USUE Volleyball Falls to Nationally Ranked Teams

USU Eastern’s Taylor Ferrel and Sarah Mafi go up for a block against CSI on Saturday September 22, 2018.
Utah State Eastern volleyball lost a pair of home matches to top five nationally ranked teams over the weekend.
Both teams they faced were two of the three top five conference opponents the Eagles will face twice in the next month of the season.
On Friday, the Eagles lost to the fifth ranked Salt Lake Community College Bruins 3-1 in their home opener.
USU Eastern opened the match with resounding 25-23 first set win thanks to the energy of the arena and inside the lines of the game.
“Our girls came ready to play, had a lot of energy and were focused,” said Utah State Eastern Head Coach Danielle Jensen.
The Bruins would come back and avenge the first set loss and capitalize on the USU Eastern errors en route to a 25-18 second set win and a 25-17 third set win.
USU Eastern had nine errors in the second set and 10 in the third set.
“We got a little comfortable because we won the first set and the energy level kind of dropped. When we play with less intensity and less energy we tend to make more errors,” said Jensen.
In the fourth and final set of the game USU Eastern wouldn’t let the Bruins walk away easily.
The Eagles’ defense helped keep the fourth set interesting and kept their chances of a fifth set alive.
“Our defense was solid all around. I think we did amazing and I loved being on the court and getting things back up,” said USU Eastern sophomore Alexus Desmarais. 
 Salt Lake would prevail and get the fourth set win by a score of 25-23.
 Freshman Kiara Richardson led the Eagles in kills with 12 and sophomore Mackenzie Carter added 11 kills.
The following day the Eagles lost 3-0 to the third ranked College of Southern Idaho Golden Eagles.
It was a match that saw why the Golden Eagles were ranked so high nationally as they would not allow the Eagles score more than 20 points in a set.
“A team like CSI is really good at the mental game and there was definitely a momentum change and we worked hard to try and bring that momentum back,” said USU Eastern’s Taylor Ferrel.
 CSI would dominate the second set and open on a 11-1 run.
Coach Jensen said after the game that it was the mental aspect of the game that really affected the Eagles’ play on Saturday. 
“Our girls got into their own heads and they put too much pressure on themselves to be perfect. When it wasn’t going their way, they kind of shutdown,” said Jensen. 
The Golden Eagles would go on to take the second and third set by a score of 25-17 and 25-17 respectively.
The Eagles will now turn their attention to preparing for a match against Colorado Northwest this Saturday at home.
 “We just got to keep getting better and where we struggle we got to keep pushing. Even though we might not be seeing CSI or SLCC next weekend, we are going to treat it that way,” said Jensen.
Saturday’s home game against conference opponent Colorado Northwest is scheduled for 4 p.m. inside the BDAC on USU Eastern campus.