Eagles Get Back On Track
This is what the Eastern Washington University volleyball team envisioned when it saw the Big Sky Conference co-champions on the schedule at Reese Court in late September:
Kim Exner 24 kills and Jennifer Gabel 14. Whitney Lewis 13 kills and 10 blocks. A total of 83 kills to the opponent’s 69.
And best yet for veteran coach Pamela Parks: The Eagles over Sacramento State 15-11, 15-10, 11-15, 15-6 in a Saturday night match that could amount to a lot when the conference tournament seedings shake down two months from now.
“After Thursday’s loss (to Northern Arizona) we sat down with the team to reevaluate the goals,” Parks said.
“The unsaid goal is to win the conference and go to the NCAA Tournament. But the goal that we discussed is that the program is to never let our level of play drop below a certain point.”
Saturday, the 964 spectators watched an inspired team that came from behind in the first two games, shook off a sluggish third game, and made quick work in the fourth game. The win improved the Eagles to 9-2 overall and 2-1 in the conference.
Sacramento State, a team that shared the conference title with the Eagles last season, slipped to 8-6 and 3-1 as it suffered its first conference loss of the year.
The Hornets beat the Eagles in Cheney last year 3-1, but the match was played the day after Eagles setter Kim Maxwell suffered a knee injury that sidelined her for 13 matches.
Maxwell has been healthy all season, and this time the Eagles setter-of-choice mixed up her selections, allowing four hitters to finish with more than 10 kills.
In the first game, left-side hitter Lacey Coover was her target. The junior from Kalama, Wash., had seven of her 12 kills in the opener. She also accounted for seven digs and finished with a match-high 30.
Coover got hot after the Eagles fell behind 6-3. She scored on back-to-back crosscourt kills to tie the game at 6-6, the first of three ties in the opener. Another Coover kill tied the game at 11-11 and the Hornets never scored after that.
But Sacramento State made adjustments and shut Coover down after that. That’s when middle blockers Exner and Whitney Lewis, and right-side hitter Jennifer Gabel picked it up.
“Whitney Lewis was excellent tonight, both front and back row,” Parks said. “She has played solidly all season. I’m thrilled.”
In the second game, Eastern fell behind 8-2. Lewis tied the game at 10-10 when she stuffed Sacramento State setter Maureen Rafferty. On the next point, she teamed with Exner to block the Hornets most threatening hitter, Carissa Buie. A Hornet error followed by a Maxwell surprise kill gave the Eagles a 13-10 lead.
After two Hornet sideouts, Eastern took a 2-0 lead in games when Coover served an ace.
Eastern nearly came back in the third game, after trailing as late as 13-10. Exner, playing in a weakened state due to a flu, had eight of her 24 kills the third game.
“Kim played her hardest,” Parks explained. “She’s dead-tired. She still had a ton of kills, but she didn’t have the jump.”
Exner, the Big Sky all-time kill leader, hit a team-high .346. The Eagles finished at a sub-par .188 hitting. The Hornets, led by Buie’s 19 kills and 21 digs, hit .131.