Locally: Eastern Washington football to open fall camp July 30

From staff reports

The Eastern Washington football team will open their fall camp on July 30, with 22 practices planned including two scrimmages. Eastern’s freshman class reports on July 28 and the veterans report a day later on July 29.

Fall camp practices will be held on the EWU Sports and Recreation fields from July 30 through Aug. 13. The team will then shift to Roos Field from Aug. 14 through Aug. 24.

EWU will practice Tuesday through Sunday, with Monday being the team’s off-days. Practices will run from 9:15 -11:15 a.m. for the majority of camp, with the final two (Aug. 23-24) going 4-5:45 p.m.

Eastern’s two scrimmages on Roos Field are scheduled for Aug. 15 and Aug. 21. The first scrimmage begins at 1 p.m. and the second at 3:30.

The time and location of all practices and scrimmages are tentative and subject to change.

The Eagles are returning 40 letter-winners from the 2023 team, with eight starters on offense and defense.

Softball

The PROTON Men’s 70s AA traveling softball team won the Jim Sherman Northwest Championship for the second year in a row, after going 3-0 in bracket play during the tournament on July 9-11 in Salem.

In 35 innings the team committed only seven errors and the three pitchers gave up just nine walks. PROTON outscored their opponents 80-31.

Team members are Tom Adams, Steve Bergstrom, Connie Burnett, Bart Clark, Tom Crouch, Steve Erenberg, John Higgins, Jim Hardenbrook, Don Hyatt, Chuck Howland, Karl LeBret, Ron Martin, Ron Newcomb, Jim O’Hare, Mike Owen, Dwayne Phinney, Cam Preston, Mark Reilly and Wayne Terry.

Clark, Higgins, Howland, LeBret and Phinney were named All Stars, while LeBret was named the tournament MVP.

The win also qualified PROTON to compete in the Tournament Of Champions, which takes place Jan. 24-26 in Florida.

Soccer

With its inaugural season -opener roughly one month away, Spokane Zephyr FC has signed 25-year-old midfielder Emina Ekić, pending league and federation approval.

Ekić most recently played forward for Melbourne City of the A-League Women, where this past season she made 21 appearances and scored eight goals, according to Flashscore. The club finished the regular season atop the league table.

The Louisville, Kentucky, native was picked fifth overall in the 2021 NWSL draft by her hometown club, Racing Louisville FC.

College volleyball

Gonzaga volleyball head coach Katie Wilson announced the hiring of Megan Cycyota as an assistant coach, the school announced Tuesday.

Cycyota joins the GU staff with 18 years of volleyball coaching experience across varying levels. Most recently, Cycyota spent 11 years with Sudden Impact Volleyball Club in Bellevue, Washington, as an assistant and head coach.

Academics

The Eastern Washington women’s golf program earned the Women’s Golf Coaches Association All-Scholar Team GPA award, posting a cumulative GPA of 3.861 for the latest academic year. The WGCA announced its full list of top 25 GPA programs across Division I, II, III and NJCAA today.

Eastern’s GPA ranked 10th in Division I, behind Bowling Green State (3.864) for ninth. North Dakota State earned the top GPA in the nation (3.945).

• Madelyn Knight and Erik Sarlvik represented EWU on the Big Sky Conference’s Scholar Athlete Class, which was announced Tuesday.

Knight graduated in June with her degree in Mathematics and Sarlvak graduated with his degree in Management. Both held a 4.0 GPA.

Knight was a standout track athlete for the Eagles, while Sarlvik finished his career with 11 wins in doubles and eight in singles for the men’s tennis team.

• Whitworth University graduate student Amelia Hewson has claimed NCAA Division III Academic All-America status in 2024 for her excellence in the classroom and on the track. On July 9, Hewson was named to the 2023-24 NCAA Division III Academic All-America® women’s track and field/cross country team selected by the College Sports Communicators as a second -team honoree.

A graduate student in Whitworth’s MBA program, Hewson has carried the perfect 4.0 GPA she had throughout her undergraduate studies into her first year of graduate school.