7A
Monday, August 26, 2019
The Observer
Road warriors
Ronald Bond/Observer fi le photo
Javier Moran, left, scored the golden goal in overtime to lift Eastern Oregon to a 3-2
victory over Whitworth Saturday.
Moran lifts EOU men in OT
Observer staff
Warner University photo
Sade Williams, left, Aspen Christiansen, center, and Kiley McMurtrey, shown earlier
this season, each had double digits in digs — 11, 12 and 28, respectively — in Eastern
Oregon’s fi ve-set victory over No. 14 Hastings Saturday.
Observer staff
The Eastern Oregon University volleyball
team followed its undefeated start to the sea-
son in Florida with an even more impressive
series of victories in Nebraska.
The No. 10 Mountaineers toppled a trio of
ranked opponents at the Bill Marshall Vol-
leyball Classic in Hastings over the week-
end, upsetting No. 3 Grand View (Iowa) in
straight sets Friday, then claiming a four-set
win over No. 22 Bellevue (Nebraska) and a
come-from-behind fi ve-set win over No. 14
Hastings Saturday to improve to 7-0 on the
young season.
Hailee Ackerman led the offense with 10
kills in EOU’s sweep of Grand View Friday, 25-
17, 26-24, 25-13, to open the weekend. Cam-
bree Scott added seven kills and Megan Bunn
chipped in with six for Eastern, which had a
.202 kill percentage while holding Grand View
to just .014 and forcing the Vikings into 31
attack errors. EOU was solid at the net with
nine blocks, getting four block assists each
from Scott, Taylor Tibbetts and Jet Taylor.
Setter Madison Pilon added a double-double
with 19 assists and 12 digs, and both Kiley
McMurtrey (23) and Aspen Christiansen (10)
reached double fi gures in digs.
EOU broke open the fi rst set with a 6-0
run, with one of Breanna Shaffer’s fi ve kills
putting the Mountaineers up 21-13. Scott
fi nished the set moments later with a kill.
Grand View used a 7-0 run to take a late
24-22 lead in the second set and seemed
primed to even the match before Eastern
turned the tables. A block by Ackerman and
Scott tied the score, and kills by Shaffer and
Scott gave EOU the set and a 2-0 lead.
Eastern rode the momentum to a rout in
the third set, scoring the fi rst seven points
and later using a 6-0 run for a 20-10 lead
capped by a block by Bunn and Taylor. Acker-
man and Scott had kills to fi nish the match.
Saturday morning, Eastern’s balanced at-
tack won a tightly contested match over the
Bruins, 21-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-20.
Ackerman again led the way with nine
kills. Both Bunn and Shaffer had eight kills,
and Tibbetts added seven. Taylor was a force
at the net with nine block assists. The back
row defense was also balanced, getting 15
digs from McMurtrey, 14 from Pilon and 13
from Christiansen. Pilon also had 20 assists,
and Brooke Dodge added 15.
Bellevue used a 12-3 run to take control
of the fi rst set, going up 17-11 on an ace by
Paige Holdsworth. Eastern rallied to get
within 20-18 on a kill by Tibbetts but got no
closer, and Sierra Athen ended the set with a
kill for the Bruins.
Eastern scored fi ve straight points midway
through the second set to build a cushion and
saw its lead reach six on several occasions,
including at 20-14 on an ace by McMurtrey.
The Bruins clawed to within three but pulled
no closer as EOU evened the match.
Taylor had a hand on three blocks early in
the third set to help Eastern score the fi rst fi ve
points for an early lead. Bellevue eventually
pulled even three times, the last at 20-20 on a
block by Sienna Black and Olivia Galas. But
Eastern scored the next four points, using kills
by Tibbetts, Bunn and Taylor to retake the lead,
and Ackerman fi nished the set with a kill.
A 7-1 run in the fourth gave Eastern an
11-4 lead on a kill by Scott. Bellevue did get
within two points several times, but a timely
4-0 run — capped by a block by Scott — put
EOU at match point, and Scott fi nished the
match moments later with a kill.
The Mountaineers had their hands full
later Saturday in a rematch of the 2016 na-
tional quarterfi nals before rallying to win a
fi ve-set thriller over the host Broncos, 25-22,
15-25, 18-25, 30-28, 15-10.
Eastern ended the fi rst set on a 6-2 run to
come back and take the early 1-0 lead. Kills
by Shaffer, Scott and Bunn started the rally,
and Taylor had a kill later to end the set.
Hastings, through, controlled second set, using
a 9-2 run to go up 16-9, and three times leading
by as many as 10 points, including when Emily
Lenners and Emily Krowlikowski teamed up for
a block to end the set.
Hastings never trailed as it methodically
took control in the third set, going up as much
as 18-10 on a Claire Vanderbeek kill. Eastern
did get within 21-17 on back-to-back kills by
Bunn before the Broncos scored four of the
next fi ve points for the set and a 2-1 lead.
Eastern got back in the match after taking
a wild fourth set that was tied 14 times. The
teams traded rallies throughout — Hastings
went on a 6-0 run to take a 14-11 lead on an
ace by Claire Ostrand, but EOU later used a
6-1 run to go up 19-16 on an Ackerman ace.
The Broncos then scored seven of the next
nine to take a 23-21 lead, but Bunn had a
kill to cap a mini 3-0 run and give Eastern a
24-23 edge. The teams then traded points to
28-28 — both seeing chances to win the set
fall away — before Eastern scored the next
two points to even the match.
Armed with new life, EOU took advantage.
A block by Scott and Shaffer put the Moun-
taineers up 5-2 in the decisive fi fth set. Scott
was later in on another block — this time
with Tibbetts — that gave EOU an 11-4 lead.
Bunn followed with a pair of kills, and Shaf-
fer fi nished the match with a kill.
Bunn led EOU with 16 kills. Shaffer had a
career-best 14 kills and Ackerman added 12.
Scott had eight kills and seven blocks, and
Taylor also had eight kills. McMurtrey tallied
28 digs, Pilon had 29 assists and Dodge has
19 assists. Christiansen (12) and Sade Wil-
liams (11) also reached double digits in digs.
EOU managed the victory despite having
fewer kills, digs, blocks, aces and a lower kill
percentage than Hastings.
Lenners had a match-best 18 kills and
nine blocks for the Broncos.
EOU (7-0 overall) next faces Cardinal
Stritch (Wisconsin) Friday in Caldwell, Idaho.
The Eastern Oregon University men’s
soccer team won a thriller to begin the
season, scoring a 3-2 overtime victory over
Whitworth (Washington) Saturday when
Javier Moran headed in the winning goal in
the 93rd minute.
Moran scored off a crossing pass from
Josh Ebel, heading the lofted ball into the
net to end the extra session shortly after it
started. The win was EOU’s fi rst over Whit-
worth in three tries and avenged a very
similar loss to the Pirates in 2018, when
Whitworth, like EOU, scored on a golden
goal in overtime for a 3-2 win. Both match-
es, coincidentally, were played on Aug. 24.
Eastern was the aggressor early Satur-
day, quickly taking a 1-0 lead on a goal by
Carlos Solorio in the eighth minute. The
Pirates got the equalizer in the 37th from
Eric Shaporda, but Calvin Mitchell — who
assisted Solorio’s goal — scored unassisted
less than 90 seconds later to give Eastern a
2-1 lead at the half.
Shaporda fed Drew Williams for the tying
goal in the 70th minute to set the stage for the
Mountaineers to take the win in overtime.
EOU outshot Whitworth by a 17-10
margin and had more than double the shots
on goal (nine) as the Pirates (four). Eleven of
Eastern’s shots came before halftime.
Mitchell, Felipe Madero and Elvis Pavon
each had three shots for EOU, and goal-
keeper Max Rose had two saves.
Whitworth keeper Jesus Nunez kept the
Pirates close with six saves.
EOU (1-0 overall) hosts Embry-Riddle
(Arizona) Friday.
Ronald Bond/Observer fi le photo
Josee Bassett, left, scored a goal on a penalty kick in Eastern Oregon’s victory over
Hastings on Friday.
EOU women earn win, draw
Observer staff
The 14th-ranked Eastern
Oregon University women’s
soccer team opened the
regular season with a win
and a tie in a pair of top
15 showdowns over the
weekend.
Friday, the Mountaineers
earned a 1-0 road win over
No. 12 Hastings (Nebraska)
and on Sunday battled to
a 1-1 draw against ninth-
ranked Midland (Nebraska).
The lone goal in Friday’s
match came on a penalty
kick by Josee Bassett in the
25th minute. It was one of
only two shots on goal gen-
erated by the Mountaineers,
who took seven shots total,
but their defense made the
lead stand.
Hastings wasn’t able to do
much more on the offensive
end, managing just three
shots on goal and eight
shots total.
Eastern goalkeeper Cydni
Cottrell had three saves in
the defensive battle.
Sunday both EOU and
Midland generated more
offense than was shown
Friday, but neither was able
to come away with a win
as the teams fi nished even
after 110 minutes of play.
The Mountaineers again
scored early, getting on the
board in the 11th minute on
a goal by Camie Edgington.
The Mountaineers took
more shots in the fi rst half
(eight) than they did the en-
tire match against Hastings.
But Midland goalkeeper
Rachel Thigpen, who had
eight saves, collected four in
the fi rst half alone to keep
the Warriors in the match.
Midland found its offense
in the second half, taking
10 shots after managing
just one in the fi rst half. The
Warriors broke through in
the 67th minute on a goal
by Nayeli Rodriguez. Each
team got off a fl urry of shots
in the fi nal 20 minutes of
regulation — fi ve by Mid-
land, four by EOU.
Each team sent a shot
wide in the fi rst overtime
session. Midland had maybe
the best scoring chance in
the second overtime, but
Cottrell stopped a shot by
See Soccer / Page 8A