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Photo Gallery (Sandy King)
CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Eastern Illinois volleyball squad dropped their third consecutive match as visiting Austin Peay swept the Panthers (25-21, 25-23, 25-18) to move the Panthers to 7-10 overall and 1-4 in Ohio Valley Conference action.
No Panther earned double-digit kills, although junior outside hitter Alex Zwettler and sophomore middle blocker Melanie Boykins each registered nine put-a-ways apiece. Sophomore outside hitter Kelsey Orr, who is back in the EIU starting lineup after a time away from the court due to an ankle injury, chipped in eight kills.
Defensively, Zwettler tied sophomore libero Brittany Wallace with 14 digs apiece. Freshman middle #Stephanie Arnold, playing in only the second and third set, finished with four total blocks to lead all players on the court.
Senior outside hitter Stephanie Champine led Austin Peay (9-4/3-0) with 20 kills off a .362 attack, committing only three errors in the match. Sophomore Ilyanna Hernandez added 10 kills of her own and led with a .444 hitting average. Sophomore Paige Economos led all players with 15 ups, while adding two aces for the Lady Govs.
Team-wise, APSU led in kills (44-36), attack (.263 to .117), digs (53 to 48) and points (54.0 to 47.0), while the Panthers won the blocking game, six to five. Both teams finished with five services aces, although EIU only had one error, while APSU nailed seven bad serves.
Sets one and two featured 27 ties and 14 lead changes as both squads battled nearly point-for-point. With both squads tied at 19 in the first frame, the visitors would end up going on a 6-2 run to pick-up the win, 25-21, thanks to six Lady Gov kills. APSU would out-hit EIU .361 to .135 in the first set.
The second set also went down the wire, but this time the two teams would continue to tie off and on up to 23-all. EIU actually had a short-lived 22-21 lead, but allowed the Govs to pull ahead for the win, 25-23, as APSU continued to use their outside attack against the Panthers, although a couple of untimely EIU errors didn't help matters. Again EIU lost the hitting game as APSU held a .262 to .132 advantage.
Unfortunately for Eastern, the third set started off strong for the Lady Govs, as they took a commanding 7-0 lead, via some tough serves and consecutive EIU errors. The Panthers rebounded some to pull to within 10-13 following an ace from Melanie Boykins and kill by Alex Zwettler. But the Govs would continue to enjoy a two-to-three point cushion that they would not relinguish. However, APSU did end up burning a timeout while up, 17-14, following a rare unforced attack error. But once again, a late run by the Lady Govs would give the squad the win, 25-18, as they outscored the Panthers 8-2 down the streth to earn the sweep. Yet again, APSU ended up out-hitting EIU, .175 to .089.
Meeting for the 28th time, the loss to APSU moves the Lady Govs to within 12-16 in the all-time series, as the squad from Clarksville, Tenn. picked up their third straight victory over the Panthers, dating back to last season.
EIU will have next week to prepare for another long conference road swing, playing three matches in five days. First up is a 6 pm match at league-leading Morehead State on Friday, followed by a 1 pm contest on Saturday at winless Eastern Kentucky. Then the squad travels to UT Martin for a 7 pm matchup the following Tuesday evening.
... for more info, contact Bart Rettberg, Asst. SID
