Area roundup: Big Sky men’s coaches tab EWU for third

Big Sky Conference men’s basketball coaches predict a third-place finish for Eastern Washington University and new coach Jim Hayford.

Media members weren’t as sure, selecting the Eagles for sixth place in the nine-team conference. Both polls were released Wednesday.

Eastern, which returns eight letterwinners, received 42 points in the coaches’ poll to place behind Weber State (64) and Montana (56). The Eagles received 109 points in the coaches’ poll, also topped by Weber State.

Volleyball

Brigitte Lowe’s 10 kills and Joni Nagy’s 21 assists and four aces helped Community Colleges of Spokane (27-5, 8-1) to a sweep at Wenatchee Valley (8-16, 2-7) in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges.

The Sasquatch have six consecutive sweeps.

• Yang Yang finished with 18 kills, 11 digs and four blocks while leading North Idaho (19-7, 6-1 Scenic West Athletic Conference) to its eighth consecutive win, a sweep of visiting Eastern Utah (5-17, 2-4).

The first-place Cardinals, 7-0 at home, have won 17 of 19 matches. Both losses were to Salt Lake.

Women’s soccer

Alli Floyd scored a pair of unassisted goals to carry CC Spokane (12-2, 9-1 NWAACC) to a 3-1 win over Yakima Valley (8-5-1, 6-4) at Spokane Falls CC.

Floyd, with 19 goals, is tied with Walla Walla’s Kaylie Winston for the conference lead. First-place Walla Walla is three points ahead of CCS in the East Division.

Men’s soccer

Chad Ward scored off a corner kick in the 60th minute, allowing North Idaho (6-5-3) to forge a 1-all tie with CC Spokane in nonconference play at SFCC. Tim Doggett scored in the 13th minute for the Sasquatch (5-4-6). He leads CCS with six goals.

Cross country

Idaho sophomore Hannah Kiser earned her third Western Athletic Conference Athlete of the Week award after winning last Saturday’s Santa Clara (Calif.) Bronco Invitational.

Kiser won the race by 12 seconds and was the only runner to finish in less than 17 minutes.