing match point. Langford then delivered the game-winning kill to give Eastern the 25-20 decision and the 3-1 victory.
 
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: Eastern improves to 5-2 on the season while LA Tech drops to 1-5. EWU improves its overall record in the all-time series, 3-0.
 
WHAT'S IT MEAN: Eastern Washington ended the UND Classic with a 2-2 record over the weekend, dropping to North Dakota (3-0) and Western Carolina (3-1) but topping Louisiana Tech twice, both by scores of 3-1. The Eagles have started their season 5-2 for the first time since 2005.
 
TOP PERFORMERS: Freshman Kennedy Kaminsky led the way with a career-best 14 kills and also put up four blocks. She also paced EWU with a hitting percentage of .444 (14k-2e-27ta). Kamille Langford was the other Eagle to have kills reach into the double-digits with 12, also a career-best.
 
Grace Nelson led Eastern with three service aces and Samantha Boever dished out 42 assists and 10 digs for her third double-double of the season. The Eagles also had three other players reach double figures in digs in Puaoolelagi Sao (16), MaKenna Davis (14) and Nelson (13).
 
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Junior setter Samantha Boever was named to the UND Classic All-Tournament team. On the weekend, she started in all four matches, appearing in 15 sets. She accumulated 142 assists, for an average of 9.47/set. Additionally, she also tallied 35 digs (2.33/set). In the final match against LA Tech, she garnered her third double-double of the season (42a-10d). She also had six kills on 14 attempts with no errors for a hitting percentage of .429 while adding three blocks and one ace over four matches.
 
KEY STATS: Both teams garnered 56 kills, but EWU swung .217 (56k-20e-166ta) to LA Tech's .171 (56k-27e-170ta). Eastern also had five aces to the Techster's four and both teams had six total blocks.
 
WHAT'S NEXT: Two more non-conference tournaments remain for the Eagles. Next week, Eastern Washington heads East for the Pirate Invitational hosted by Eastern Carolina. Play begins on Thursday (Sept. 6) at 4 p.m. with a match against the hosts and concludes on Friday (Sept. 7) with matches against Charlotte and Gardner-Webb.
 
MORE FROM COACH FLORES-CLOUD:
 
On Improvement from Facing LA Tech Yesterday: "I think we did best at creating an offense for ourselves, we only had 13 kills in our best game against them yesterday and today our best was 16. We created offense on our side and that was a big part of that. We stayed on track to who we were taking out with our serves."
 
On Top Performances: "Kennedy Kaminsky did a great job in the middle leading our offense. Kamille Lanford stepped up and played outside hitter for us and that's a position she hasn't trained a whole lot at. She jumped in the role and did the best she could for the team. She led our outside offense and Samantha Boever was named to the All-Tournament Team for leading our offense as well."