Lumberjacks Shoot Down The Eagles
College volleyball
Ouch! Just when the Eastern Washington University volleyball team was in the midst of its best season in school history, Northern Arizona University decided to apply the big hurt Saturday night.
Win the next two matches and the Eagles were guaranteed to host the Big Sky Conference tournament. Their 15-12, 15-11, 6-15, 8-15, 15-12 loss to the Lumberjacks at Reese Court changed all that.
Now, the Eagles (21-5, 12-3) need help from Sacramento State’s opponents. If the Hornets (19-7, 11-3) beat lower-division Weber State and Idaho State this week, they’ll host the conference tournament. The outcome of second-place Eastern’s final regular-season game against Portland State won’t matter.
“It’s really a shame. If we go to Sac, they’ll be 200 people there, where as here…” said Eastern coach Pamela Parks, referring to her team’s flourishing fan support.
Saturday night, 1,013 spectators showed up to cheer on the Eagles, and that doesn’t count the 25 pep band members who were reprimanded by the up referee late in the rally-scoring fifth game.
With the Eagles trailing 11-9, Eddie Frierson decided it was due time to tell the musicians to “shut up.” One of the drummers was playing when an NAU player was about to serve. According to the Big Sky Conference rules, bands are not allowed to play during serving or throughout points.
Eagles fans responded by pounding their feet in unison as rhythmically as a percussionist, but the noise wasn’t enough to distract the Jacks (17-9, 11-5). Eastern scored one more point - a Lacey Coover kill - and NAU closed out the 2-hour, 36-minute high drama on its first match point. The fifth game featured five ties, the last being 9-9.
The clincher came when NAU’s Michell Axlund landed a serve down the left sideline. From certain angles, it appeared to hit the line. Nonetheless, the Jacks began their delayed-reaction celebration and all Eastern could do is watch.
It was the Eagles’ first five-game loss of the season, after winning four. NAU, the conference’s third-place team which was swept by fifth-place Portland State on Thursday, had struggled in five-gamers and carried a 2-4 record into Saturday night.
“We got the biggest win of our season. We hadn’t been able to beat a top-ranked team and we did it tonight,” NAU coach Kelley Sliva said.
Eastern beat NAU in hitting (.264-.201) and team blocks (17-4). They were close in digs, with NAU’s defense totaling 101 behind Tiwi Bond of Sandpoint’s 24 digs to Eastern’s 96. Both Coover and Lynn Robison had 24 digs for the Eagles.
But in the deciding game, it was the Jacks’ blockers who managed to get some timely touches to slow down the pace.
“On a few balls in the fifth game, we weren’t swinging quite as hard,” Parks said.
After falling behind 2-0, Parks’ team responded when she went to a different matchup. In the early games NAU’s 6-foot-4 middle blocker Susan Burchard was lined up against EWU 5-9 setter Toni Schwinn. When 6-2 Jennifer Gabel went opposite Bruchard, the Eagles started winning. Bruchard had 10 kills in the first two games.
, DataTimes