Eastern Washington volleyball's short turnaround proved to be no issue, as they would sweep Idaho State on Saturday at Reese Court. The Eagles' offense overpowered the Bengals and helped the team improve to 2-3 in the Big Sky and 7-10 overall. Idaho St. fell to 2-3 in conference and 10-8 overall.

"I feel great now. That was a tough match and we had to execute well against them. They did a good job of keeping it close, but we found a way in the end," head coach Jon Haruguchi said. "I think we're going to see a lot of [close games] in our league. There is a lot of parity. We expect to be in those situations a lot and we train that way. We structure our practices to be competitive and that was the message from our coaching staff, to go out and compete today."
 
"It was a really fun game and I want to shout out to my teammates and my setter, Lindsey [Russell]. She was phenomenal," junior Sage Brustad said. "I appreciate her feeding me the ball. We had such great energy as a team today. We all brought it and I think it takes everyone and I'm really happy how my teammates and I played. I have been working a lot on blocking in practice and getting in front of hitters. Our middles did great closing today and it was fun to work with them. As a team, we brought in every singles aspect, offense, and defense. I think we all showed up."

Starting out the game, the Eagles and Bengals went back-and-forth trying to establish their attack. ISU was out in front 7-5 early and built its advantage to 15-11. Down four, Eastern surged with an 8-0 burst to take the lead. Katie Fleck led the run with three kills a block assists. The Bengals refocused and began to get their shots to fall. ISU tied the game up at 20, but they would give it right back with a service error. Sage Brustad extend the lead with a kill and Eastern had the set win in sight. The Eagles won set one, 25-23, and were now up 1-0 in the game.

Eastern hit .257 in the opening set and the Bengals hit .200.

In the second set, the Eagles carried the momentum over from the first, getting a 7-4 lead behind four kills from Brustad. Eastern would get a nice rally with Renata Lopez Morales serving and extend the lead to 12-5. Lopez Morales would account for an ace during the run. The lead would continue to grow for the Eagles, as they went up 19-8 behind kills from Brustad and Sadie Bacon, along with a block from the pair. With Eastern up 20-10, ISU found its offense and put together an 8-3 run to apply pressure to the Eagles. Bacon and Brustad brought Eastern home with two kills for the 25-19 set win.

The Eagles stepped up their attack in the second, hitting .345. ISU did improve its hitting with a .261 mark.

The third set was highly contested between the two teams, with neither establishing more than a one-point lead. Eastern had a 15-14 lead midway through the set, and the teams had already tied 13 times by that point. With the score tied at 18, Lopez Morales and Alyssa Radke teamed up for a block assist to give the Eagles the lead. An error by the Bengals and another kill from Radke would give Eastern a three-point lead and some breathing room. The Eagles kept ISU at a distance and won the third set, 25-20, completing the sweep. Eastern hit .257 in the final set, while the Bengals were at a .233 percentage.

In the game, Eastern hit .257 on 99 swings and Idaho St. hit .233 with 83 attacks.

Key Statistics
The win marked Eastern Washington's first home win of the season. It is also head coach Jon Haruguchi's first home win of his career.

Sage Brustad posted 19 kills and a .429 hitting percentage Saturday afternoon. The junior set a new career high for attack percentage in a game with at least five kills. She added four block assists and four digs as well. It is Brustad's third game this season with at least 10 kills and an attack percentage over .400.

Eastern out-blocked the Bengals, 9.0 to 4.0. Sadie Bacon led the team with five block assists and added six kills.

Alyssa Radke recorded 10 kills and three block assists in the game. It was Radke's 10^th game with double digit kills.

The game included 23 ties and eight lead changes. The third set had 16 ties and six lead changes.

Lindsey Russell tallied 38 assists and had on kill against ISU. Russell has 30-plus assists in 12 of the team's 17 games this season.

The Eagles finished with three service aces and six errors. The Bengals had four aces and six errors.

Up Next
Eastern Washington will be at home next weekend for one game, hosting Idaho on Friday, Oct. 14 at 6 p.m. Pacific Time.