POCATELLO, Idaho – The Eastern Washington University volleyball team faced Idaho State this evening on the road. The Eagles were unable to claim a set from the Bengals and fell 3-0 (14-25, 11-25, 19-25). With the loss, Eastern now falls to 8-7 on the season and 0-3 in Big Sky Conference play.

"I think that the girls were a little bit caught off guard. I thought we did a better job in game three rising up our play and that's what we want to do because a lot of teams will fold after getting beat 25-11 but our team doesn't," said head coach Leslie Flores-Cloud.
 
The Bengals used a 4-0 run early on to lead 13-6. ISU was able to use a 3-0 run to extend its lead to 20-11 and then later another 3-0 run to close out the first set and win 25-14.
 
EWU couldn't quite find its momentum in the second game, as the Bengals used a 9-1 run midway through and cruised to a 25-11 victory.
 
With the set tied 4-4 following a kill from Kennedy Kaminsky, Idaho State used a 3-0 run to lead 7-4. Down by four points, Eastern exploded on a 4-0 run that included two kills from MaKenna Davis and an ace from Catelyn Linke. The offensive momentum continued when Davis sparked a run with another kill, following by three straight Bengal errors and a Kaminksy kill to lead 16-12 and force an Idaho State timeout.
 
The Bengals emerged from the timeout with four-straight points to tie the set at 16-all. The two sides would exchange leads until Idaho State closed the set on a 6-0 run to take the third and final set, 25-19 and the match 3-0.

"The fight and the grit really showed in set three. We're a young team but we're not using that as an excuse, we're still fighting," added Cloud. "I'm very proud of them for coming out and giving it their everything in set three. A lot of teams would've folded, but not us."
 
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: Eastern is now 8-7 on the season and 0-3 in Big Sky play. The Bengals improve to 9-7 and 3-0 in conference.
 
Today was the 76^th all-time meeting between the two squads. Eastern owns the all-time record, 40-36, but have now dropped the last eight matches to the Bengals including nine out of the last 10. The Eagles are 16-21 inside Reed Gym.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: Kamille Langford led the Eagles with six kills and hit .250 with only three errors on 15 attempts. Kaitlin Sugai, Kennedy Kaminsky and Alexandra Espinosa each had five while Sugai swung .250.
 
Samantha Boever dished out 20 assists and Puaoolelagi Sao had 12 digs. Catelyn Linke served up EWU's lone service ace and Kaminsky had three blocks.
 
KEY STATS: The Bengals were able to hit .319 on the evening and limited Eastern to .063. Additionally, ISU had five aces to EWU's one and also out-blocked the Eagles, 10-5.
 
WHAT'S NEXT: The three-match Big Sky road trip concludes at Weber State on Saturday at 6 p.m. Pacific time.

MORE FROM FLORES-CLOUD: "I thought MaKenna Davis came in and did some really great things for us and she hit .600. Catelyn Linke came into to libero, where she hasn't played in a long time and did a great job. Kahle Elliott also made the other team think about hitting again."