Rusty Eagles drop two at Sac State

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Eastern Washington University’s volleyball team likely showed the effects of a two-week layoff in their first match at Sacramento State last Saturday, dropping the March 6 showdown in three straight sets.

Any rust the Eagles had appeared to have been knocked off, as they stormed back to battle the Hornets in a rematch 24 hours later, eventually falling in five games 14-25, 25-17, 20-25, 25-20 and 12-15.  

“We did a really nice job of coming back day two, we had a lot of opportunities to win and put ourselves in good situations but we came up short, which happens,” head coach Leslie Flores-Cloud said. “We had a nice defensive night and not only did we have 12 blocks, but we out-dug them. To have four players in double-digit digs is testament to how good we were blocking.”

Eastern started slow in the first set on Sunday, hitting just 0.65 with eight kills against the Hornets .290 hitting percentage, highlighted by 13 kills. But in the second game, the Eagles started to fire on all cylinders, using a 7-1 run to build an 18-15 lead after being down early, and closing with a 7-0 run for the win.

Eastern’s best set statistically came in the third, hitting .206 with 11 kills and only four errors. The Hornets rallied for a 16-12 lead, with the set close until a 5-1 run by the home team propelled them to the win.

Eastern used a pair of 4-0 runs to rally and take an 11-8 lead, stretching it to 17-13 before the Hornets used a 3-0 run to trim the margin to 21-20. The Eagles fire off a 4-0 run to take the win and knot the match at 2-2.

In the fifth set, Sacramento State used a 3-0 run to pull ahead 9-5, leading to an Eastern timeout. The Eagles used a 5-0 run out of the break to take a 10-9 lead, only to have Sacramento State answer with their own 5-0 run en route to the 15-12 win. The Eagles are now 4-2 overall when matches go to five sets this season.

Maya McClellan led Eastern with 13 kills, six digs and four blocks while Renata Lopez Morales recorded seven blocks with 10 kills, hitting .556 with no errors on 18 attempts. Ana Paula Zandona notched her second straight double-double with 44 assists and 18 digs, adding an ace and two blocks.

Eastern Washington out-hit Sacramento State .161 to .141. The Eagles had 50 kills and 24 errors on 161 attempts while Sacramento State had 54 kills and 28 errors on 185 total attempts. 

The Eagles out-blocked the Hornets, who are third in the conference in blocks, 12 to 10 for a new season-high. Eastern Washington also set a new season-high of 92 digs compared to Sacramento State’s 78.

The match was an improvement over Eastern’s three set loss the previous night, 25-23, 25-17 and 25-13. Catelyn Linke led the Eagles with 18 digs, moving her into sixth on the program’s all-time career digs list with 1,181. 

“I thought Catelyn Linke played really well tonight,” Flores-Cloud said. “She came in focused and was doing a lot defensively for us. She did some really nice things.”

Zandona had her first double-double of the season with 25 assists and 10 digs while Blotzer added nine kills and hit .471 for the evening. McClellan added seven kills while Lopez Morales led the team in service aces and blocks with two each.

Eastern’s record falls to 5-8 overall, 4-8 in Big Sky Conference play while Sacramento State improves to 7-5 and remains undefeated at home where they have dropped just four games all year – two coming against Eastern.

The Eagles return home to host Idaho in its final regular season home matches of the season on Friday, March 12 and Saturday, March 13. First serve is set for 4 p.m. and 2 p.m., respectively, on Pluto TV Ch. 1053.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.