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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Area roundup: EWU Eagles fall to Northern Colorado in Big Sky title match

Taylor Bray scored a goal 8 minutes, 59 seconds into the match and Northern Colorado goalkeeper Ashley Franza made it stand up with three saves as the Bears beat Eastern Washington 1-0 in the Big Sky Conference women’s soccer championship match on Sunday in Greeley, Colorado.

Northern Colorado (9-10-4) was the No. 4 seed after placing fourth during the regular season.

The Eagles (11-8-2) advanced to the championship match as the No. 3 seed.

“I thought we came out really flat in the first half and didn’t grab the moment against a team that was playing at home. We challenged them in the second and I thought our players played well,” EWU head coach Chad Bodnar said. “We had the ball mostly in their half after halftime but just didn’t do anything dangerous. Overall, the kids fought hard and played well and had a heck of a tournament.”

The Bears had a 7-3 edge in shots on goal.

Goalkeeper Kelsee Winston tallied six saves for Eastern Washington, including five in the first half.

Volleyball

Pia Timmer had a team-high 10 kills and Jocelyn Urias pitched in with nine kills and three blocks as Washington State rolled to a 25-20, 25-15, 16-25, 26-24 victory over Oregon in Pac-12 Conference play in Eugene.

The victory gave the Cougars (21-5, 10-4) a season sweep of Oregon (7-16, 3-11) and Oregon State for the first time since the 2002 season.

Penny Tusa finished with eight kills and three blocks for WSU. Magda Jehlarova topped the Cougars with five blocks, Alexis Dirige pitched in with 18 digs and Hannah Pukis had 36 assists. Dirige now has 2,047 digs in her career, 10th best all-time in Pac-12 history.

Ronika Stone had a match-high 19 kills for the Ducks. Karson Bacon had nine blocks.

Next up for the Cougs is 16th-ranked Utah on Friday in Pullman.

Women’s basketball

Jordan Smith and Talia Brandner both scored 16 points and the Whitworth Pirates breezed to an 80-45 victory over Johnson & Wales in nonconference play in Denver.

Quincy McDeid scored all 12 of her points in the first quarter to help the Pirates (2-0) take a 23-7 lead. The lead grew to 42-16 at halftime and 67-29 after three quarters. Whitworth led by as many as 44 points in the final period.

Reserve Morgan Winder snagged seven rebounds to help the Whits win the battle of the boards 35-33. Macey Morales had team highs of five assists and four steals off the bench.

The Pirates forced 25 turnovers, while committing 13.

Whitworth sank just 11 of 28 shots from inside the 3-point arc, but the Pirates were cooking from beyond it – hitting 14 of 29 attempts (48%).

Katey Guzman had a game-high 19 points for the Wildcats in their season opener.

Next up for the Pirates is the Whit Classic on Friday and Saturday with games against Carroll College and Concordia (Texas).