SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - The College of Southern Idaho Volleyball team started slowly in both its matches Saturday but finished strong, beating #5 Northwest College 22-25, 25-16, 25-10, 25-21 and #16 Missouri State University West Plains 14-25, 24-26, 25-19, 25-22, 15-11.
The Golden Eagles put together one of their highest hitting percentage games against Northwest, finishing with a .266 percentage. Leading the way was Shiloh Peleras with 12 kills. Ashelyn Jones added 10 kills. Defensively Esti Wilson led the Golden Eagles with 16 digs. Setter Marija Djonovic posted 25 assists, four aces and six digs.
CSI started again slow against Missouri State, struggling to find any consistency in it offensive attack. The Golden Eagles managed just seven kills with nine errors in the opening set. The Golden Eagles took leads in the second set, holding a 22-20 and 24-23 lead but couldn't sustain, giving up two kills and finishing the set with a CSI hitting error to fall behind two sets to none.
The Golden Eagles eliminated hitting errors and started putting up a huge block in games three and four behind freshman middle blocker Peleras. She finished the match with 13 kills and 12 blocks.
CSI never trailed in the fifth and final set but saw it tied four times.
After a Missouri service error made it 9-7 in favor of CSI, Peleras added kill and Missouri followed with a hitting error to give the Golden Eagles the 11-7 lead. Missouri didn't go away though as it pulled within two on two straight kills. From there CSI rolled. Ivana Trencheva scored on a kill before Missouri had two hitting errors, one a block by Peleras and Wodke. After CSI served match point out and Missouri pulled within 14-11 on a kill, Jones put away the final point for the win.
Wodke finished the match with 10 kills and 23 digs. Wilson added 21 digs, while Jojo Kruize had 11 kills and 18 digs. Djonovic finished the match with 40 assists and 10 digs.
The Golden Eagles, now 5-3 overall, host the Starr Corportation Invitationals Friday and Saturday.