Calvin Jensen, Sports Information Director, USU Eastern
Photo Courtesy of Jeff Barrett
The 14th ranked Lady Eagles had impressive back-to-back performances in their final home games over the weekend. Utah State Eastern completed season sweeps over both opponents inside the Bunnell-Dmitrich Athletic Center.
Up first for Utah State Eastern was the College of Southern Nevada on Friday night. After a sluggish start, the Lady Eagles found the momentum needed to dominate the match and pick up a 3-0 sweep of the Coyotes with set scores of 25-23, 25-13, 25-14.
Utah State Eastern middle blockers dominated both sides of the net against CSN. Rachel West had incredible accuracy with a .615 hitting percentage on 9 kills in addition to 3 blocks at the net. Casidy Fried put up a wall on the net with 7 blocks as well as picking up 8 kills in the game. Together, Agata Makowska and Camber Dodson had 29 assists to orchestrate the offensive performances. Paige Shumway had 12 digs followed by Lindsey Palmer who picked up 10 defensively.
In a back-to-back matchup, USU Eastern faced an always challenging Snow College program. The majority of the match was a back-and-forth battle but USU Eastern’s defense prevented the Badgers to gain momentum nor the edge on the Lady Eagles, completing a season sweep of Snow College with set scores of 25-19, 25-22, and 25-21.
Coming off an injury, Emma Grant showed no signs of holding back leading the offense with 13 kills in the game. Seven was the lucky number both offensively and defensively for the team. Ajah Rajvong, Casidy Fried, and Lauren Hamilton added 7 kills to help get the win. Stellar defense shut down the Badgers with Paige Shumway leading the way with 15 digs while Agata Makowska, Lindsey Palmer, Emma Grant and Jenna Thorkelson added 7 digs protecting the court.
Utah State Eastern will wrap up their regular season competition facing two Top 10 opponents back-to-back on the road this week. First they travel to No. 3 Salt Lake Community College on Friday, October 27 at 6 p.m. Then, on Saturday October 28 they will take on No. 9 College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls at 1 p.m.
Fans can watch the games live on the Scenic West Digital Network (www.scenicwestnetwork.com).