Eastern volleyball hits road before start of BSC play

The Eastern Washington women’s volleyball team will face its toughest test yet this season in its final weekend of nonconference play.

In advance of their Big Sky Conference, and home opening match Sept. 19 versus Sacramento State the Eagles hit the road for the final time taking on a group of California schools. That trip began with a match at San Jose State Wednesday, Sept. 11.

After their stop in the Bay Area, Eastern will then spend its weekend in San Diego, Calif., playing three matches as part of the USD Tournament, taking on UC Santa Barbara, host and No. 9 San Diego and top-ranked USC. Eastern opens with UCSB Friday, Sept. 13, at 5 p.m. before playing the Toreros Saturday at 10 a.m. and the Trojans later that day at 5 p.m.

The Eagles (3-4) are no stranger to high-level competition, having played against PAC-12 member Washington State and Big XII member Texas Tech last weekend at the Cougar Challenge in Pullman. EWU took down the Red Raiders in four sets. The Eagles fell to the host Cougars in three sets in their opening match of the weekend before dropping a five-set thriller to South Dakota later that day.

Sophomore Allie Schumacher had a good week for Eastern, earning Big Sky Player of the Week honors, the second time in her career. She recorded double-figure kills in three of EWU’s four matches last week.

While Schumacher grabbed the weekly headlines, a number of other Eagles had impressive showings at the Cougar Challenge last weekend.

Senior Lindsay Niemeier earned all-tournament honors after leading the team with 83 assists while adding 23 digs in Eastern’s three matches.