| Courtney Young bumps the ball to the front line during Saturday’s action. |
Over the weekend Northern Idaho College came calling. The nationally ranked volleyball team came to give the home town College of Eastern Utah women a showdown.
In two days the Lady Cardinals beat the CEU squad in three straight games each day.
Earlier in the week the CEU team hosted a non-conference match up with Westminster College. The Eagles dropped three straight games to the Lady Griffins by the scores of 30-21, 30-26, and 30-20.
They hoped that the mid week contest would have them prepared for powerhouse NIC as the team blew into town. Instead they came out flat.
NIC crushed the Eagles in game one by the score of 30-11. CEU regrouped and put on a better performance in game two, losing 30-19.
Their offensive game was still missing as NIC put up 20 kills to 7 that CEU could manage. The Lady Eagles squad showed some signs of life in the third and final game of the night as they were able to produce 11 kills and hold NIC to only 14. The final score in the third game was 30-24 in favor of NIC.
Starting at 3:30 on Saturday, the CEU women were ready to try and make it a battle. They still went down to defeat in the first game, but they scored 21 points and had 14 kills.
They had a few good scoring runs in game two, but came up short again, 30-20.
In the final game of the afternoon, it began to look like CEU might force the match into at least four games. Late in the contest it was CEU 24, NIC 26. The down official added two points to the visitors score, making it 28-24 in favor of NIC.
As of press time there is no explanation of why this occurred. In the end NIC took the final game 30-26 in a close match up for CEU against the nationally ranked team.
The Eagles move on to play the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls this weekend. They will return home on Oct. 13 and 14 to meet up with Salt Lake Community College.