Eagles open home stance this weekend

This archived article was written by: Nate Davis

The Lady Eagles returned from tournament play in Nevada, California and Idaho with a 9-7 record. They will play their home opener this Friday versus Salt Lake Community College at 7 p.m. at the BDAC.
In recent action, the Eagles opened the Dixie State Tournament in Las Vegas, Nev., playing Marshalltown Community College. CEU won the match, 2-0. During the Vegas tournament the Eagle went 5-4; defeating Marshall 2-0, Ft. Scott 2-0, Western Wyoming 2-1, and Lakeland 3-1.
In the game against Western Wyoming Meagan Webb, who was recently nominated for National Player of the Week, had an amazing tournament including a .846 hitting average. The .846 average is a school record. “She hit really well,” Coach Brent Martindale said. “The average probably is close to a conference record.” She had 11 kills, 13 attempts, and five blocks, almost perfect, said Martindale about the sophomore phenomenon.
CEU dropped games to Pierce 2-1, Salt Lake Community College 2-1, Yavapai 2-0 and Western Arizona 3-2.
In the loss to SLCC, freshman Maren Ericson played exceptionally well with five kills and no errors with a hitting average of .625.
The team headed to California the next weekend to participate in the Santa Ana Tournament. CEU defeated the tough Yuba City Community College by a 2-0 score and go on to defeat Santa Ana 2-0, and Antelope Valley twice, 2-0, 1-0. With a 4-0 record in this tournament, the Eagles headed into the semi-final match against a challenging Cypress College team where they droped their only game of the tournament, 1-0.
Hillary Proctor finished the game with a match hitting average of .500. The Lady Eagles could not overcome the might of the Cypress Charger with Martindale saying that the team could have won the Cypress. “We didn’t play bad, we almost had them, but they just outplayed us.”
The next weekend, the 9-5 Eagles traveled 18 hours to Northern Idaho to start conference play. They faced number-five nationally ranked North Idaho College and number-one ranked College of Southern Idaho. While at North Idaho in Coeur d’Alene, Martindale said “I’ve been here 10 years and that was the best team that NIC has ever had.” NIC soundly defeated the Eagles 3-0; 30-15, 30-22, 30-22.
The Eagles traveled down to Southern Idaho in Twin Falls to face another Golden Eagles team who dominate two-year-college volleyball teams. Again the Eagles failed to win a game losing 30-16, 30-14, 30-20.
Maren Ericson had another outstanding game with a hitting average of .286. “We need to play at a higher level when CSI comes here,” said Martindale
CEU will look to extract revenge this Friday night at 7 p.m. when they take on the SLCC Bruins. The Bruins handed the Eagles a loss earlier this season winning two games to none; 30-17, 30-17.