Eastern Eagles looking to solidify spot in Big Sky tournament

Eastern Washington University gets a chance to, perhaps, make a huge statement and further solidify its chances of making the Big Sky Conference volleyball playoffs this week when it entertains Idaho State and league-leading Sacramento State at Reese Court.

The Eagles (13-7 overall, 5-5 in the Big Sky) have won a season-high six consecutive matches, but will also be dealing with the effects of a 12-day layoff when they take on Idaho State (9-16, 5-7) on Thursday.

“It’s a little bit of concern,” coach Wade Benson said of the extended layoff, “but we needed the rest. I think if we can keep the team focused on our task ahead of us it can be an exciting and useful time off.”

Eastern has used its recent run of victories to move into fifth place in the league standings, just one match behind Northern Colorado (10-10, 6-4). And a win over ISU on Thursday – coupled with an upset of Sac State (23-4, 10-0) on Saturday – would put the Eagles in great position to secure one of the Big Sky tournament spots awarded to the top six finishers in the regular-season standings.

“We’re just working hard and trying not to worry about the outcome and worry more about the process,” Benson said of his team’s current winning streak. “We are happy we are on the upswing and, hopefully, we are enjoying the fact that we know what it’s like to win.”

Eastern, which started league play 0-5, has won 18 of 22 games during its recent surge and knocked off Portland State 3-1 in its last outing back on Oct. 14. The week’s matches will bring an end to a much-needed five-match home stand for the Eagles, who played their first 11 matches of the season on the road.

Cougs host ranked foes

After splitting a pair of road matches with the Arizona schools last week, Washington State (14-9 overall, 2-7 Pacific-10 Conference) returns home to entertain two of the nation’s top five teams this week.

The Cougars, who beat Arizona for the first time in 10 years last Thursday before losing to Arizona State the following evening, host No. 4-ranked UCLA (22-1, 8-1) on Thursday and No. 5-ranked Southern California on Friday.

Despite splitting on their Arizona road trip, WSU coach Brian Heffernan was not elated with his team’s performance.

“We played well enough to win tonight,” he said following the Arizona match. “We had too high of errors on our side.”

And following the loss to ASU, he added, “We really hurt ourselves tonight by not being able to pass the ball. I think that is one of our strengths, and tonight it was one of our weaknesses.

“Our setter was running all over the place and we were out of our system most of the night, and ASU was able to capitalize on that.”

NIC stumbles

North Idaho College, which was ranked No. 2 in last week’s NJCAA Top-25 poll, stands to slip a few spots in this week’s ratings after dropping a pair of road matches to Salt Lake Community College.

The Cardinals (28-6 overall) lost to then 12th-ranked SLCC 3-1 on Friday and 3-0 on Saturday, suffering their first two Scenic West Athletic Conference defeats of the season.

But they remain atop the SWAC standing with a 6-2 record, a half-match ahead of SLCC (24-13, 6-3).

NIC returns home this week to take on Snow College on Thursday and Friday and Eastern Utah on Saturday.

Quick sets

UCLA, Washington State’s foe on Thursday, has beaten five teams – No. 5 Florida, No. 7 Hawaii, No. 4 Washington, No. 7 California and No. 5 USC – that were ranked in the top 10 when they faced them… . The seven solo blocks registered by Gonzaga’s Elaina Renius in last weekend’s West Coast Conference win over Saint Mary’s, were the second-most in school history and just two off the single-match record of nine that Kelley Cunningham had in a 1989 match against Eastern Washington.