In the final regular season match of the year, the Eastern Washington University volleyball team played host to Northern Colorado tonight (Nov. 12) at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash., for Senior Night. The Eagles battled, but couldn't overcome the top-ranked Bears and fell 3-0 (21-25, 21-25, 13-25).
 
"That's a really good Bears team. I think our team went in knowing we could possibly play them again next week and that we had nothing to lose and everything to gain. We needed to work on execution a little bit more, we talked about that after set one. We hit .520 against arguably the best team in the conference in set two. I'm really proud of our players today," said head coach Leslie Flores-Cloud. "Ashlyn Blotzer opened up the match with a solo block and Maya McClellan was right behind her offensively. One thing I wanted to do was to win the serving battle, but Northern Colorado definitely beat us there, so that's something we'll go back to and work on. I hope we get to play them again next week."
 
Prior to the match, Eastern Washington honored seniors Ashlyn Blotzer, Maya McClellan, Lindsey Russell and McKenna Russell.
 
Set one was tied 10 times and featured five lead changes. The Bears took a 5-2 lead after a 4-0 run but EWU stayed within striking distance. Northern Colorado would pull ahead once more, 11-7, but Eastern fired off four-straight to tie the set 11-11. From there, the teams went point-for-point and were locked at an 18-18 tie but UNC would then pull away for good. Eastern Washington would trail by just a point, 22-21, but the Bears closed the set on a 3-0 run to win 25-21.
 
Similar to the opening set, the second set saw 10 ties and seven lead changes. Eastern Washington hit .520 in the frame. The Eagles led 9-7 before the Bears went on a 5-0 run to pull ahead 12-9. Then, the Eagles worked to tie the set 15-15. The two sides were locked at 17-17, 18-18 and 19-19 before UNC pulled ahead 21-19. A Blotzer kill put EWU back within a point, 21-20, but the Bears outscored the Eagles 4-1 down the stretch and won 25-21 to take a 2-0 lead.
 
The Bears led 4-1 before a quick 3-0 spurt by Eastern Washington tied the set, 5-5. Northern Colorado pulled back ahead 11-7 after a 3-0 run of its own and cruised from there, using an 8-1 scoring run to build a 24-12 lead. Ehu Keala fought off set point, but the Bears went on to win 25-13.
 
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: With tonight's loss, Eastern Washington ends the regular season 11-13 overall and a 7-9 mark in Big Sky Conference play, the most conference wins since 2016.
 
Northern Colorado, who plays at Idaho tomorrow night, improves to 20-6 overall and 12-3 in conference play.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: Maya McClellan led the team with 10 kills and hit .227. Ashlyn Blotzer followed, hitting .429 with seven kills.
 
Lindsey Russell led the team in assists with 23 and had a team-high two service aces. Both Russell and Makenna Collins led the team with six digs.
 
KEY STATISTICS: The Eagles hit .228 on the night with 31 kills and 13 errors on 79 total attempts. The Bears hit .395 with 44 kills, 10 errors and 86 total attacks.
 
Northern Colorado had eight aces to EWU's four, four blocks to Eastern's two, and edged the Eagles in assists (39-27) and digs (31-24).
 
UP NEXT: Eastern Washington now turns its sights to the Big Sky Conference Tournament which is hosted in Ogden, Utah, on Nov. 18-20. Stay tuned to GoEags.com for more information.