Eastern Washington volleyball faced off against its crosstown rival Gonzaga, Tuesday night. The Zags won the game, 3-1, over the Eagles in Spokane.
 
"I thought we did a few things really well, but we have a lot of things to work on still," head coach Jon Haruguchi said. "This process that we are going through will not be solved in one evening. We had a game plan coming in. We executed part of that game plan extraordinarily well. I very happy about that and we told them that when we were talking at the end. There were a couple of things that we've been working on that didn't go our way. We have to be better from the service line and our team knows that. In the end, you can see that we can hang. We are right there, but there are just a few things we need to take a little bit better care of. When you can win the serve and pass game, everything opens up from there. Hats off to Gonzaga as they did a great job from their service line. When it comes down to it, we just have to keep focusing on that part of the game."

Starting off the game, Gonzaga was aggressive to establish its home court advantage and opening up an 8-5 lead. The Eagles responded and tied the game up at eight on a solo block from Sadie Bacon. The sophomore accounted for six kills in the set and led the Eastern attack. The set went back-and-forth between the Eagles and the Zags to the end of the set. Bacon gave Eastern the lead at 20-19, before the Bulldogs tied the set again. The Zags managed jump ahead by two over the Eagles and held the lead until the end of the set. The Bulldogs won the first set, 25-22, and had a 1-0 lead in the game.

Eastern started the game with a quality .297 hitting percentage, but the Zags out-hit them with a .333 percentage.

Gonzaga had the advantage early in the second set, building out a lead to 9-6. Renata Lopez Morales continued to swing for the Eagles to keep the score in striking distance. Eastern would close the gap and tie the set at 10 with kills from Katie Fleck and Alyssa Radke. The two teams traded points and the set was knotted up at 15 quickly. The Eagles then made their move, ripping of a 5-0 run to take the lead. Eastern had kills from Fleck, Radke and Bacon, along with an ace from Makenna Collins. The Zags countered with a 3-0 spurt to shrink the Eagles advantage. Undeterred, Eastern continued its attack and Sage Brustad delivered two late kills to secure the win. The Eagles won the set, 25-22, and evened up the game at one.

For the set, Eastern hit .275 and held the Bulldogs to a .188 attack percentage.

Now in the third set, the competitiveness between the teams turned up, as neither was able to put any space between the other. The set was tied 11 times, with five lead changes. Brustad brought the attack for the Eagles, recording five kills. Ellie Garrett recorded back-to-back aces to give Eastern a 20-18 lead. The Zags responded and tied the set at 20, before taking a 22-20 lead moments later. Brustad managed to keep scoring, but the Bulldogs were in control at end. They went on to win the set 25-22 and had a 2-1 lead in the game.

The Eagles hit just .044 in the third set, while Gonzaga was at a .158 percentage.

The fourth set followed the theme of the game, as both teams battled early with little separation. The teams were tied at 10, but a block from Radke and Tanai Jenkins put Eastern in front. After the Zags tied the set again, they rattled off the next four points for a 15-11 lead. The Eagles quickly cut the lead back down to 15-14, with Radke providing the kills. Down the stretch of the set, the teams exchanged points, but the Bulldogs denied Eastern from reclaiming the lead. Gonzaga closed out the game with a 25-22 win in the fourth set for a 3-1 game win. Eastern hit .395 in the final set, but the Zags had a .405 percentage.

In the game, the Eagles held a .244 attack percentage. The Bulldogs hit .274 for the game. Eastern Washington falls to 3-6 on the season, while Gonzaga improved to 3-7.

Key Statistics
Eastern recorded 57 kills to Gonzaga's 55 in the game Tuesday.

Sage Brustad finished with 16 kills while hitting .133. The junior added 13 digs for her third double-double of the season.

Katie Fleck earned her first career double-double with 12 kills and 10 digs. Fleck hit .303 in the game.

Lindsey Russell tallied 43 assists and nearly had a double-double with nine digs.

The Eagles had eight service aces and 13 service errors. Ellie Garrett and Makenna Collins each recorded three aces.

Collins had another good game in reception, recording 18 digs with only one error.

Sadie Bacon had nine kills and two solo blocks against the Zags.

Up Next
Eastern Washington will travel to Nacogdoches, Texas for a three-game tournament hosted by Stephen F. Austin. The Eagles will play Arkansas State and Stephen F. Austin on Friday, Sep. 16, at 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. Pacific Time respectively. The tournament concludes on Saturday, Sep. 17 against Texas A&M University-Commerce at 10 a.m.