Lady Eagles drop two straight before final season tourney

This archived article was written by: Sam McGinnis

After an upsetting weekend of nothing but losses, the College of Eastern Utah Lady Eagles volleyball team is preparing for this weekend’s SWAC tournament at Twin Falls, Idaho.
The women have been practicing hard, but after last weekend, moral is low and it will take a lot of strength and endurance to succeed in the tournament.
On November 7, the women played Snow College at Ephraim, Utah. This is one of the only teams that the Lady Eagles haven’t beaten. For the first time of the season, Snow College doubled the amount of team kills that CEU had.
“We can play well against everyone else, but against Snow, we just pressured ourselves too much. So, we basically choked, because we put so much pressure on us,” Coach Brent Martindale said.
The Lady Eagles lost to Snow in four games. In the first game, CEU smashed Snow off of the court 30-22. They seemed as if they were ready to play, but Snow’s Badgers proved to the ladies that they were not going to lose on their court.
Snow’s level of play became more intense, winning one point after another. Game two showed that intensity as Snow beat the Lady Eagles by ten points, 30-20. It seemed as if it all went downhill from there for the ladies. They could not pull ahead and lost in the third, 30-27, and again in the fourth, 30-19.
Jordan Fox performed well during this match making 13 kills. Sandra Sorenson also played well having six kills and three blocks.
“A lot of tears were shed after this match. I still can’t figure out why we lost, because statistically, we should have won this match,” said Martindale.
When the Lady Eagles came across Dixie State College on Saturday, it seemed as if CEU was playing a little bit better than the night before.
They brought Dixie into five games, but again the women lost. Dixie beat CEU 3-2, and this loss pushed the Lady Eagles into fifth place.
Like the game against Snow, Eagles took an early lead against Dixie, winning the first game 30-26.
Dixie retaliated, though, in the second game they pushed hard to beat the Lady Eagles 30-27. It seemed as if they were just taking turns with the wins, because CEU won the third, 30-28, and Dixie came back to win the fourth 30-21. It was all up to game five for this match, and CEU seemed to as if they wanted this win.
They were up 12-11, serving, but fate wasn’t on their side, they hit the ball out of bounce, and it made an even score of 12-12, Dixie serving. It all went downhill from there, because Dixie just began to dominate game five, winning the game and the match 15-13.
Again Fox led in kills with 16, and Amy Collette followed her with 15 kills. Collette had a good all around game during this match. Stephanie Cox also excelled having 10 kills and three blocks.
“We had our chances, but I think that we are so physically and emotionally fatigued that we aren’t pulling it together in order to win. Again, tears were shed after this match. We do have a lot of injuries and I think that is why we seem to be not doing as well as we have been,” Martindale added.
In the post season tournament, the Lady Eagles will meet Colorado Northwest Community College on Friday who had no conference wins this season. If they will them, they will face number-one ranked Southern Idaho later that night. The Lady Eagles will be looking for a miracle this weekend, Martindale said.
The Lady Eagles will be starting off in the tournament in fifth place and hope to pull out of their slump. Behind the Eagles were Dixie in sixth and CNCC in seventh place.