In its home opening match that was part of the first-ever regular season tournament at Reese Court, the Eastern Washington University volleyball team fell in four sets (25-15, 19-25, 20-25, 18-25) to visiting CSU Bakersfield on Friday night (Sept. 17).
 
"We started establishing predictability instead of mixing up our offense like I was hoping we would. But I also think that Cal State Bakersfield was asleep in set one, and we woke a sleeping giant," said head coach Leslie Flores-Cloud. "I thought Maya McClellan had a nice night and we had some really good serves at the beginning of the match. I thought our serving decreased after that. Offensively, Renata Lopez Morales started to get going towards the end and Ashlyn Blotzer had a nice night. I hope tomorrow we can come back and have a little more offense from our outside hitters, that was lacking tonight. Cal State Bakersfield also did a nice job executing out of their middle, and we were struggling with that."
 
In the opening set, the Eagles jumped out to an early 7-5 lead that built to 12-8 after a 4-0 scoring run. Eastern never trailed from there, as the lead grew to 18-14. Another 5-0 run that consisted of three-straight Roadrunner errors gave EWU a comfortable 23-14 advantage. A kill from Ashlyn Blotzer and another CSUB attack error helped the Eagles win set one, 25-15. The set would be Eastern's best clip of the night, hitting .379 with 14 kills and only three errors, while holding CSUB to -0.074 with only six kills and eight errors.
 
Set two was a back-and-forth affair with 10 ties and six lead changes. The two sides went point-for-point in the early goings, until the Roadrunners broke away first with a 4-0 run. A kill by McKenna Russell sparked a 3-0 run that helped put the Eagles within a point, 13-12, and consecutive kills from Blotzer tied the set up once more, 17-17. After a Makenna Collins' service ace put the Eagles within a point late in the set, 19-18, Bakersfield fired off seven-straight points to close out the set to win 25-19 and even the match 1-1.
 
The Eagles were off to an 8-5 lead in the third set that would grow to 11-8 after a kill from Ka'ehukaiiha'amaina'e Keala. Bakersfield found its footing then, using a 6-0 run to pull ahead 14-11. Eastern kept its composure, finding three-straight points that included another kill from McClellan to tie the set, 14-14. Things remained equal at 18-18 when the Roadrunners gained momentum with a 5-1 run to lead 23-19 and they would find consecutive kills to finish the set off, 25-20, and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
Bakersfield led for the entirety of the crucial fourth set, jumping out to a 13-6 lead and never looking back. Eastern would gain some momentum, as a kill from Sadie Bacon sparked a 4-0 run that put the Eagles within two points, 18-16. However, Bakersfield closed the match on a 4-0 scoring run to put set four away 25-18 and won 3-1.
 
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: Eastern Washington falls to 3-4 overall while CSU Bakersfield improves to 6-1 in the team's first-ever meeting.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: Maya McClellan was the lone Eagle in double figure kills tonight, leading the way with 19 and hitting .286 on the night with two solo blocks. Renata Lopez Morales followed with seven kills and Ashlyn Blotzer had six.
 
Lindsey Russell dished out 19 assists followed by Ellie Garrett who had 13. Makenna Collins collected 12 digs at the libero spot to go with two service aces, while Ka'ehukaiiha'amaina'e Keala had 10 digs.
 
KEY STATISTICS: Eastern Washington was held to a .144 clip with 48 kills and 28 errors on 139 total attempted. CSU Bakersfield hit .203 with 45 kills but only 19 errors on 128 attempts.
 
The Eagles were out-blocked, 13-4, and had three aces to Bakersfield's five. Each team had nine service errors. EWU was also just edged in digs, 54-52.
 
UP NEXT: Eastern Washington closes tournament play tomorrow afternoon (Sept. 18) at Reese Court against Seattle. First serve is set for 1 p.m. Pacific time on ESPN+ with live stats on EWUStats.com.