MOSCOW, Idaho – The Eastern Washington University volleyball team took on Idaho on the road tonight (Nov. 12) where they fell 3-1. The Eagles jumped out and took set one, 25-23, but dropped the next three sets 16-25, 12-25, 19-25.
"We fought really hard to win set one, and part of the lessons we're teaching these young players is that nobody is going to give up like they would at the club level. Idaho came and fought back and won the next three, but we have to give the same intensity that we gave in set one to every set. We have to know that each team is going to come at us a little harder and I wish we would've learned that a little faster, but hopefully that was a big lesson to learn from tonight," said head coach
Leslie Flores-Cloud. "We had way too many errors. We were able to beat Sacramento State with only 19 hitting errors in five sets and we had 30 tonight, so that played a huge part, that's a whole set that we lost on hitting errors. That is something we'll be thinking about. Idaho played well tonight and we look forward to hosting Northern Colorado at our house on Saturday."
The Eagles came out and collected 15 kills in the first set victory. A trio of kills from the Eagles help them lead 8-6 and another 5-0 run later in the set extended the advantage to 14-9.
Idaho would answer back with a 7-1 run to take a 16-15 lead. They continued to lead by a point until a kill from
MaKenna Davis and an ace from
Catelyn Linke gave the Eagles their lead back, 20-19. It was back-and-forth battle from there as Idaho regained a 22-20 lead before a kill from
Alisha Straw and an ace from
Ana Paula Zandona evened the match back up. Idaho retook a brief one-point lead, but two Vandal errors and the finishing kill from
Nicoletta Capizzi helped Eastern seal the first set victory, 25-23.
The momentum did not carry into the second set, as Idaho totaled 15 kills and hit .294 to win 25-16.
Idaho jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the third set that the Eagles couldn't recover from as they dropped set three, 25-12.
In the fourth set, Idaho took a 5-1 lead. Later in the set, the Eagles would cut the lead to two points, 11-9. Trailing 19-11, a 4-0 run that included three kills from Davis and an ace from Linke helped put the Eagles within four points and force an Idaho timeout. The late surge was not enough, however, as Idaho won set four 25-19 and the match 3-1.
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: With the loss, Eastern Washington falls to 6-21 on the season and 4-11 in Big Sky Conference play. Idaho improves to 13-14 overall and 9-6 in conference action.
TOP PERFORMANCES: MaKenna Davis led the team with 10 kills, followed by
Renata Lopez Morales who had nine. Lopez Morales hit .350 on the night with only two errors on 20 attempts.
Catelyn Linke led all players with 23 digs and two service aces.
Ana Paula Zandona also had two aces to go with a team-high 31 assists and eight digs.
KEY STATISTICS: Errors hurt the Eagles tonight, as they committed 30 to Idaho's 15. Eastern Washington totaled 41 kills on 149 attempts to hit .074 while the Vandals hit .245 with 50 kills on 143 attempts.
Both teams were even with five aces each, but the Eagles were out-blocked 11-to-5. Eastern totaled 34 assists and 58 digs while Idaho had 44 and 63, respectively.
UP NEXT: Eastern Washington returns home for its final home match of the season against Northern Colorado on Saturday, Nov. 16. First serve is set for 4:05 p.m. at Reese Court.
