Eagles Take Big Sky Loss; Maxwell Sidelined

College volleyball

Eastern Washington University suffered its first Big Sky Conference loss of the season Thursday night, falling to Sacramento State 12-15, 15-9, 15-13, 15-13.

The loss snapped an eight-match winning streak as the Eagles fell to 13-3, 6-1. The Hornets improved to 10-5, 4-2. Eastern played without veteran setter Kim Maxwell, who sprained her ankle in Wednesday’s practice. She’s scheduled for an MRI today.

The Eagles led 13-8 in the fourth game before letting it slip away.

Eastern’s Lora Botha had a career-high 19 kills on a .350 attack percentage. EWU’s Kim Exner also had 19 kills on .265 hitting, but the Eagles only hit .193 to Sacramento’s .214.

Lacey Coover accounted for 19 of the Eagles’ 87 digs.

Anika Donaldson led the Hornets with 10 kills. Darice Smith had eight kills and a .353 attack percentage for the Hornets.

Freshmen Regan Butler and Alli Nieman were put into the University of Idaho’s starting line and the Vandals responded with a 15-11, 15-10, 15-4 win over New Mexico State at Memorial Gym.

The win snapped Idaho’s three-match losing streak as it improved to 9-9, 3-2 in the Big West Conference. The Aggies slipped to 8-10, 3-2.

Nieman, a two-sport athlete from Sandpoint, finished with nine kills and a match-high .375 attack percentage. Butler had six digs and a match-high four service aces.

“(Nieman’s) offense is way ahead of the other parts of her game,” Idaho coach Carl Ferreira said. “Regan has proven, as a freshman, she’s one of our best competitors.”

Idaho’s Jessica Moore, playing on a sore ankle she sprained on Monday, slammed a match-high 15 kills. Jeri Hymas had 11 kills and a .368 attack percentage. Anna Reznicek recorded a match-high 41 assists, while getting four digs and four kills.

, DataTimes