7A
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
The Observer
EOU advances on PKs to reach quarterfinals
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The
Eastern Oregon University
women’s soccer team contin-
ues to make history — for
the fi rst time, the Mountain-
eers advanced to the NAIA
quarterfi nals.
Josee Bassett connected
on the winning penalty
kick, and the Mountain-
eers topped No. 4 Central
Methodist (Missouri) in a
shootout, 4-3, Monday dur-
ing the second round of the
NAIA national champion-
ship tournament after the
teams played to a 1-1 draw
in regulation.
“We compete till the very
end,” EOU head coach Jacob
Plocher said. “Regardless of
how things are going, we feel
like we’re in it.”
The win means EOU faces
off against No. 12 Marian
(Indiana) in the quarterfi -
nals today with a berth in
Friday’s semifi nals at stake.
It’s the second time in as
many matches EOU has
advanced by winning a
shootout. The Mountaineers
beat John Brown University
Nov. 23 in penalties to reach
the fi nal site in Orange
Beach, Alabama.
“It all goes back to the cul-
ture of this program. We’ve
preached regardless of what
the scoreboard says, regard-
less of circumstances, we’re
going to battle the right
way for 90 or 110 minutes,”
Observer fi le photo
Eastern Oregon’s Josee Bassett, shown in a home match earlier this season, converted the winning penalty kick
Monday to help the Mountaineers advance past Central Methodist and reach the NAIA quarterfi nals.
Plocher said.
All three of Eastern’s play-
off matches have been close,
after it won its opener, 1-0,
Nov. 22 on a Morgan Far-
rington goal with less than
two minutes to play.
Eastern also is playing with
a bit of a chip on its shoulder.
The team was ranked as high
as sixth in the nation earlier
this season, but then dropped
out of the top 25 after a loss to
Oregon Tech.
“Winning these close
matches (has) really boosted
our confi dence,” Bassett
said. “Not being ranked and
proving people wrong has
been even more fuel for our
fi re.... Playing together and
for each other has really mo-
tivated us to not give up.”
Eastern (16-2-4 overall)
never trailed in the penalty
kick round. EOU goalkeeper
Savannah Hutchinson
stopped a Judith Sainz shot
on the fi rst Central Meth-
odist (22-0-1) attempt and
gave EOU the edge, and
Farrington and Nan Kiebert
each connected on the Moun-
taineers’ initial penalties.
Camie Edgington hit the
crossbar on an attempt that
would have given EOU a 3-2
lead, but Hutchinson had
another save, this time of a
Anika Kallash shot. Kayla
Storm followed with a kick
that did put Eastern up 3-2,
and when Nely Martinez
connected on the Eagles’
fi nal attempt to keep them
alive, it set the stage for Bas-
sett, and the senior put her
attempt in the bottom right
corner to send EOU on.
“Going into PKs I oddly
enough wasn’t that nervous,”
Bassett said. “I had all the
confi dence in the world in
Savannah and my team-
mates to get the job done.”
But she had to overcome
some apprehension, she said,
when she stepped up with
the chance to win the match.
“Personally I was pretty
nervous taking mine because
I had the opportunity to
win the game for us. I also
missed the last PK I took
during conference so I was
in my head while I would
take them at practice,” she
said. “Being able to make
the game-winning PK really
boosted my confi dence.”
The Mountaineers briefl y
trailed in the early stages of
the second half, when Kal-
lash converted in the 54th
minute for a 1-0 Eagles’ lead.
Freshman Erika Skindlov,
though, knotted the match
in the 56th off a pass from
Anna Hager.
Both Hutchinson and Cen-
tral Methodist keeper Sheila
Sanchez had four saves
after the tying goal — two in
the latter stages of regula-
tion and two in overtime
— to keep their respective
teams in the match. All told,
Hutchinson fi nished with
eight saves, and Sanchez
had seven.
“We had all the confi dence
in the world in Savannah,”
Plocher said of the junior,
who has fi lled in during the
playoffs with the Mountain-
eers’ starter most of the sea-
son, Cydni Cottrell, sidelined
throughout the postseason
with an injury. “Cyd got hurt,
but Savannah has stepped
See Soccer / Page 8A
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The Eastern Oregon volleyball team celebrates a point during its win over Madonna
Tuesday in its opening pool play match at the NAIA volleyball tournament.
Eastern wakes up to win
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The No. 7 Eastern Oregon
University volleyball team started off slowly
in its fi rst pool play match Tuesday morning.
But once the Mountaineers woke up —
almost quite literally — they rolled to victory.
Megan Bunn had 20 kills and 19 digs
and passed Grace DeBoodt for No. 2 on the
all-time kill list at EOU, Jet Taylor added 12
kills and four blocks, and Eastern shook off
a fi rst-set loss to topple Madonna (Michigan)
in four sets, 19-25, 25-17, 25-20, 25-22, in the
NAIA national tournament in Sioux City,
Iowa, in a match that started at 9 a.m. in
Sioux City, which was 7 a.m. in La Grande.
“To be honest, we played like we were
playing at 7 a.m.,” head coach Kaki McLean-
Morehead said of the start of the match. “It
took us a while to wake up, a while to get
going. We had some nerves and had to settle
down and play our game, which was good to
see in the second, third and fourth set.”
Madonna, perhaps not quite as affected by
the early start, used runs of 6-0 run and 5-0
to surge to a 14-3 lead in the fi rst set.
“We didn’t quite come out the way we
wanted to and I think that our bodies were
still trying to wake up a little,” said setter
Madison Pilon, who had 49 assists and
11 digs. “We were pretty reactive defensively
at the beginning and that’s not like us.”
An 8-3 run by Eastern toward the end of
the fi rst set pulled the Mountaineers within
fi ve, but, perhaps more important, gave EOU
some momentum to carry into the second set.
That set — and the rest of the morning
— belonged to EOU. A 6-1 run to start the
second set and later a 5-0 run helped the
Mountaineers take a 14-8 lead in a set they
never trailed. Bunn, who moved to 1,264 ca-
reer kills, had eight kills during the set to set
the tone on offense, while defensively EOU
simply had to adjust its positioning to slow
down the Crusaders.
It worked, too. After allowing Madonna to
post a .343 kill percentage in the fi rst set, the
Mountaineers held the Crusaders to just .164
the rest of the way.
“We just needed to make sure we were
reading the right things. They weren’t doing
anything offensively that was destroying us,”
McLean-Morehead said. “We just weren’t in
the right spot.”
Eastern bounced back from an early defi cit
in the third set to take the lead on a 6-1 run.
Taylor Tibbetts had a big hand in the rally,
posting two kills and teaming with Cambree
Scott for a block, with the block putting EOU
up 19-15. Tibbetts added another kill later
before Taylor fi nished the set with one of her
own.
Eastern struggled to put Madonna away
in the fi nal set. The Crusaders used a 6-1 run
to take a lead midway through, and still led
late, 20-19, after a block by Janelle Kwasi-
borski and Natasha Strzelewicz. But a kill
by Scott and two Madonna attack errors put
EOU ahead for good, and Scott and Taylor
See Volleyball / Page 8A
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