Box Score (PDF)

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- Eastern Illinois volleyball dropped a five-set Ohio Valley Conference heartbreaker (23-25, 25-21, 18-25, 25-21, 21-19) on Saturday evening to visiting Jacksonville State despite having four different Panthers nail double-digit kills in the match.

The loss drops Eastern to 10-20 overall and 7-12 in the league as the Panthers have officially been eliminated from post-season OVC Tournament consideration.

Junior Emily Franklin led all Panthers with 24 kills and added 15 digs to earn her second consecutive double-double and fifth all-time.  She also hit .346 on the night and led her team with two service aces.

Sophomore Reynae Hutchinson chipped in 14 kills and upped 11 JSU attacks to nab her 13th duo-duo of the year and 16th in her career.

Junior Alison Berens and Stephanie Arnold each floored 12 and 10 kills of their own off respective attacks of .303 and .261.  Arnold also earned her first career kill-block double-double as she led all players with 10 stuffs, while Berens added five of her own.

Senior setter Chrissie Albers dished out 60 assists and notched an assist-dig double-double with the addition of 11 ups.  That moves her career duo-duo mark to 20 all-time with eight having come in her final year in a Panther uniform.

Senior libero Brittany Wallace finished with a team-high 16 digs to move her career tally of 15+ digs in a match to 45 all-time.

Team-wise, the Panthers out-hit the Gamecocks (10-18/8-10) via a .287 to .285 advantage.  Eastern also out-served JSU with a five-to-four lead and owned the net defense via a 15.5 to seven block mark.

JSU was led by Liza Senenkova's 23 kills off a .442 attack.  Hivya Leite and Stephanie Koontz added 19 and 18 kills as JSU finished with a 79-to-69 lead in total kills over EIU.  The setting duo of Alina Agamy and Abbey Heredia dished out 35 and 33 assists, respectively.  While defensively, Lauren Harkins dug 22 Panther attacks to top all players on the court.

The Panthers lead early to open the match and never relinquished the lead en route to the 25-23 victory, despite several attempts by JSU to cut into the Panther advantage.

The second frame went to JSU in pretty much the same fashion, although the Panthers did manage to tie the visitors five times, but could never get a lead as they lost, 25-21, as JSU evened the match at a set apiece.

The third set started strong for JSU as the Gamecocks led 6-2, but the home squad would slowly pull to a seven-all tie.  Neither squad would lead by more than two points up until the 16-all point of the match.  EIU would go on a late-set push thanks to a 9-2 run to take the 2-1 match lead off the 25-18 win.

The fourth frame was a story of multi-point runs as EIU lead early at 7-2, but JSU countered to tie it at 11-all.  The Panthers pushed ahead to 16-12, yet the visitors did the same to knot it again at 17-all.  At 19-apiece, JSU would use four kills to earn their own late-set surge win of 25-21, forcing a fifth and deciding frame.

The wild final set started strong for the Panthers as Eastern led 7-1.  The teams switched sides with EIU ahead at 8-4.  At that point JSU slowly kept cutting into the Panther lead to eventually tie it at 13-all.  JSU had the first of four match-points at 14-13, but Eastern kept coming back as the entire crowd was on their feet as teams tied again at 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19.  Eastern actually had match-point three times, but were unable to gut out the win as consecutive JSU kills off the arm of Senenkova gave the visiting team the come-from-behind win.

In one of the more heated matches played at Lantz Arena this season, the contest featured 27 ties and nine lead changes as JSU earned the regular-season split versus the Panthers.  EIU had previous won their own five-set affair down in Jacksonville, Alabama last month as that Panther win helped to snap a 12-match losing streak to their OVC arch rivals, yet JSU now enjoys an all-time series lead of 14-3.

Panthers will complete the 2011 campaign next Saturday afternoon, hosting OVC foe UT Martin in Lantz Arena.  EIU will honor two graduating seniors – Chrissie Albers and Brittany Wallace – prior to the first serve at 2 p.m.

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