RECAP | Southern Utah Volleyball Upset by Eastern Washington in Five Set Match

CHENEY, Wash. -- The Thunderbird volleyball team fell to the Eagles of Eastern Washington University 3-2 on Thursday evening after battling in a five set match. SUU is now 11-8 overall, 4-3 in BSC. 

"I have to give Eastern Washington the credit," said head coach Pete Hoyer. "They came out on fire and kept us on our toes the whole match. It's hard to win a volleyball match when you never get comfortable on the court and find a rhythm. Tomorrow will hopefully be a much more dialed-in match for us." 

This is the Eagles first Big Sky Conference win since Coach Leslie Flores-Cloud took over the program in 2018. SUU tallied two service aces in comparison to EWU's 11. The Thunderbirds also trailed the Eagles in digs as the T-Birds totaled 48 and the Eagles totaled 60. Stacey Hone led SUU offensively with 16 kills on the evening. Katie Montgomery had 10 kills, 17 attacks and one error. Corrin Peterson tallied 36 assists, averaging 7.20 per set. Peterson also led the team in digs with 12 followed by Thea Leiataua who had 11 digs of her own. 

The Thunderbirds trailed the Eagles from the opening serve of the first set. It was the 10-1 scoring run that took Eastern from 12-6 to 21-7; a lead that proved to be too much for the Thunderbirds. SUU narrowed the Eagles lead to eight but EWU took the set 25-13. 

The score tied knotted at the ten point mark at the start of the second set then again at 12-12. It was the Thunderbirds who pulled ahead by three at 15-12. After play continued, the score tied again at 15-15 and 22-22. It was SUU who was able to close out the second match at 25-22, evening the match score to 1-1. 

Eastern opened the third set with an early 4-0 scoring run, putting the score at 6-4 with the Eagles up by two. EWU went on another run, this time 5-0 before SUU called a timeout as they trailed 11-5. The Thunderbirds comeback fight brought them within one at 19-18 but the Eagles pulled away by two at 20-18. The score knotted at 22-22. SUU took the lead at 23-22 where EWU called a timeout. The Thunderbirds 5-0 scoring run enabled them to claim the third set 25-22. 

SUU trailed Eastern at the ten point mark 10-6 during the fourth set. The Eagles extended their lead to seven at 15-8 where the Thunderbirds took their first timeout of the set. Coming out of the break the Eagles went on to push the score to 20-12. Eastern ran with the set, taking the fourth as their own at 25-16. 

The fifth set started by knotting at 4-4. The Eagles went up by three after the tie, putting the score at 7-4 where SUU called a timeout. Eastern then went on 6-0 scoring run, extending their lead to 12-5. The Thunderbirds ended the match behind the Eagles at 15-7 as EWU took the match 3-2. 

Next Up

The Thunderbirds will face the Vandals of the University of Idaho tomorrow Friday, October 18, 2019 at 6:00 p.m. MT. 

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