The Eagles volleyball team played in the Big Sky Tournament in Flagstaff, Arizona, on Nov. 19 against Idaho State University.

Eastern played well the first two sets, which resulted in a lead of 2-0 going into the intermission of the game. Idaho State came back and won the next three sets, making it a tough loss for the Eagles. This was the first loss the Eagles had this season after having a 2-0 lead. Prior to this match they had a 10-0 record when they were leading 2-0.

“To me, the difference between the first two sets and the last three came down to a couple of things,” head coach Michael King said in an interview on goeags.com. “We got away from our serving strategy, and we didn’t handle the ball very well. Our struggles to pass led to a lack of success offensively, and that gave Idaho State some momentum. They started playing with a lot of energy, and we didn’t know how to respond to that.”

Two big contributors to the game were outside hitter Ana Jakovljevic who had a team-high 12 digs and 12 kills that added to her sixth double-double of the season, and outside hitter Allie Schumacher who hit .257 (11-2-35), also with five blocks and seven digs.

The Eagles season had an overall record of 14-14, 9-7 in conference. The team started off a little rocky, not winning until their fourth game against Providence. They started to find their groove and had an eight-game winning streak in the middle of the season, which started them at 7-0 in league – the best start since 2003.

After the eight-game winning streak, they ended up winning two of the next 10 games, which ultimately led to a struggle toward the end of the season. “We had some really good wins, and I thought we beat some really good teams this year, Hopefully, this will bring a new confidence to our program because we now know we can compete at this level, ” King said in an interview on goeags.com

The Eagles will be losing four seniors, but will have 15 returning players for next season. Defensive specialist Ryann Ensrud will be leaving the Eagles with a rank of sixth all-time on the Eagles’ NCAA DI Career digs list with 1,169 career digs. Schumacher was also given a First Team All-Big Sky conference selection – the first time since 2011 an Eagles player was given the selection.