Eagles Make Quick Work Of Um Eastern Women Put Away Grizzlies In Just Over An Hour In League Match
An Eastern Washington University team hadn’t pummeled an opponent this badly since… . well, since the football Eagles beat up on two NAIA teams earlier this month.
But this was volleyball, Big Sky Conference volleyball that featured the Eagles in their first home match of the season against Montana.
Just 78 minutes after the introductions Thursday night, Eastern closed out Montana 15-1, 15-6, 15-5. A total of 1,044 spectators witnessed the rout, the Eagles’ second-largest crowd since they were hosts to Washington State in 1993.
“I know that they’ve been struggling with their offense all year. They don’t get a high percentage even in their wins,” Eastern coach Pamela Parks said of the Grizzlies.
Montana finished with a negative hitting percentage (-.010) to Eastern’s .297. But take nothing away from the Eagles, who improved to 9-2 overall, 3-0 in conference, and have a much-tougher Montana State next up, Saturday afternoon in Cheney. The 9-2 mark is their best start ever. The Grizzlies dropped to 2-11, 1-1.
“We’re in a cycle,” said Parks. “We’re up and they’re a little bit down this year.”
Eastern, picked in the coaches poll to win the Big Sky, was never challenged. In the first game, a 15-minute workout, the Eagles quickly mounted a 7-1 advantage. After a sideout, they scored four straight points on Toni Schwinn’s serve.
Junior middle blocker Kim Exner landed her second kill of the game in that series, giving her 1,000 in her college career. Lynn Robison closed the game with a kill.
“This was the best we’ve played all year,” said Robison, who hit an impressive .429 and tied Exner with 11 kills. “It’s not that they weren’t good, but we came out and played together.”
Added Parks: “We figured if we could keep applying pressure that they would have a hard time time responding.”
And the plan worked. The Grizz lies were unable to handle Eastern’s kills or off-speed hits. Eastern’s blocking game, particularly Exner and Laura Botha, also proved to be a major problem. Eastern, the 20th-ranked blocking team in the nation (2.98 per game), finished with seven blocks to Montana’s four.
The closest Montana came to making it a contest was in the second game when the Grizzlies pulled to within 7-5 on an Exner error. But the Eastern star came back with a block on a Sarah Parsons hit for a sideout, and Kim Maxwell followed with an ace. From there, the Eagles rolled.
“We need to get our offense clicking a little more smoothly,” Parks said. “Our setter (Maxwell) is only a sophomore and she didn’t play that much as a freshman, so she’s growing into the game Maxwell finished with 21 assists.
Freshman Montana setter Tara Conner had 20 assists. Parsons led her team with eight kills while teammate Holly Horn, a senior middle hitter from Spokane, had five digs and no kills. Sophomore reserve Shannon Blott, also a Spokane product, had two digs and no kills.
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