Box Score (PDF)

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- Eastern Illinois volleyball ended the 2011 campaign with an impressive four-set Ohio Valley Conference victory over visiting UT Martin (21-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-16) on Saturday afternoon.  With the win, the Panthers finish the season at 11-20 overall and 8-12 in league play.

Outside hitter Emily Franklin led all players with 20 kills and added 14 digs to finish her junior season with six double-doubles.

Fellow junior Alison Berens added 13 put-downs of her own behind a nice .455 attack.  Meanwhile, sophomores Reynae Hutchinson and Stephanie Arnold both chipped in nine kills each to the Panther offense.

Prior to the match, seniors Chrissie Albers and Brittany Wallace were honored for their contribution to the Panther volleyball program and both proceeded to have a nice final match in an EIU uniform.

Albers nabbed her 27th career assist-dig double-double, with 21 of those coming in three years of work as a Panther.  She dished out 50 assists and upped 12 UTM attacks.  She ends her Panther career with 2,397 assists, which ranks as the seventh best during the Division I years and fourth all-time during the OVC era (1996-present).  Her 9.78 assists-per-set mark is also ranked in the EIU Top 5 career-wise.

Wallace, meanwhile, registered 14 digs to end her four-year EIU career as the top full-time libero in school history (2002-present).  She ends with 1,459 career digs for a 3.63 digs-per-set average.  She ranks 5th in DI seasons and 4th best during the OVC playing years.

In other defense stats, Hutchinson added a team-high 16 digs, while Arnold led the net defense with eight blocks.

Serving and defensive specialist Dakota Springer had a fine final game of her freshman year as she drilled three service aces.

Despite leading for most of the opening set, the Panthers were unable to earn the win as the visiting squad slowly cut into the EIU lead before going on a 9-5 run to gut out the 25-21 first frame win.

However, from that point on, the Panthers seemed to control the momentum the rest of the way, which included limiting a normally hot-hitting Skyhawk squad to a low of -.049 in the second set.  With just four ties in the second frame, the Panthers would tie the match with the 25-20 win.  UTM did manage to make a late set push to make the margin of loss much more respectable.

Set three had EIU take the early 3-0 lead and maintained that advantage until UTM slowly tied it at 12-all off consecutive EIU miscues.  However, Eastern fired off four straight points to own an 18-14 lead.  A final 7-4 push by the Panthers would give all the momentum to the home squad via the 25-18 third set win.

The final frame started off tight with a 3-all tie, but the Panthers erupted for a 6-0 run, thanks to tough serving by Springer.  Up 13-7, the Panthers would maintain a five or six-point lead and earned the 20th point first up 20-13.  Two kills by Arnold and an UTM error, plus a Hutchinson kill would pull EIU closer to the match win as they suddenly led 23-14.  A Skyhawk serving error and a kill off the UTM block by Franklin would grant Eastern the 25-16 fourth set win and the match victory.

UTM (17-13/12-8) were led by Kelly Hogan's 10 kills, but the normally hot-hitting Skyhawks were limited to just a .107 attack, plus their dig margins was also significantly lower than their season average.  However, Kasey Elswick did manage to lead all players on the court with 21 digs.

The Panthers topped the Skyhawks in nearly every statistical category in the win, including kills (56 to 42), attack (.236 to .107), assists (54 to 41), digs (64 to 56), blocks (11.0 to five), and points (73.0 to 54.0).  UT Martin did earn a slight 7-6 advantage in service aces while both squads finished with six serve errors apiece.

With the win, EIU increased their all-time series lead over UTM to 21-13 and earned the season split versus the Skyhawks after dropping a three-set affair on the road to UTM earlier in the season.

The Panthers are set to return 10 letterwinners from this squad for the 2012 season.

... for more info, contact Bart Rettberg, Asst. SID