EWU falls to Portland St. in Big Sky final

PORTLAND, Ore. – In big games, nerves can get a hold of anyone. In the season’s biggest game Saturday night, they got the best of Eastern Washington.

Led by the 14 kills of outside hitter Marija Vojnovic and the match-high eight blocks of middle blocker Tracy Vargas, Portland State’s women’s volleyball team knocked off the Eagles 25-22, 25-16, 21-25, 25-21 to win the Big Sky Conference tournament.

The Eagles (19-11) won the conference’s regular-season title and were the tournament’s No. 1 seed. But the host Vikings (20-8) used two blockers to shadow Eastern outside hitter Hayley Hills and held the Big Sky’s Most Valuable Player to a minus-.033 hitting percentage.

But Hills, who did finish with a match-high 16 kills, didn’t sneak up on anyone and the strategy was nothing the Eagles hadn’t seen all season. In fact, Eastern beat the Vikings 3-1 in Cheney and swept them in Portland during the regular season. The only difference was the magnitude of the game.

“The only thing that changed was what was on the line,” first-year head coach Miles Kydd said. “Sometimes you worry about what you may be losing instead of just playing volleyball. All you can control is the next point.”

“It was in the back of my mind as the match went on,” said Hills, who hit .247 going into the conference tournament. “As much as you can say it’s not (in your thoughts), it’s hard for it not to be there. … They didn’t do anything differently (than when we played them before). We knew they would have two blockers. … Me personally, I was nervous.”

But it wasn’t just Hills feeling the pressure. Eastern, which had won 12 of 13 matches heading into the championship match, had trouble with its serve receive all night, which limited what setters Ashley Hamilton and Amanda Yausie could do and prevented the Eagles from maintaining any momentum.

“I don’t think we passed well enough,” Kydd said. “They served us tough and had two blockers waiting for (Hills) the entire time. That’s the kind of team they are. They play good defense, they blocked well tonight, and they just try to let you beat yourself. We accommodated them.”

The numbers back up Kydd’s assessment. The Vikings finished the match with 17 total team blocks and got their hands on seemingly every Eagle attack. That led to 24 Eastern hitting errors in the first two games alone. The Vikings had 18 in the entire match.

“That’s what happens when you pass average,” Kydd said. “They get a head start on where the ball is going and I don’t think our set location was great. When you have bad passing and your setters are struggling to locate the ball, it’s always the same timing. We didn’t really change anything. We needed to move the ball in and out, but when the pass isn’t there, you can’t do that.”

Eastern won the third game by relying on its experience. Spearheaded by their two seniors, libero Mandy Daniels and outside hitter Chelsea Ross, the Eagles recorded three total blocks, held Portland State to a minus-.049 hitting percentage and forced 10 of the Vikings’ 18 hitting errors. Daniels had six of her match-high 29 digs in the third game, and Ross had five of her 12 kills in the set.

“Any time you take a game from a team, you take away a little of their hope,” Daniels said. “I definitely felt like we had the momentum (going into game 4).”

“It sounds weird, but most of the matches we lost, we got swept,” said Kydd, whose team was 12-3 in games that went longer than three games. “…Every volleyball person in this room has a story of when they came back from two games down to win the match. So we started thinking, ‘Why not us?’ ”

Daniels and Hills made the all-tournament team.

•Jackie Albright had 18 kills and 12 digs and Brittany Johnson added 17 kills and nine digs to help the Washington State Cougars earn a 25-17, 25-21, 23-25, 21-25, 15-10 victory over the Arizona Wildcats in a Pac-10 regular-season finale in Pullman.

Meahan Ganzer (14), Brittany Tillman (13) and Emily Rooney (12) also finished with double-figure kills for the Cougars, who improved to 10-19 overall and 3-15 in conference play. Renee Bordelon tallied 64 assists.

Tiffany Owens finished with a match-high 26 kills for Arizona (16-14, 6-12).

•Jessica Swarbrick and Kindra Carlson each had nine kills and the fifth-ranked Washington Huskies (24-4, 15-3) rolled to a 25-12, 25-21, 25-18 victory over the Arizona State Sun Devils (13-18, 4-14) in Pac-10 play in Seattle.

The Huskies find out today who they will play in the NCAA tournament.