SWX to carry six games among EWU, Idaho football
The television coverage of Eastern Washington and Idaho football games in 2019 is growing.
SWX announced it will carry four Eagles and two Vandals home games, augmenting those announced earlier on other networks.
The first EWU game on SWX will be the Eagles’ home opener on Sept. 7 at 1 p.m. against Lindenwood University, an NCAA Division II school in St. Charles, Missouri.
Other Eagles games on SWX will be Sept. 28 at 2 p.m. against North Dakota, Nov. 2 at 1 p.m. against Northern Arizona and Nov. 23 at 1 p.m. against Portland State.
Other EWU games to be televised, and announced earlier, are the season opener Aug. 31 at Washington on the Pac-12 Networks and Sept. 21 at Idaho, Oct. 12 at home against Northern Colorado and Oct. 26 at Montana, all on Root Sports.
A ninth Eagles game to be televised will be Oct. 5 at Sacramento State at 6 p.m. on Eleven Sports, which is available on various platforms, including DirectTV channel 623, WatchBigSky.com and Pluto TV.
SWX will carry Vandals’ home games Oct. 5 against Weber State and Nov. 16 against Sacramento State. Those game times have not been announced.
Besides the Sept. 21 game against Eastern, Root had announced it will carry Idaho games Oct. 19 at home against Idaho State and Nov. 9 at Montana. The Vandals are also scheduled for an appearance on Eleven Sports on Sept. 28 at Northern Colorado.
Volleyball
Gonzaga junior outside hitter Sarah Penner was named to the All-West Coast Conference preseason volleyball team, and the Zags were picked to finish eighth in the coaches preseason poll.
Penner, who returns for her third season, had a breakout sophomore campaign in which she earned All-WCC honorable mention after averaging a team-best 2.93 kills per set with four double-doubles and 17 double-digit kill matches.
In the coaches’ preseason poll, BYU, coming off its second appearance in the NCAA Tournament Final Four since 2014, was picked to finish first for a third straight year with San Diego, which made the NCAA Tournament for a ninth straight season, picked second.
Washington State, with four key returning players, has been picked to tie with California for eighth in the Pac-12 coaches’ preseason poll and will carry a No. 22 national ranking into the 2019 season.
Volleyball’s top collegiate conference has six schools ranked in the top 25 led by defending national champion Stanford, which is No. 1 in both the Pac-12 and national polls. Washington, returning All-American Kara Bajema, is No. 4 in the Pac-12 coaches’ poll and No. 13 nationally.
WSU’s key returners, who helped the Cougars advance to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen last season, are seniors Jocelyn Urias, Alexis Dirige and Ashley Brown, and junior Penny Tusa.
Women’s soccer
Washington State, coming off one of its most successful seasons in program history and returning senior captain Morgan Weaver, who is on the Hermann Trophy watch list, and sixth-year senior goalkeeper Ella Dederick, has been picked to finish fourth in the Pac-12 coaches preseason poll.
Ahead of WSU, which received its highest preseason ranking, are four-time defending champion Stanford, UCLA and USC.
Idaho, which finished second during the regular season a year ago and with seven starters returning, was selected fourth and Eastern Washington, with six starters back, was picked fifth in the Big Sky Conference coaches’ preseason poll.
Last season’s tournament runner-up, Northern Colorado, returning eight starters, was picked first ahead of defending regular-season champion Weber State, with reigning tournament champion Montana third.