CHENEY, Wash. (November 9, 2023) – The Northern Arizona Volleyball team (5-19, 2-11) needed a win against Eastern Washington (11-15, 5-9) in Cheney to remain in the hunt to qualify for the 2023 Big Sky Volleyball Championships. However, the Eagles earned a straight-set victory, 23-25, 19-25, 19-25, on Thursday night, eliminating the Lumberjacks from appearing in the conference tournament for a second straight season.
Eastern Washington got off to a very quick start in set number one, winning five of the first six points to start the match, including the first four.
It looked like it would be a runaway in the opening set, with the home team having as large as a nine-point lead of 22-13. But Northern Arizona would start to swoop in and go on an 8-0 run to close the Eagle lead to one.
Redshirt freshman Hanah Stoddard had four kills of her eventual 12 in the match during the Lumberjack comeback attempt in the first. Five of the eight points in that run came from kills, with the other coming from redshirt sophomore Sophia Wadsworth. Two Eastern Washington service errors and a service ace from sophomore Kylie Moran made up the rest.
NAU saved two set points in set one on a Stoddard kill and a service ace from senior Millie O'Ketter. However, Eastern Washington would close it out on the third set point.
O'Ketter once again had another double-digit dig performance with 10 on the night, one of three Lumberjacks to hit that mark along with sophomore Keira Hall and Moran.
Another senior put up a show on the offensive end of the floor in Savannah Bloom. Bloom closed out the evening with seven kills on 11 swings for a .364 hitting percentage. She was second only in hitting percentage to Neche Newton, who hit exactly .400 for the match.
The first half of the second set was much like the end of the first set, with the teams being neck-and-neck through the media timeout, with Eastern Washington holding onto a one-point lead.
After Northern Arizona took the first point following the media timeout to level the match at 15, EWU went on a 3-0 run and would not let go of the lead. The Eagles ended set two on a 4-0 run to take a two-set lead.
Down two sets, the Lumberjacks started out the third set strong, having four-point leads four different times to start set three, with the latest seeing NAU hold an 11-7 advantage.
Eastern would respond with a 6-0 run to go on top 13-11 and forcing the hand of Murphy to use his first timeout of the third set. But the lead would quickly switch hands, with four out of the next five going to the Lumberjacks.
The home team would then go on its final big run, one that would close out the match in three sets. Eastern Washington won 12 of the final 16 points to seal a spot in Greeley in two weeks' time.
Northern Arizona will be back in action on Saturday afternoon as they look to win the season series against the Idaho Vandals. That match will get underway at 1 p.m. MST and will be streamed live on ESPN+.
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