Photo by Jeff Barrett
By Calvin Jensen
In a battle for the top spot in the Scenic West Athletic Conference, the #2 USU Eastern women’s volleyball team traveled to Taylorsville, Utah to take on 15th ranked Salt Lake Community College. Snapping a 14-game winning streak, the Bruins upset the 2nd ranked Lady Eagles, handing them their first loss in conference play and only their third loss on the season.
Poor passing and too many errors in the first set denied USU Eastern any offensive threat at the net, which resulted in the 25-21 first set loss to the Bruins. The second set was much of the same for the Lady Eagles as they were unable to spark the energy needed to penetrate a scrappy Salty Lake defense. In a rare situation, the Lady Eagles found themselves down 2-0 going into the third by a score of 25-23.
The Lady Eagles’ back row defensive performance was a constant throughout the game and gave opportunities for the offense to gain some traction in the third set, which kept the team alive with a 25-22 win.
That momentum was not enough for USU Eastern to overcome the energy of the home team in the fourth set as the Lady Eagles continued to make costly errors and were unable to gain the momentum needed to take the game to the fifth, handing the Bruins a 3-1 victory by a score of 25-16 in the fourth.
Reacting to the loss was head coach Danielle Jensen. “I knew mentally and physically this was going to be our toughest game we’ve faced and unfortunately we couldn’t match the energy of Salt Lake tonight. They came out to win and played some great ball.” She continued, “We’ve played the toughest schedule in the country, both in the amount of games and the competition faced, which can be a two-edged sword. We have to be able to push ourselves mentally and physically in that moment to be in the spot we have worked so hard to be in at the end of conference play. These girls are amazing and I have no doubt they will bounce back from the loss; they know what kind of team they are and tonight we didn’t see that team.”
Leading on both the offensive and defensive side of the net was middle blocker Rachel West with 12 kills and five blocks against the Bruins. Camber Dodson had 22 assists on the night while Emma Ricks racked up 31 digs in the game.
The 2nd ranked Lady Eagles (17-3, 2-1) will return home for a week before they travel to Rangely, Colo. to take on Colorado Northwestern (5-7, 1-3) in SWAC play. They will face the Spartans on Friday, March 5 at 6 p.m. The game will be live streamed on the Scenic West Digital Network.