Box Score

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- Currently enjoying a season-long three-match winning streak, the Eastern Illinois volleyball squad gutted out a crucial five-set home win over Ohio Valley Conference west division rival Austin Peay (25-22, 21-25, 25-18, 23-25, 15-11) on Saturday afternoon.

Five different Panthers registered double-digit kill totals as junior Reynae Hutchinson and freshman Abby Saalfrank each drilled 15 put-a-ways from the outside attack.  Hutchinson, meanwhile, upped her career kill-dig double-double tally to 21 with the addition of 17 digs in the contest.

EIU also had the middles firing in all cylinders as senior Alison Berens and junior Stephanie Arnold both chipped in 12 kills off respective attack clips of .250 and .357.

Kayla Nesbitt added 10 kills on the leftside as the freshman committed zero errors to register an impressive .526 clip, which naturally set a new career attack mark.

Freshman setter Marah Bradbury did a fine job of sharing the ball to a variety of hitters as she set a new career high assist tally with 56, while tying Arnold with four blocks each.

In other defensive numbers, sophomore libero Kelsey Brooke led all back court players with 18 digs, while freshman defensive specialist Stephanie Wallace upped 13 APSU attacks as well.

Berens paced the Panthers behind the service line with three aces.

Team-wise, the Panthers led the Lady Govs (13-13/6-4) in nearly every stat category, which included kills (68-to-65), attack (.260-to-.232), aces, (seven-to-five), digs (70-to-68), blocks (eight-to-five), and points (83.0-to-75.0), as EIU set new season-highs for kills, assists and points.   Both squads finished with identical 63 assist numbers.

APSU was led by senior Nikki Doyle's 25 kills, while Jada Stotts finished with a 13-kill, 11-dig duo-duo of her own and drilled two aces.  Hillary Plybon followed with 13 kills, a .400 attack and a team-high four blocks, as Lauren Henderson tallied an additional 11 put-downs.  Libero Liz Landon led all Lady Govs with 14 digs.

Meeting for the 34th time, the match featured 21 ties and eight lead changes as the all-time series between the two league rivals is now tied at 17-all following Eastern's home win, which also snaped a five-match win streak by the Lad Govs.  The two OVC foes end up splitting the regular-season series with both squads capturing home victories.

The Panthers return to action on Tuesday (Oct. 23), hosting regional rival Saint Louis at 7 p.m.  EIU and the Billikens will meet on the volleyball court for the first time since 2003.

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