Eastern May Meet Its Match

Now we’ll really find out how good Eastern Washington University is this season.

As the Eagles’ Kim Exner closes in on the Big Sky Conference all-time kills record of 1,482 (she’s seven short), Eastern focuses on what it expects to be its toughest Big Sky Conference home series.

Northern Arizona, which beat the Eagles at home last year and knocked them out of the conference tournament for two straight years, visits Cheney tonight at 7.

Sacramento State, the defending Big Sky co-champ along with Eastern, meets the Eagles on Saturday at 7 p.m. The Hornets, the Sky’s 1997 NCAA Tournament representative, are off to a 2-0 conference start. They’re 7-5 overall after Tuesday night’s 3-1 win over Santa Clara (6-5).

NAU’s Lumberjacks (5-4, 1-1) have four returners but play two freshmen in the middle. Xylena Sanders, a freshman middle blocker, earned co-Big Sky Conference player of the week honors with Exner earlier this season. This week, senior outside hitter Darcy Frandsen earned the award with 42 kills against Montana State.

The Eagles still are recuperating from last weekend’s road trip to Indiana. They came away 2-1 to improve to 8-1 (1-0 Big Sky), but some players are suffering from the flu.

Cougars travel to Seattle

Neither is off to a rip-roaring start - Washington State is 4-4, 1-1 and Washington is 1-5, 0-2 - but that won’t take away from the intensity when the Cougars travel to Seattle for the first of two annual meetings.

Round One will be Friday night at 7. The Huskies lead the series 37-14 with the Pac-10 series at 18-6.

Last year, UW won both matches. This year, the Huskies are young and graduated eight seniors (including All-American Makare Desilets).

The makeover has given redshirt sophomore 5-foot-11 Tamara VanEngelen a chance to play. The former North Central standout - who helped the Indians win the State AAA volleyball title in 1995 - has played in 11 of 22 games and has played every position aside from setter. She has 21 kills (.140 hitting) and is averaging .6 blocks per game.

Barratt steps up

Junior middle blocker Brandy Barratt, formerly of Gonzaga Prep, is a big reason why No. 2-ranked Long Beach State University is off to a 10-0 start.

In four wins last week, Barratt hit .444 and had 18 blocks. Earlier this season, Barratt had a career-high 15 kills against none other than Washington State.

Barratt is averaging 1.42 blocks per game, second best in the Big West Conference. She’s hitting .418 and averaging 2.46 kills per game.

Barratt’s teammate, Benishe Dillard, was named AVCA Division II national player of the week.

Gonzaga outlasts Montana

Diana Pascua had 19 kills and Heather Osberg added 15 to give Gonzaga a 17-15, 15-13, 2-15, 11-15, 15-12 win over Montana Tuesday night in Missoula.

The Bulldogs improved to 3-9.