LA GRANDE, Ore. – The No. 2-ranked Eastern Oregon University Volleyball team closed out thier home season Saturday evening with a dominant 3-0 sweep (25-8, 25-10, 25-9) over Warner Pacific University.
Prior to the match, the Mountaineers honored their six seniors:
Brooklyn Willard,
Madison Vaughn,
Kate Stidham,
Brooke Womack,
Mylie Mills, and
Keira Vaughn.
EOU established control early, opening the match with an impressive offensive showing in the first set. The Mountaineers and Knights traded points through the opening exchanges before Eastern broke the set open with a nine-point run sparked by
Brooke Womack and
Jule Whitley to take a commanding 13-3 lead. Warner Pacific managed to find points throughout the remainder of the set, but two additional four-point runs and a kill from
Keira Vaughn helped EOU cruise to a 25-8 victory.
The Mountaineers carried that momentum into the second set, immediately jumping out to a 6-0 lead behind a service ace from
Ava Semprimoznik, kills from
Mylie Mills and
Akylah Kaino, and several Warner Pacific errors. The Knights did a better job disrupting Eastern's runs as the set progressed, but the Mountaineers remained in control, rolling to a 25-10 win to take a 2-0 match advantage.
Eastern Oregon closed out the match in dominant fashion in the third set, recording 16 kills without committing a single attack error. The Mountaineers hit .457 in the frame to complete the sweep with a 25-9 victory.
Mills led EOU offensively with 10 kills while hitting an impressive .625. Whitley added eight kills, while Womack and Vaughn contributed seven kills apiece. Mills also anchored the defensive effort at the net with six block assists.
At the service line, Womack paced the Mountaineers with four aces, while EOU totaled 11 as a team. Stidham orchestrated the offense with 31 assists, helping the Mountaineers finish with 44 kills and a .461 team hitting percentage.
Eastern Oregon's balanced performance proved too much for Warner Pacific, as the Mountaineers finished with advantages in kills (44-19), service aces (11-2), blocks (6-0), assists (41-19), and digs (52-39).
The Mountaineers will look to carry their momentum into their final road stretch of the regular season, traveling to face Walla Walla on Nov. 6 before taking on No. 22 Lewis-Clark State on Nov. 7.
