Tourney In Doubt For Eastern

“It was a good season, but not a good night.”

Eastern Washington University volleyball coach Pam Parks made that instant assessment after the Eagles were knocked out of the Big Sky Conference Tournament - and for all likelihood, the NCAA Tournament - Friday night.

Northern Arizona (19-9) rallied for a 10-15, 15-10, 15-10, 15-3 victory over Eastern to gain the finals.

The Eagles, co-champions of the Big Sky, wind up 22-6. And although they have the “magical” 20 victories, Parks isn’t holding her breath for a bid.

“I think that ends our chances of going any further,” she said. “I thought if we went 1 or 2 (in the tournament) we’d get in (the NCAAs). Now … I don’t know.

“I’m very disappointed, but I thought we played as well as we could have played right now (with injuries having taken a toll), and they played better.”

Parks noted that NAU “probably has the most team maturity in the conference.” Friday, it showed. Not only did the Eagles have to concentrate on the Lumberjacks’ Jenny Treglown, a co-league MVP with the Eagles’ Kim Exner, but 6-foot-4 Susan Brondell came up big and was the deciding factor.

“You can stop one, but that 6-4 kid in the middle went off” for a match-high 20 kills with a .484 hitting percentage. Treglown had 15 kills and 18 digs and Mary Lines 15 kills and 15 digs for NAU.

EWU’s Lynn Robison, who missed practice all week with a back injury aggravated in the final regular-season match, Exner and Lacey Coover had 12 kills each.