No. 14 Eastern Oregon showed they were worthy of their national ranking as they swept past Northwest University 3-0 (25-15, 25-12, 25-21) to improve to 13-1 overall and 3-0 in Cascade Conference play on Friday.

EOU opened up the first set with three straight kills following an NU attack error. A kill by Isabelle Statkus would make it 13-5, but Northwest would put together a 9-3 run after a service ace by Olivia VanDlac and an EOU attack error to close the gap to 16-14. The nationally ranked Mountaineers would then outscore the Eagles 9-1, capped off with kills by Amanda Miller and Casey Loper to win the set.

Errors plagued the Eagles in the second set as EOU would lead 13-6 following three straight NU miscues. A Miller kill, error by Northwest and a service ace by EOU’s Piper Cantrell would grow the Mountie lead to 19-9 as they would close out the set with Kasaundra Tuma’s kill to go up 2-0 in sets.

Northwest would get off to a good start in the final set taking a 13-9 lead highlighted by Rae Ann Haistings (Redmond, Wash.) kill. With NU leading 15-12, EOU would score four straight points to take the lead for the first time in the set at 16-15. NU would battle back to tie the score twice, but each time EOU would answer to re-take the lead. Leading 23-21, Casey Loper would come through with two straight kills to give the Mountaineers the three set victory.

Amanda Waterman had 5 kills and 9 digs for Northwest U (7-8, 0-4 CCC). Morgan Pilon had 10 assists and teammate Leia Roy had 22 digs for the Eagles.

Eastern Oregon (13-1, 4-0 CCC) was led by Casey Loper’s 11 kills. Isabelle Statkus added 7 kills and Rachelle Chamberlain had a match high 24 assists. Jessalyn Smith led the Mounties with 15 digs for the match.