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Locally: Eastern Washington athletics to add seven athletes, one team to Hall of Fame

Fans swarm the court to celebrate with players Marc Axton, left, Alvin Snow and Josh Bernard after Eastern Washington’s 2004 victory over Northern Arizona in Cheney that earned the school its first NCAA Tournament berth. (DAN PELLE/The Spokesman-Review)
From staff reports

The 2025 Eastern Washington University Hall of Fame class has been announced with seven individuals and one team joining the list of Eastern standouts.

The 2025 class includes former student-athletes Marc Axton (men’s basketball), Jim Buzzard (football) Hayley Hills (volleyball), Kyle Kelly (men’s golf), Jason Marsh (football) and Vic White (tack and field/men’s basketball) as new individual inductees. In addition to the individuals, the 2004 EWU volleyball team coached by Wade Benson will be inducted to the Hall of Fame, marking the first team entrance since the Hall of Fame resumed inductions in 2024.

The induction ceremony will take place on Oct. 18 in conjunction with Eastern’s football game against Idaho. The ceremony is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. at the Pence Union Building’s Nysether Community Room on the EWU campus in Cheney, and the public is invited to attend.

Reserve your tickets to the HOF ceremony online at www.goeags.com.

Inductees will be honored at halftime of the football game and during the volleyball game against Northern Colorado the night before (Oct. 17).

Ed Simmons (football), an inaugural inductee into the Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame, will also be honored during the Hall of Fame Weekend. When his class was inducted in 1996, Simmons was playing for the Washington Redskins in the NFL and was unable to attend. He was extended a special invitation by EWU Director of Athletics Tim Collins to be re-recognized at this year’s event.

Established in 1996, the Hall of Fame will now consist of 103 individuals and 19 teams following this year’s induction class, the 21st all-time. In addition, there have also been 20 individuals and one organization honored as recipients of the Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame Service and Contribution Award.

Hockey

The Spokane Chiefs have reassigned 2010-born defenseman Ryker Doka to his Regina Pat Canadians U18 AAA team ahead of the second weekend of Spokane’s preseason slate. The Chiefs also have seven players away at NHL camps.

Doka, the only 2010-born prospect named to the preseason roster, heads back to Regina after playing in one preseason game on Saturday. The blueliner finished the game +2 with two shots on goal and helped his team to a 7-0 victory over the Portland Winterhawks. Doka was selected 28th overall by the Chiefs in the 2025 WHL Prospects Draft and has signed his WHL Scholarship and Development Agreement with the team. He is eligible to return to Spokane as an Affiliate Player for up to 10 regular-season games in 2025-26.

The move cuts the Chiefs’ pre-season roster to 33 players, including 19 forwards, 11 defensemen and three goaltenders. Of note, Berkly Catton (SEA), Andrew Cristall (WSH), Owen Martin (WPG), Nathan Mayes (TOR), Will McIsaac (STL), Assanali Sarkenov (COL) and Saige Weinstein (COL) are all currently away from the team at their respective NHL training camps.

College soccer

Washington State women’s soccer senior goalkeeper Keara Fitzgerald was named the West Coast Conference defensive player of the week for her shutout performance at California last week, the conference announced Monday.

Fitzgerald made a career-high 11 saves at Cal on September 4, earning her first shutout of the season. The California native made the most saves by a Cougar goalkeeper since the rescheduled 2020 season and became the first WSU keeper with 10-plus saves since Pac-12 goalkeeper of the year Nadia Cooper in 2021.

This week’s honor marks Fitzgerald’s second-career weekly honor, after earning the Big West defensive player of the week in 2023 at UC San Diego.

College volleyball

Washington State volleyball had two named to West Coast Conference player of the week honors Monday afternoon with Lucie Blažková winning offensive player of the week, and Eliana Ti’a winning freshman of the week.

Blažková played elite offense at the GCU Classic, contributing 53 kills while hitting .441. She added 63 total points and four assists, and on defense, 16 blocks including four solo blocks, and seven digs. Blažková averaged 4.08 kills, 4.85 points and 0.31 assists per set over her 13 sets played.

Ti’a continued her hot start to the season as she earns WCC freshman of the week for the second-straight week. She totaled 42 kills, 48.5 total points, 5 total blocks, 43 digs and four service aces. Ti’a had a season-high of 17 kills against Grand Canyon and averaged 3.73 points, 3.23 kills, 3.32 digs and 0.38 blocks per set over her 13 sets played.