Box Score CHENEY, Wash. – Idaho State battled Eastern Washington without its starting setter Lori Mendenhall as the Bengals fell to the Eagles 3-1.
Senior outside hitter
Breanne Van Every led ISU with 17 kills and 16 digs in the contest. Sophomore Alydia Fields had a team-high 17 digs. Three other Bengals had double-digit digs in addition to Fields and Van Every. Redshirt senior
Jaclyn Hone-Hawkins and redshirt freshman
Tressa Lyman had 12 while
Danielle Downs had 10.
The Bengals' defensive specialist Kylee Searle was the setter for the Bengals in Mendenhall's absence as she recorded 33 assists during the contest. She also recorded two kills, one ace, seven digs and one block.
“Not having Lori is pretty huge and moving our libero to the setter position is even more huge,” ISU Head Coach
Chad Teichert. “You have to give some credit to Eastern Washington. They had a rough start to the season but have really started to turn it on in the last couple of weeks. We should have played better than we did despite the changes in the lineup but you still have to give credit to EWU.”
ISU had a .131 attack percentage to EWU's .267 and the Eagles out-blocked ISU 8-7.
The Eagles jumped out to a 1-0 lead after defeating ISU in a 25-16 decision in the first set. ISU battled back to win the second set 26-24. EWU won the third set 25-17 and the fourth 25-13.
The Bengals are now 16-3 in conference action and tied for first place with Portland State. ISU's match-up with Portland State Saturday will decide the regular season champion. ISU faces PSU in Portland Saturday, Nov. 17 at 8 p.m.
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