FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – The Eastern Washington University volleyball team opened their final regular season road trip of the year at Northern Arizona where they fell in straight sets on Thursday night (Nov. 21).
 
"That was a good Northern Arizona team and I wish we would've jumped out of the gates better, I'm not sure what happened to us. I thought we did some good things in set two and we had leads that we gave up. Nicoletta Capizzi stepped up for us in set three," said head coach Leslie Flores-Cloud. "We have to go play for some pride on Saturday at Southern Utah. We have to show we're capable of focusing and Southern Utah is going to be a good team. I do think that we are going to be more focused and motivated in that match than we were tonight."
 
Northern Arizona jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first set and the Eagles had to play catchup from there. EWU responded with four-straight points to cut NAU's lead to 8-5. Northern Arizona's lead extended to 17-10 and built to 23-15. Facing set point, an NAU error and back-to-back kills from Málie McClure and Makenna Davis fought the Lumberjacks off, but they came up just short and dropped set on 25-19.
 
Back-to-back kills from Ashlyn Blotzer and Renata Lopez Morales followed by an ace from ShaRae Niu helped Eastern grab an early 3-0 lead. NAU then went on a 9-1 run to lead 9-4. The Lumberjacks would hit .405 during the second set with 16 kills to Eastern's .156 clip and nine kills as Northern Arizona claimed the 25-15 set two victory.
 
The Eagles gave the Lumberjacks all they could handle to stay alive in set three, as the set was tied six times with two lead changes. Eastern pulled ahead first with a 10-6 lead before the Lumberjacks responded and came within a point, 11-10. Eastern held on to a pair of four-point leads and led 19-15 before NAU called a timeout.
 
The timeout would help, as the Lumberjacks came out to score two quick points to force an EWU timeout. Eastern held on to its advantage before Northern Arizona tied the set 21-21. The Eagles led 22-21, but NAU got the final say and closed the set with four-straight points to win 25-22 and take the match 3-0.
 
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: Eastern Washington falls to 6-23 overall and 4-13 in Big Sky play. Northern Arizona improves to 19-10 and 12-5.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: Nicoletta Capizzi and MaKenna Davis led the team with six kills. Capizzi hit .308 with only two errors on 13 attempts and also had a service ace. Davis led the way with two aces.
 
Junior Catelyn Linke led all players with 18 digs and is now just 79 digs away from becoming the ninth player in program history to collect 1,000 career digs.
 
Ashlyn Blotzer came up with a team-high of four blocks while Ana Paula Zandona dished out 23 assists.
 
KEY STATISTCS: Both teams were even with five aces and five blocks apiece.
 
Northern Arizona had the edge in kills with 45 to Eastern's 29. The Lumberjacks hit .308 on the night with 45 kills and 12 errors on 105 attempts while Eastern Washington hit .083 with 29 kills and 20 errors on 108 attempts.
 
NAU had 44 assists to Eastern's 27 and 53 digs to EWU's 47.
 
UP NEXT: Eastern Washington takes on Southern Utah this Saturday (Nov. 23) at 12 p.m. Pacific time.