For the second-straight evening (Oct. 1), the Eastern Washington University volleyball team was in action at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash. This time, hosting Portland State where the Eagles fell in three sets (23-25, 19-25, 17-25) to move to 5-7 overall and 1-3 in Big Sky Conference play.
 
"That's a really good Portland State team. Their libero and their offense did some nice things. Ultimately, we need to take care of the ball on our side a little bit more and we need to pick up our offense. I know I sound like I'm repeating myself, but our offense needs to take care of the ball better. We struggled doing that tonight," said head coach Leslie Flores-Cloud. "I think we started out well, we were blocking well tonight and led in blocks, so that's nice, but now we have to do it on the offensive side."
 
The Eagles opened the first set with a 4-1 lead before Portland State used a 3-0 run to tie the set 5-5. Eastern responded later in the set with a 5-0 run that included service aces from Sadie Bacon to lead 12-8. Eastern Washington held a 17-11 lead after another 3-0 run that forced a Portland State timeout. The momentum would shift when the Vikings challenged a call on the floor and it was overturned, making it a 4-0 scoring run for PSU to cut the lead to 17-15.
 
The Eagles maintained their advantage, leading 20-18, but the Vikings refused to go away. After PSU tied the set up 22-22, they would find two quick points to lead 24-23, ending the set with a kill and a 3-0 run to come from behind and win 25-23.
 
It was all Portland State in the early goings of set two as they built a 15-8 lead on an 8-1 scoring run and eventually led 18-9. The Eagles found some momentum when they were down 22-11, going on a 4-0 run to bring the score to 22-15. Portland State kept steady, reaching set point 24-17 before Maya McClellan fought off set point with a kill. A PSU error kept Eastern alive, but the Vikings found the final point to win 25-19 and take the 2-0 lead.
 
A 5-0 Portland State run midway through the decisive third set gave the Vikings an 11-7 lead which would grow to 15-10. It was all PSU from there, using another 5-0 spurt to grow its advantage to 21-12. A quick 3-0 spurt tried to give the Eagles some life at 22-16, but Portland State closed things out with a 3-1 run to win 25-17 and take the match 3-0.   
 
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: The Eagles move to 5-7 overall with a 1-3 mark in Big Sky Conference play, dropping its third-straight match in straight-sets. Portland State improves to 9-6 overall and 3-1 in conference action.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: Ashlyn Blotzer hit .421 on the night with a team-high nine kills and one error, followed by Maya McClellan who hit .267 with six kills.
 
Lindsey Russell led the way with 18 assists, two block solos and a block assist, plus nine digs. Sadie Bacon had two service aces, Leah McAdams recorded two block errors and Sage Brustad had seven digs.
 
KEY STATISTICS: Eastern Washington was held to .085 from the floor with 27 kills and 19 errors on 94 total attempts. Portland State swung .234 with 40 kills and 15 errors on 107 total attempts.
 
Eastern Washington out-blocked the Vikings, 7-to-5, and had four service aces to their five. PSU held the slight advantage in digs, 40-to-37.
 
UP NEXT: Eastern Washington will stick around Cheney next week when they welcome Montana State and Montana to town on Thursday, Oct. 7 and Saturday, Oct. 9. Thursday's match is set for 6 p.m. and Saturday's is at 1 p.m. with both matches broadcasted on ESPN+.