No. 3 Eagles Face Montana

The Eastern Washington volleyball team enters the Big Sky Conference Tournament the No. 3 seed and will face No. 6 Montana in the first round Thursday at Cal State Sacramento.

The Hornets (19-4) won the No. 1 seed and homecourt advantage with a 12-4 conference record. Northern Arizona (17-5) also was 12-4, but finished second by virtue of a tiebreaker. Both teams earned first-round byes in the six-team tournament.

If the Eagles (16-9) beat Montana (16-13), they will face NAU in Friday’s semifinals.

The Eagles swept Montana twice during the regular season and split with NAU, each winning at home.

Other teams in the BSC tourney are No. 4 Montana State (20-7) and No. 5 Cal State Northridge (16-9), who meet Thursday.

The tournament winner earns the conference’s automatic NCAA bid.

Barcus signs with WSU

Jen Barcus, a junior at Lakeside High School, announced she made an early oral commitment to play volleyball at Washington State in 2002.

“I liked it because it was close to home,” said Barcus, a 6-foot-1 middle blocker. “I really wanted to play in the Pac-10.”

The Lakeside Eagles won their second State 2A volleyball championship Saturday in Yakima. Barcus was named to the All-Great Northern League team three years in volleyball and two years in basketball entering her junior season. She said she also was recruited by Oregon in volleyball, while basketball coaches from Gonzaga, Washington, Oregon and Cal showed interest.