CEU volleyball crushes southern Idaho
By TERRY WILLIS
Sun Advocate sports reporter
In a huge upset, the CEU womens volleyball team came out triumphant over the College of Southern Idaho (CSI) this weekend. Its been 13 years since the Eagles managed such victory.
CSI is ranked third in the Nation, and it took five sets, but the final outcome was 25-23, 16-25, 27-25, 15-25, 15-13.
Competition continued, but against the number one ranked team, CEU wasn't as fortunate and lost in three. Neither Idaho team came managed a win either with 25-16, 25-22, 25-22.
By games end Coach Brent Martindale was bursting at the seams.
"Yes, it was the very first time we have beaten CSI in a match! I'm not proud that we haven't beaten them; there were times we should have done much better. But they have always been much stronger than us. This year, however, we are better than we have been. We have experience, height, internationals and some real great work ethic."
He went on to say, "I think the single biggest factor in helping us get motivated this last week was our loss to Snow last Friday night in Ephraim. We didn't play badly. We just didn't want it as bad as Snow did. But it made us get a little angry, and we battled through practice all week with a real intent. And I think it showed against CSI."
It was the second time this season CEU has gone to five games in a match, and they have won both of them.
Barbara Jardim led the team with 17 kills, three blocks and 11 digs. Alexis Adams had 13 kills and 18 digs. Megan Garvin put up 11 kills. Chloe Wilson came up with seven blocks. Cami Hussey had 14 digs. Julia Potts dished 45 assists, 15 digs.
"The keys to winning were two areas:first, we held our errors to a much lower number than our season average. We had fewer hitting errors, and only five serving errors. The second key to winning was our team heart. We never got down on ourselves or each other, something that has hurt us a little in the past. CSI had their chances to win, but it was like we just weren't going to let them. I told the team we "blue-collared" them to death," added Martindale about the big win."As for me, it was the most exciting moment I have had since being here at CEU. It was a true team effort, ranging from the hard work of the girls, to the volunteer hours spent by my assistant coaches Grant Barraclough, Kevin Bower and our team helper, Mariana Becheli.
They have all given and sacrificed for the team cause."
The Cinderella winning streak didn't carry over against number one ranked NIC on Saturday.
NIC has more weapons than the other teams in the conference right now. The Eagles stayed with them in each game.
But in the end NIC played too tough for too long and beat them in three sets.
Jardim again led CEU with 10 kills. Sabrina Simas had nine kills and Alexis Adams added eight.
CEU is on the road to play their final conference match at Colorado Northwestern CC on Friday, Oct. 30.
They then get ready to play Snow College in the first round of the SWAC tournament on Friday, Nov. 6 at 1 p.m. The location of the tournament is up in the air until after the SLCC/NIC match next Saturday. The winner will host the tournament.
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