NIC awaits CSI episode
Win or lose against College of Southern Idaho, North Idaho College knows the Region 18A tournament will take place in Twin Falls the following weekend.
But that doesn’t diminish the importance of Saturday’s 3 p.m. match between Scenic West Athletic Conference rivals at Christianson Gym. NIC (18-8, 5-3 SWAC), which is receiving votes in the NJCAA poll, wants to show it can beat the Golden Eagles (32-9, 6-2). CSI, ranked No. 8, won the first two meetings – one was a non-conference match – and wants to send another message before a probable meeting in the Region 18A tournament with a berth to nationals on the line.
“The last match went four at their place and it was a pretty good match,” Cardinals coach Bret Taylor said.
Taylor said his young team has progressed on schedule.
“It’s like I told them (Monday) at practice, this is why we play,” said Taylor, who guided NIC to nationals in 2004 and 2006. “When we have the tough times, they can either make you stronger or weaker and I really feel like these kids have responded pretty well. We lost to No. 1 Salt Lake last weekend and they came back at practice and they were working to get better.”
If NIC and CSI finish with identical SWAC records, Taylor said CSI owns the tiebreaker because the Cardinals hosted last year’s event.
GU faces big week
The first half of the West Coast Conference season didn’t resolve much. Santa Clara and 12th-ranked San Diego are tied for first at 6-1. Pepperdine is next at 4-3 and Gonzaga, at 3-4, is tied with Loyola Marymount, Saint Mary’s and San Francisco.
Gonzaga lost a five-game match at San Diego on Saturday.
“We played great,” GU coach Kip Yoshimura said. “We didn’t get a couple of key points in the fifth game, but that match could have gone either way.”
Gonzaga can enhance its position in the standings with a 2-0 week. The Bulldogs entertain Santa Clara on Thursday and Saint Mary’s on Saturday. Gonzaga is still in contention for an NCAA tournament bid, but probably needs to finish in the top three.
“We haven’t even talked about that,” Yoshimura said. “We’re just looking at getting better every week.”
Eagles soar to third
Eastern Washington used a road sweep last week to move into third place in the Big Sky standings. EWU (8-13, 7-3 Big Sky) lost the first game to Idaho State and Weber State before rallying to four-game wins. Six of EWU’s seven conference wins have been fueled by comebacks.
The victory over Weber State was particularly impressive. The Wildcats had just swept second-place Portland State and were tied with the Eagles in the standings.
“We talked about narrowing our focus, (assistant coach) Miles (Kydd) brought that up, and focus on what we’re doing without being distracted,” Eagles interim coach Irene Matlock said. “We played so well against Weber – very exciting.”
EWU is home for five of its last seven regular-season matches. Four of those are conference contests, beginning with visits from Montana on Thursday and Montana State on Saturday.
Quick sets
Community Colleges of Spokane has a busy stretch over the next 11 days. CCS plays four matches, including home matches with NWAACC rival Columbia Basin on Thursday and NJCAA powers CSI on Friday and NIC on Tuesday before hosting the two-day Crossover Tournament on Nov. 2-3. Columbia Basin handed CCS (26-10, 9-2) one of its two conference losses last month. … Washington State sophomore Kelly Hyder is 10th on the school’s career digs list with 937 and she’s on the verge of catching No. 9 Sarah Silvernail (938) and Keri Killebrew (942). Hyder set a single-season digs record with 565 last season. … WAC-leading Hawaii ventured to No. 1 Nebraska for a non-conference match Sunday that drew an NCAA regular-season record crowd of 13,396. The Cornhuskers, who have lost just one game this season, swept No. 11 Hawaii.