COLUMBIA, Mo.- EOU added two more wins to its season total on Friday at the Hampton Inn Classic in Columbia, Mo. The Mountaineers took game one against No. 25 Ottawa winning three of four sets then capped the day off with a stunning come-from-behind victory over No. 20 Columbia College in five sets.
GAME 1
EOU continued its early-season run against nationally ranked opponents on Friday morning in Columbia, Mo. at the Hampton Inn Classic. The Mountaineers took on the No. 25 ranked Ottawa Braves and bumped their win streak up to four, beating Ottawa in four sets, 19-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-21. The win marked their third victory over a top 25 team in five games to start the season.
A long trip to Missouri and an early start may have been the root of a slow start as the Mounties dropped the first set 19-25. EOU responded after the first and took the next three sets. The biggest run of the match came in the third set when EOU rattled off five straight points to jump out to an early lead. They would lose that lead after several Ottawa streaks making the set 16-14 in Ottawa's favor. Again, the Mounties battled back outscoring the Braves 11-3 to close out the third. With the match on the line Eastern battled its way to a 25-21 set win to take the match in the fourth and final set..
From an individual standpoint
Madison Morgan had her best performance to date with 15 kills, hitting at a very efficient .412 clip.
Preslee Jensen was right behind her continuing her string of dominant performances with 14 kills and 14.5 points. Defensively
Hailey Arritola and
Alexis McMurtrey fended off the Braves' attack with 20 and 18 digs respectively. At the net,
Kara Clayton proved to be a force with five block assists on the day.
Although Eastern got off to a slow start, they finished strong and relied on their offense to take the first game of the day. EOU won the battle in kills and service aces outdoing Ottawa by five in each category.
GAME 2
The second game of the Hampton Inn Classic saw the Mounties complete their first come-from-behind victory of the 2022 season. EOU matched up with No. 20 Columbia College for their second bout of the day and it came down to the wire with Eastern Oregon taking home the win in five sets, 25-27, 25-27, 25-17, 25-17, 15-12.
From the start it was a punch-for-punch battle between the two Top 20 programs. Columbia jumped out to an early lead taking the first two sets that both went the distance, each finishing 27-25 in Columbia's favor. Once again the Mounties battled back, this time from their biggest deficit of the season being down two sets.
The two teams played a tight third set until EOU found some momentum and ran with it outscoring Columbia 12-4 down the stretch to take the third set 25-17. The fourth set finished with the same score and Eastern held control throughout.
In the final frame, it was neck-and-neck all the way up to the eleventh point. EOU took the reins from there and finished out the shortened set to complete the comeback and clinch the victory.
When all was said and done the numbers told a different story than the close match that it was with the Mounties holding an advantage in every major statistical category. Eastern held comfortable leads in each category, but particularly dominated at the net with 19 blocks to Columbia's eight.
Sade Williams led the attack for the Mountaineers with 16 kills, hitting .227.
Preslee Jensen once again was a force to be reckoned with adding 13 more kills to her season total. On the defensive side
Cambree Scott and
Hailey Arritola carried the load. Scott had 10 block assists at the net and Arritola contributed a staggering 31 digs.
The Mounties return to action tomorrow morning with another double header taking on No. 14 Central Methodist at 8 a.m. followed by a contest with William Woods at 10:30 a.m.
