EWU defeats Hornets

Eastern Washington University got 18 kills and 13 digs from Hayley Hills on Saturday night and knocked off visiting Big Sky Conference rival Sacramento State 25-17, 16-25, 22-25, 27-25, 15-12. The victory snapped a 10-game losing streak against the Hornets.

The win moved the Eagles (9-9, 5-3 Big Sky) within a game of the Hornets (7-16, 5-3), who are tied with Northern Colorado for the conference lead.

Mandy Daniels finished with a match-high 24 digs and Alysha Cook with a personal-best nine kills for EWU.

•Idaho, after having its five-match winning streak snapped by Thursday’s three-game loss to New Mexico State, bounced back by handing Western Athletic Conference rival Louisiana Tech a 25-20, 25-16, 19-25, 25-15 setback in Ruston, La. The Vandals (13-7, 6-3 WAC) got 25 kills and 17 digs from Haley Larsen and a season-high 27 digs from Kelsey Yonker in turning back the Lady Techsters (3-14, 0-8).

•Emily Johnson’s 11-kill, 13-dig double-double wasn’t enough to save visiting Gonzaga (6-16, 0-6) from falling to West Coast Conference rival Loyola Marymount (12-7, 2-3) 25-20, 24-26, 25-15, 25-20 in Los Angeles.

•At Portland, Margaret Dowling had 12 kills to lead Lewis & Clark (13-8, 8-2) to a 25-16, 25-13, 25-19 Northwest Conference sweep of visiting Whitworth (11-11, 4-6), which got seven kills from Nikki Bardwell.

•Community Colleges of Spokane (25-18), paced by tournament MVP Lisa Steinbach, went unbeaten during the second day to win the Wenatchee Valley Crossover Tournament. CCS, which beat Linn Benton 19-25, 27-25, 21-25, 25-21, 15-13 in the title match, also placed Kasey Jurich, Meghan De La Rosa and Nicole Solum on the all-tournament team.

Cross country

Host Eastern Washington had the top finisher in Paul Limpf and placed three other runners among the top 10 individual finishers to claim the men’s team title in the four-team EWU Invitational, a dual-scoring event that also included Gonzaga, Montana and Calgary.

Limpf ran a winning 8,000-meter time of 24 minutes, 53.6 seconds, while teammates Alex Smyth (25:00.4), Kyle King (25:51.9) and Graham Vaux (25:54.7) finished second, sixth and seventh.

Gonzaga’s top finisher was Matt Bejar (26:29.5).

In the women’s 5,000 race, EWU got a sixth-place finish from Amber Nickelson (18:59.5), and GU got an 11th-place finish from Laura Volcheff. Calgary swept the women’s duals.

•Sara Trane ran a 6,000 time of 21:16, finished 47th and led Washington State’s women to a 16th-place team finish in the Brooks Pre-Nationals Meet in Terra Haute, Ind. The Cougars men, led by Drew Polley’s 8,000 time of 24:16.8 and 37th-place effort, finished 17th in the team standings.

•At the Bronco Invitational in Boise, Idaho used Jeremiah Johnston’s third-place time of 24:41 over 8,000 to place fourth in the team standings, while UI’s women finished sixth behind Allix Lee-Painter’s second-place 5,000 time of 17:27.

•Community Colleges of Spokane’s Rigoberto Jimenez finished in 25:40.80 over the 8,000 course at Spokane Falls Community College and led the Sasquatch men to the team title in the Runners Soul Bigfoot Open. Whitworth, led by Dana Misterek’s third-place finish with a 5,000 time of 18:38.70, claimed the women’s championship.

Men’s soccer

Eddy Prugh scored three goals and added an assist as Northwest Conference leader Whitworth (10-2-1, 6-2) beat visiting Willamette (16-1, 2-9-1) 6-0.

•Community Colleges of Spokane (7-6-2, 7-4-1 NWAACC) used a goal by Jordan Selland in the 58th minute to edge host Columbia Basin (7-4-1, 7-4-1) 1-0 at Pasco.

Women’s soccer

Kara Tisthammer scored in the 72nd minute to lift 16th-ranked Whitworth (9-3-1, 5-3-1) to a 3-2 victory over visiting Northwest Conference rival Willamette (7-6, 5-4) and into third place in the league standings.

•Jenn Johnston scored three goals to lead host Columbia Basin (11-1-2, 11-1-2) to a 6-0 NWAACC romp past Community Colleges of Spokane (2-9-3, 3-10-3) at Pasco.

Swimming

Washington State’s Michaela Ahlin finished second in the 500 free (5:03.38), fifth in the 200 fly (2:05.51) and seventh in the 100 fly (57:93) to earn 43 of her team’s 78 points and lead the Cougars to the team championship in the two-day Pacific Invitational in Stockton, Calif.

Junior hockey

The Spokane Braves (7-8-0) got goals from Paul Heiskell and Joel Stewart, but they weren’t enough to overcome the Princeton Posse (6-5-1), who posted a 3-2 Kootenay International Junior Hockey League win in Princeton, British Columbia.