| CEU’s Megan Hunsaker spikes the ball as a Dixie defender tries to stop the attack during a game at the BDAC last Friday evening. |
The friendliness of the home court should be the edge that gives a team the chance to win some close games over the the visiting opponent.
But sometimes it just isn’t enough either.
The College of Eastern Utah’s womens volleyball team proved that sad theory of victory on Friday night and again on Saturday, as they lost the sets and some close games to two of their in-state, Scenic West Athletic Conference members Dixie State College and Snow College. The lost their sets to both teams 3-0.
However, depite the losses there were some close games, and the Lady Eagles looked brilliant at times belying their 0-8 record in the conference and 88-19 record overall.
In the first game against Dixie, CEU got far behind, but rallied to tie the score up at 16-16. Their momentum looked as if it would carry them through to a victory, but Dixie came back and began to score and score, finally beating up the Lady Eagles 30-18.
The next game was a near copy of the first. CEU got behind early, but came back and then were dispatched by a hard hitting Lady Rebel crew. Again the score was 30-18 when the whistle blew.
After the break between the first two games and the third, the Lady Eagles came back energized playing Dixie very tight. They did initially get behind, but then came back to tie the score at 17-17. From then on the game was nip and tuck, with CEU going ahead and then Dixie catching up. Finally the resulting battle for supremacy met at 27-27 and it looked as if the Lady Eagles had the edge in momentum. However. Dixie used some of it’s spiking power and edged ahead. At one point a flurry of bumps and spikes went by for both teams with neither ready to give in, but in the end Dixie was able to get to that 30 mark putting CEU away.
The games with Snow were even closer. Playing early in the day for everyone (3 p.m.) on Saturday afternoon there was a reasonable crowd present.
As the players were introduced there was an extra cheer for one of the Snow College players, as Brittany Pollastro, who starred in both basketball and volleyball came home to Carbon County for an afternoon.
The first game was by all standards the closest as both teams fought hard to win. Almost the entire contest was nip and tuck until the score was 27-25. Then it seemed that the Lady Eagles would pull away and win one.
However, some strong play by the Lady Badgers brought the game to a 29-29 tie. It still looked good for CEU until one of the Snow frontline players decided that a small tap over on a second hit instead going for a set up on a spike would surprise the Lady Eagles. It did as the ball fell to the flow on the CEU site untouched.
CEU was able to rally back for one more point, but Snow claimed two quick points and the game was over 30-32.
That game seemed to take some steam out of the CEU players engine and added a burst of power to the Snow contingent as they ripped off two more games at the identical scores of 22-30.
CEU now has two remaining games on the schedule. One is against league leading Southern Idaho (7-0 in conference and 37-2 overall) in Twin Falls on Wednesday night.
The team returns home for it’s final game of the season against North Idaho on Thursday night at 7 pm.