Box Score

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- Four Panthers registered double-digit kills as Eastern Illinois volleyball won a five-set thriller at Ohio Valley Conference west division leader Southeast Missouri (25-18, 13-25, 20-25, 25-17, 15-10) on Saturday (Oct. 27) afternoon.

With the win, Eastern improves to 8-18 overall and currently sit in fourth place in the league west division standings at 5-7.

Reynae Hutchinson led all players on the court with 21 put-downs off a .255 attack from the outside, while the junior also tallying a new personal-high 22 digs to nab her 22nd career double-double.

Senior middle Alison Berens followed with 13 kills, paced the EIU net defense with five blocks and tied sophomore serving/defensive specialist Dakota Springer with two aces.

Freshman Abby Saalfrank and junior Stephanie Arnold chipped in 12 and 10 kills, respectively, as the duo also joined setter Marah Bradbury with four blocks.

Bradbury came one assist shy of tying her previous career high of 56 as she dished out 55 assists and upped 12 SEMO attacks to garner her fourth assist-dig duo-duo performance of her freshman campaign.

Freshman Stephanie Wallace, who took over starting libero play in the last three sets, finished 20 digs, while sophomore Kelsey Brooke added 19 of her own in the back court.

SEMO had just one player -- Colleen Yarber – finish with double-digit kills, as she led the Redhawks (18-10/9-3) with 18 put-a-ways and added her own double-double with the addition of 15 digs.

Team-wise, the Panthers dominated their long-time league rivals in nearly every stat category, including kills (67-to-55), attack (.206-.160), assists (63-to-49), digs (93-to-87), blocks (11.0-to-eight), and points (82.0-to-68.0).  SEMO did win the service game off a slight five-to-four lead in aces.

Meeting for the 42nd time, the match featured 19 ties and six lead changes as the Panthers jumped out to a 1-0 match lead via the 25-18 first set win as EIU out-hit the host team, .361-to-.226 in the opening frame.  After a 7-all tie, the Panthers would go on 12-4 run force SEMO to burn their final timeout as EIU lead 19-11.  The Redhawks would counter with their own late-set run, but not before EIU would take the set, 25-18.

SEMO jumped out to early set two lead en route to the relatively easy 25-13 win to tie the match, eventually taking a 2-1 lead in the contest with a 25-20 win in the third frame.

After a 10-all fourth set tie, Eastern would slowly claw ahead off a nice 6-2 run, eventually enjoying a sizeable 23-16 advantage, before winning 25-17 and force a fifth and deciding set.

Eastern jumped ahead 2-0 to start the fifth, but SEMO countered to tie it at 3-all and 5-all.  Consecutive Redhawk kills and an EIU miscue would give the home squad a sizeable 9-6 lead, but that's when the Panthers made their move, going on a 4-1 run to knot the set a 10-all.  Eastern would maintain the momentum the rest of the way scratching past their arch-rivals via a 5-0 run to earn the upset off the 15-10 win.

Despite the victory, EIU still continues to trail SEMO in the all-time series history, 27-15, but did snap a recent three-match Redhawk win streak, and picked up the Panthers' first win in Cape Girardeau, Mo. since winning in straight sets back in 2010.

Panthers return home to host I-70 foe IUPUI in the final regular-season, non-conference match of the year on Tuesday (Oct. 30) evening, with first serve set for 7 p.m. at Lantz Arena.

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