Box Score BOX SCORE
SPOKANE, Wash. -- The Eastern Oregon University volleyball team opened the Red Lion Frontier/Cascade Challenge with a sweep over Montana Western Thursday.
The Mountaineers (3-1) have now won three straight matches and nine consecutive sets. EOU had a team hitting percentage of .290 in the victory, while Montana Western was at .128. Eastern had a 44-21 kill advantage and a 40-34 assist advantage. The Mountaneers also had 50 digs as a team.
“I'm very excited with the way our team played today,” EOU head coach Kaki Morehead said. “I thought after the long trip up earlier today, and not getting that much of a warm-up because we were line-judges before our match, we played well.”
Kaitlyn Duncan led Eastern Oregon with 18 digs.
Bobbi Sumpter finished with a team-high 13 assists, and
Karly Stack and
Jessica Perron both had 10 assists.
Casey Loper had nine kills and was in on four blocks.
Alisha Crane had two service aces.
“We played extremely well as a team today,” Duncan said. “We got off to a good start which was nice. We hit a little bit of a lull in the first set, but we bounced back well and closed the match strong.”
The Mountaineers jumped out to an 11-4 start in the first set, before UMW made a 7-1 run to close the gap. Western would come within a point two more times before Eastern won the set, 25-19. EOU finished set one with a team attack percentage of .267. The opening set featured four ties and only one lead change.
The second set was the closest of the match with seven ties and three lead changes. All seven ties opened the set, before Eastern Oregon changed a 7-7 score to 10-7. EOU stretched its advantage to 17-10, and closed the set, 25-20.
Set three featured three ties and three lead changes, as the Mountaineers got out to 5-1 start, but the Bulldogs evened the score at 10. Eastern broke an 11-11 tie to 17-12, and eventually pulled out the 25-19 win. Both teams attacked the net very well as EOU had a .368 attack percentage in set three, and Western had a .333 percentage.
Paige Latimer had a match-high 30 assists to lead UMW (2-3), while Bailey Branson also had a match-high 12 kills. Olivia Nagler finished with 11 digs, and Latimer added 10. Brittany Erickson had a pair of solo blocks.
The match was the third of the day at the inaugural Red Lion Cascade/Frontier Conference Challenge. The three-day tournament held at the HUB Sports Complex is just a small part of the challenge.
The athletic events, matching teams from the two northwest NAIA conferences will span over five weekends, ending in mid-November. All contests will be held in Spokane, Wash., and include; volleyball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's basketball and a cross country meet with sections for both men and women.
Earlier in the day, University of Great Falls defeated Northwest Christian, and Montana State-Northern beat Northwest. Both matches ended in four sets. Carroll swept The Evergreen State College in the fourth match of the day. Corban and Montana Tech meet in match five, while Northwest Christian and Warner Pacific close the day. At the time of this release, Eastern Oregon was the only Cascade Conference program to beat a Frontier Conference opponent on the first day.
The Mountaineers face Montana Tech Friday at 10 a.m., and then Great Falls (Mont.) at 4 p.m. Both matches will have live stats on EOUSports.com.
“The teams we play tomorrow will be tough,” Morehead said. “They are strong, solid programs that will present some challenges for us. We're going to have to be ready to play.”
