GU no match for Eastern
Eastern Washington University’s 3-0 non-conference volleyball rout of Gonzaga on Tuesday night was tough to watch – even for winning coach Wade Benson.
Despite the fact that his heavily favored Eagles (9-7) played extremely well, Benson admitted it wasn’t easy watching Kip Yoshimura’s young, injury-decimated Bulldogs continue to struggle in the absence of senior outside hitter Christina Davis, who blew out a knee in a 3-2 loss to Santa Clara back on Oct. 1.
“I feel for Gonzaga right now,” Benson said after watching his Eagles hand the Bulldogs (4-14) a lopsided 30-20, 30-16, 30-18 loss – their eighth in a row – in front of a small Martin Centre crowd of 410. “Kip is a good friend of mine, and I’d love to see them do well. But it’s difficult when things don’t go your way injury-wise.
“I have empathy for them in the sense that I understand how injuries affect the way and the style in which you play.”
Without Davis, the Bulldogs got little going on this night. They raced to a 5-2 lead in the opening game, but then let Eastern loose on an 18-6- run that was fueled by the physical play of senior middle blocker Keva Sonderen, who recorded three of her 13 match kills.
Yoshimura called a host of timeouts in an effort to stem the roll the Eagles were on, but nothing seemed to help. Eastern hit .296 for the match, compared to GU’s minus-.045. It was the first time the Bulldogs have recorded a negative hitting percentage all year.
“You can plug some pieces in,” Benson said, getting back to the Zags’ injury problems, “but they’re still building here, and they have a lot of youth. And when you have to plug youth in all the time and expect them to come through time and time again, it usually doesn’t happen.
“Gonzaga is doing all it can do right now. It’s just a matter of them getting some experience.”
Benson’s team, which is also relatively young, played like focused veterans in a match they could have easily mailed in. Along with Sonderen’s solid play on the front line, the Eagles received 31 assists and nine digs from Christina Albers, and nine kills and five digs from her sister, Deanna.
But Benson wasn’t about to single out any one of his players for their effort.
“We don’t have any superstars,” he said. “We just have a solid attack. I was just very happy with the overall approach of everyone.”
The Eagles now step back into Big Sky Conference play, hoping to retain their share of the league lead when co-leader Idaho State invades Reese Court for a 6 p.m. showdown on Thursday. Gonzaga heads south to face West Coast Conference foe Pepperdine in a 7 p.m. match on Thursday in Malibu, Calif.