Photo by Jeff Barrett
By Calvin Jensen, USU Eastern Volleyball
Twin Fall, ID – Passion and grit were on full display by the USU Eastern women’s volleyball team over the weekend.
The Lady Eagles took on nationally ranked #4 Miami Dade Saturday afternoon. The Sharks entered the contest with dominating weekend wins against three other nationally ranked programs. Unable to find answers to a powerful offensive attack, the Lady Eagles dropped the first two sets with scores of 25-14 and 25-20. Realizing the impact of the game, the Lady Eagles found it within themselves to come out fighting in the third set and picked up a 25-22 win. With the momentum, USU Eastern continued to put pressure on Miami Dade. Impressive presence on the net and a scrappy defense catapulted the Eagles to a fourth set victory, 25-19.
“After the second set, Coach Jensen helped us realize what we needed to do individually and as a team. Everyone on the team brought so much energy and fire after each point scored and we were able to get into our opponent’s heads. The focus was on the next point and not what happened on the last play,” said freshman libero Avery Best.
In the fifth set, the Eagles committed too many errors, allowing Miami Dade to gain an edge offensively and ultimately defeat the Lady Eagles with a final set score of 15-9.
“This is a very young team and it took a couple sets for them to gain the confidence and realize they could compete with one of the best programs in the nation in Miami Dade. For the team to be down two sets and come back, pushing it to five, shows the caliber of players that we have this year,” said head coach Danielle Jensen.
Middle blocker Kahea Nihipali led the Eagles with an impressive 12 kills and nine blocks. Kiara Richardson also added 12 kills, Ashlee McUne had 47 assists, Kennedy Poulton had four aces and Avery Best had 17 digs.
After sweeping Casper College earlier on Saturday, The Lady Eagles leave the Starr Invitational 3-1 and improve to 13-3 overall on the season. This weekend, the Eagles will travel to Sterling, Colo. to attend the Pizza Hut Invitational and will look for wins against #10 Iowa Western, #16 Northeastern, Casper College and Western Wyoming.
At the time of this article, USU Eastern women’s volleyball team is ranked nationally #1 in kills, #1 in digs, #1 in assists, #3 in aces and #4 in total blocks. Kiara Richardson is ranked #1 in kills with Breanne Bitter #3 in kills, Avery Best #3 in digs and Ashlee McUne #4 in assists.