PORTLAND, Ore. – The Eastern Washington University volleyball team fell in four sets on the road to Portland State tonight (Oct. 31) to open the second half of Big Sky Conference play. The Eagles jumped out and took set one, 25-16, before being edged in extra points in set two, 28-26, and dropped the final two frames, 25-12 and 25-15.
"I thought we jumped out of the gates well. We were focused and relentless and in our first set. Once you lose energy, there's no guarantee you'll ever get it back and I think that happened to us tonight," said head coach
Leslie Flores-Cloud. "Portland State stepped up and they served really, really, well and made some adjustments in set two that we weren't ready to handle. Hopefully tonight is a learning moment for us. We're a young team but one thing we do need to do every time we get a chance to play is learn something new so I hope we did that tonight. Volleyball is a game of momentum as well as a game of chess and every time a coach makes an upgrade or a movement we need to be able to come back with our own, and we weren't able to do that tonight."
The Eagles were on fire to open set one, hitting .250 with 12 kills and limiting Portland State to just -.027 percent and only eight kills. With the set tied 4-4, Eastern Washington exploded on a 10-2 run to gain a comfortable 14-6 lead.
After a kill from
Ashlyn Blotzer sparked another run for the Eagles that helped them lead 21-11, Portland State responded with four-straight points of their own to make it 21-15. Up 22-16, Blotzer came up with a kill and followed up with an ace to make it set point, 24-16.
MaKenna Davis had the final say with a kill to give Eastern a 25-16 victory in set one.
Set two was closely contested as the two teams found themselves tied 19 times. Neither squad was able to lead by more than two points until the Eagles broke away when the score was knotted up at 19-19.
Ka'ehukaiiha'amaina'e Keala hammered down back-to-back kills then followed it up with a solo block to cap a 4-0 run for EWU who pulled ahead 23-19. That's when PSU responded with four-straight points to even the match, 23-23.
A Viking service error gave Eastern set point, 24-23, only for PSU to turn around and tie the set once more. The Eagles would earn set point twice more, but with a 26-25 lead, the Vikings pulled ahead and edged EWU with the final three points to claim the second set, 28-26.
Unable to respond from the second set loss, Eastern Washington dropped the third set 25-12.
In the fourth set, Eastern jumped out to a 4-1 lead that grew to 8-5 before PSU scored five-straight points to steal the 10-8 lead. The Eagles had to play catchup from there and the Vikings closed the fourth and final set with six-straight points to win 25-15 and take the match 3-1.
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: With the loss, Eastern Washington moves to 4-19 overall and 2-9 in Big Sky play. Portland State improves to 9-13 overall and 5-6 in conference action.
TOP PERFORMANCES: For the fifth-straight match,
MaKenna Davis totaled double digit kills. Tonight, she led the team with 11 and was a dig short of a double-double.
Ana Paula Zandona led the team in both assists (36) and blocks (5).
Catelyn Linke totaled 21 digs to lead the Eagles while
Málie McClure had 10.
Ashlyn Blotzer finished with one service ace and four blocks while
Nicoletta Capizzi also had an ace.
KEY STATISTICS: The Eagles hit .093 on the night with 47 kills and 32 errors on 161 total attempts. Portland State swung .194 (43k-15e-144ta).
Eastern Washington had more digs (81) than Portland State (61), but the Vikings served up 11 aces to Eastern's two and also out-blocked the Eagles 15-to-7.
Eastern had more assists than PSU did, 44-to-38.
UP NEXT: The Eagles head to Sacramento State to take on the Hornets on Saturday, Nov. 2, at 1 p.m. The match will air for free on Pluto TV Ch. 533.
