The Eastern Washington University volleyball team concluded its first road trip of Big Sky Conference play this afternoon (Sept. 25) at Northern Arizona. The Eagles were unable to top the Lumberjacks on their own home floor in Flagstaff, Ariz., falling by a score of 3-0 (17-25, 24-26, 16-25) to move to 5-5 overall and 1-1 in conference action.
 
"I think Northern Arizona is a really good and efficient team. I'm glad we got to play them in their environment and we have some things to work on before we face them again, because I think they are a team we can battle," said head coach Leslie Flores-Cloud. "Lindsey Russell did a nice job offensively. She used a lot of things to her advantage and she was setting a nice offense. Ashlyn Blotzer did a nice job swinging in the middle for us. Our pins did a nice job of attacking, we just have to get them to keep balls in play a little bit more and we'll go back and work on that."  
 
Northern Arizona jumped out to a 7-0 lead to begin the first set. The Eagles pushed and cut the deficit to 16-11 using a 5-0 run, but the Lumberjacks regrouped and would take the opening set, 25-17.
 
The second set was quite the opposite, as it saw 18 ties and 10 lead changes. The teams were tied 4-4 early on before EWU took a 6-4 lead. From there, the match moved into an 11-11 tie as the teams exchanged points down the stretch.
 
Eastern Washington broke away with two quick points to lead 13-11 before NAU found a 3-1 run to retake a 15-14 lead. Consecutive kills from Sage Brustad and Sadie Bacon put the advantage back in EWU's court, 16-15, but not before NAU tied the set up for the 13^th time, 16-16. The Eagles would break away again, 18-16, after kills from Maya McClellan and Bacon to force a Lumberjack timeout. Out of the break, NAU was the first team to truly breakaway, using a 5-0 run to lead 21-18. But after Eastern called timeout to regroup, they emerged with a 3-0 run to put a stop to the run and level things out at 21-21.
 
Keeping with the theme of the set, the teams would move into a crucial 23-23 tie. Eastern found set point first after a kill from Ashlyn Blotzer and the Lumberjacks used their final timeout. The timeout worked, and things evened out once again at 24-24 and it would be NAU who earned the next point, 25-24. From there, Northern Arizona ended things on a service ace and hung on for the 26-24 win to take a 2-0 lead.
 
NAU carried the momentum into the third set, using a 4-0 run to take an early 8-3 lead and the lead would eventually grow to 12-7. Northern Arizona continued to hold the momentum as another 3-0 run gave them a 21-14 lead and the Lumberjacks were also able to find three-straight points to close out the set and win 25-16.
 
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: Eastern Washington falls to 5-5 overall and 1-1 in Big Sky play, while Northern Arizona improves to 4-7 and 2-0.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: Ka'ehukaiiha'amaina'e Keala led the team with nine kills, followed by Maya McClellan who had eight. Both Sage Brustad and Sadie Bacon had seven each.
 
Lindsey Russell dished out 32 assists and also had seven digs. Adia Messenger had 12 digs, followed by Sophia Spoja with nine.
 
KEY STATISTICS: Northern Arizona was efficient offensively, swinging at a .327 clip with 40 kills and only five errors. Eastern Washington was held to .181 with 31 kills, but committed 22 errors. The Lumberjacks also had nine service aces and Eastern went without one. However, the Eagles did out-dig the Lumberjacks, 55-39.
 
UP NEXT: Eastern Washington hosts Sacramento State and Portland State next week at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash., for the first home matches of conference action. The Eagles take on the Hornets on Thursday evening (Sept. 30) at 6 p.m. Pacific time, then play host to the Vikings the follow evening on Oct. 1, also at 6 p.m. PT.