CHENEY, Wash. — Eastern Washington teams will all be hitting the road this week as their non-conference schedules continue. Both football and soccer have matchups against Mountain West opponents, while Volleyball travels west for a two-day tournament. Fans will have a chance to see EWU soccer as the team returns home for a game on Sunday. The Eagle golf team will begin its season Sunday as well.
Football
Saturday, Sept. 9 at Fresno State
TV: Mountain West Network (online) / UniMás (Spanish broadcast) — Radio:
700 ESPN / Varsity App
The Eagles are looking for their first win of the season after a 35-10 defeat in Minneapolis to #2-ranked North Dakota State on Saturday. Eastern played better than the score indicated but allowed three big scoring plays and had difficulty solving the stout Bison defense.
Efton Chism III led the offense with 8 catches for 79 yards while
Nolan Ulm scored EWU's TD on a 34-yard reception in the first quarter.
The team's gauntlet of a first half schedule continues with a matchup at Mountain West opponent Fresno State, who beat Purdue on the road last week, 39-35. Bulldog quarterback Mikey Keene went 31-of-44 for 366 yards and 4 TDs to just 1 INT, including 170 yards and 2 TDs on 9 tosses to wideout Erik Brooks, who will surely be a focus of the Eagle secondary.
Eastern looks to earn the program's 12th win over an FBS team, most recently defeating fellow Mountain West opponent UNLV, 35-33 in double overtime to open the 2021 campaign. Eastern is 9-24 all-time vs. current Mountain West teams, including a 3-6 record against those teams at the FBS level (Boise State and Nevada were both at the FCS/I-AA level for some of their games vs. EWU).
The television broadcast on UniMás will be historic as he first exclusively Spanish-language television broadcast in FBS college football history.
It is part of a new partnership Univision Fresno and Bakersfield; Fresno is the ninth most diverse city in the nation, with a Hispanic population of nearly 60%. Viewers can watch an English broadcast on the Mountain West Network or even sync up the EWU radio broadcast from Larry Weir and Paul Sorensen — learn how at
https://www.learfield.com/sync-my-game/.
Soccer
Eastern Washington has two games on the schedule this week with both a road and home matchup. The Eagles travel to play Boise State on Thursday (Sept. 7) at 6 p.m. Pacific Time. It will be the second-straight season the two teams will play in Boise after the Broncos defeated Eastern last season, 4-0. On Sunday (Sept. 10), the Eagles are back at EWU Soccer Field to play Saint Mary's College at 1 p.m.
After two home games last week, Eastern is 1-4 on the season. The Eagles broke program records in a 16-1 wipe-out of the University of Providence-Great Falls. The team's 16 goals set the program record, doubling the previous mark of eight goals. Senior
Maddie Morgan set a program record with five goals, scoring four in a seven-minute span to open the second half.
Eastern battled tough against Mountain West opponent San Diego State on Sunday, falling 2-0 to the Aztecs. The team outshot SDSU, 11-9.
Morgan was named
Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week after her five-goal performance.
Cross-Country
Eastern is off this week after hosting the Clash of the Inland Northwest meet in Cheney last Friday. The Eagles finished 2nd in the women's race and 3rd in the men's. They are next in action next week — on Sept. 15 — for the Montana Invitational in Missoula, offering a preview of the course the team will run at the Big Sky Championships later this year.
Volleyball
EWU prepares for its third tournament of the season, traveling to Portland to play Cal State Northridge at 11 a.m. on Friday (Sept. 8), followed by an afternoon matchup against Wyoming at 3:30 p.m. The tournament concludes for Eastern on Saturday (Sept. 9) against the hosting Portland Pilots at 1:30 p.m.
The Eagles hosted its home tournament this past weekend (Sept. 1-2), going 1-2 overall. In the first game of the tournament, Eastern defeated Seattle, 3-1, on Friday, getting double-doubles from
Sage Brustad (21 kills, 15 digs),
Kalista Lukovich (15 kills, 13 digs) and
Kate Hatch (44 assists, 16 digs).
Bri Gunderson was named to the all-tournament team, recording 1.20 blocks per set.
Golf
Eastern's 2023 Fall Schedule begins this coming Sunday (Sept. 10) at the Golfweek Fall Challenge at Pawleys Island, S.C. During the fall slate, EWU will play four total events, highlighted by the Eagle Invitational and Indian Canyon Golf Course (Oct. 9-10). The team will also compete in the inaugural 54 for IX Tournament hosted by the Big Sky Conference (Sept. 25-26).
At the 2023 Big Sky Conference Championships, Eastern placed sixth after being picked to finish eight in the preseason poll.
Jaelin Ishikawa was the championship runner-up after shooting a 73 in the final round.
Tickets for the 2023 EWU Football season are now available! Visit goeags.com/tickets or call the EWU Athletics Ticket Office at 509-359-6059 to secure yours today.
New for the 2023-24 season, the EWU Women's Sports Pass gives fans access to over 30 Eagle Athletics events, including volleyball, soccer and women's basketball for only $5 per game! Learn more and get yours today at goeags.com/tickets or call 509-359-6056.
ABOUT EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS
Eastern Washington University Athletics sponsors 14 intercollegiate sports, six for men and eight for women, both as learning opportunities for its most athletically talented students and as an enhancement to student and community life. Eastern is affiliated with Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and is a member of the Big Sky Conference, an association of 10 regional schools with comparable enrollments and academic goals.
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