Ewu Has Short Stay In Missoula
The Eastern Washington E gles traveled to Missoula and made short work of the Montana Grizzlies 15-10, 15-10, 15-11, in a Big Sky volleyball match Thursday.
Eastern ran its record to 9-1 in conference and 18-3 overall. Montana fell to 4-19 overall and 2-8 in conference play.
Kim Exner and Lacey Coover combined for 24 kills and Toni Schwinn piled up 38 assists to pace the Eagles. Lynn Robison had a team-high 16 digs.
Montana was led by the 10 kills of Paige Merritt. Holly Horn had a game-high 17 digs.
Eastern, which has won five matches in a row and 13 of its last 14, will travel to Bozeman, Mont., on Saturday to take on the third-place Montana State Bobcats.
The Eagles have a 1-1/2-game lead over second-place Cal State Northridge.
Idaho rallied from an early deficit to post its seventh Big West volleyball win, 6-15, 15-9, 15-1, 15-11 over North Texas in Denton, Texas.
The Vandals (13-11, 7-4) swept the season series from the last-place Eagles (6-20, 1-10).
Jessica Moore recorded her fifth straight double-double for the Vandals, slamming a team-high 12 kills along with 10 digs. She also led the team with five blocks and a .421 attack percentage.
“If you win easily the first time around, you always have to guard against letting down,” Idaho coach Carl Ferreira said. “I intentionally try to prepare my players better for an opponent we’ve already beaten. But we didn’t respect North Texas well enough and that’s a direct reflection of the first game.”
The Vandals, who are tied for first place in the Eastern Division with Boise State, hit .305 for the match, compared to the Eagles’ .173.
Shalyne Lynch, a sophomore who was originally gone for the season after experiencing headaches, dizziness and double-vision in mid-September, returned to play for Idaho and made her presence felt.
“She was very, very rusty,” Ferreira said of Lynch. “She’s missed a tremendous amount of time and development with our team, but she definitely helped tonight.”
The Vandals had to overcome a 7-2 deficit in Game 4 as well. Down 11-10, Idaho reeled off five unanswered points to claim the victory.
, DataTimes MEMO: Changed from the Idaho edition