BOX SCORE

KIRKLAND, Wash. – The Eastern Oregon University volleyball team defeated Northwest University on the road for its 13th win over the last 14 matches.

Eastern's Kaitlyn Duncan broke the school record for digs in a career during the match. The junior needed six digs entering the match, and she finished with 18. She passes Kiley Cobb's number amnd now has 1,053 digs in her career. The Prineville, Ore. native is one of only two players in school history to have over 1,000 digs in a career.
The first set saw Northwest lead early, 11-9, before Eastern Oregon would battle back to tie the set at 15-15 on a kill by Taylor Stewart and then take the 16-15 lead on another Stewart kill. An EOU service ace and Northwest miscue would give the Mountaineers an 18-15 lead. EOU would then go on a 4-2 run to increase their lead to 22-17, topped off by two kills by Alisha Crane and an ace by Rebecca Haight. NU's Breanna Covey's kill would make it 18-23, but Eastern Oregon would close out the set with kills by Crane and Stefani Sorenson.

Set two would find Northwest leading the entire way as they would break out to a 12-7 lead capped off by two Breanna Covey kills. The Eagles would increase their lead to 18-13 on a kill by Sarah Stoker, a service ace by Molly Boyle and another kill by Stoker. Leading 20-15, NU would outscore EOU 5-4 to win the set finished by Molly Boyle's kill.

Northwest would hold a 16-9 lead when EOU explode for a 7-0 run to tie the set at 16-all as an Emily Sampson kill, two straight service aces by Alisha Crane would tie the set. From that point on the teams would battle to five ties with the final coming at 24-24 when EOU would win the set on kills by Jessica Lea and Crane.

In the final set, Eastern Oregon would lead 12-9 before NU would come back to tie the set at 13-13 on a kill by Breanna Covey and an EOU miscue.  After two more ties, NU would lead 19-16 and then 20-17 on kills by Boyle and Stoker. Eastern Oregon would battle back once again and knot the score at 20, punctuated by Alisha Crane's kill. With the set tied at 22-all, EOU would with their 11th CCC game of the season on two service aces by Emily Sampson.

Northwest U. (9-7, 7-4 CCC) was led by Breanna Covey's match high 20 kills. Molly Boyle added 15 kills while Lauryn Ernster added a match high 48 assists. Libero heather Shulke also had a match high 28 digs for the Eagles who hit .237 for the night.

Eastern Oregon's (13-7, 11-1 CCC) Alisha Crane, Jessica Lea, and Stefani Sorenson combined for 40 kills. Crane and Sorenson each had 15 kills while Lea contributed 10 for the Mounties. Alisha Crane led EOU with a .379 hitting percentage for the evening as EOU hit .269 as a team. Lea also had a team high 32 assists while Kaitlyn Duncan led EOU with 18 digs.

Northwest U. remains at home for a Saturday match up with #6 College of Idaho while Eastern Oregon travels south to Olympia to take on the Geoducks of the Evergreen State College. Both matches are scheduled for 7 p.m.