Box Score Photo Gallery (
Sandy King)
CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois volleyball picked up a 3-1 (25-20, 25-15, 18-25, 25-12) home-opening victory over Ohio Valley Conference rival SIU Edwardsville on Wednesday (Oct. 1) evening to improve to 7-9 overall and 1-2 in early league action.
Panthers will return to the court this coming Saturday afternoon as EIU is set to entertain Belmont (6-10/2-1) at 2 p.m. at Lantz Arena.
Junior
Chelsea Lee paced all Panthers in the win with 13 kills, while redshirt-freshman
Josie Winner followed with 10 put-downs of her own off a nice .444 attack. Â For the match, the Panthers out-hit the visiting Cougars (8-10/0-3), .358-to-.148.
Fellow junior
Abby Saalfrank and newcomer
Allie Hueston chipped in nine kills apiece, while freshman
Maria Brown added eight additional kills to round-out the Panther attack.
Junior setter
Marah Bradbury dished out 40 assists and hit .429 in the win with three kills and zero miscues. Â
Defensively, junior libero
Stephanie Wallace led all players on the court with 11 digs, while Hueston was a force at the net with five blocks. Â Hueston also tied senior defensive/serving specialist
Dakota Springer with a pair of unreturnable serves.
In addition to leading the Cougars in the attack game, EIU also held the stat advantage over SIUE in team kills (53-to-45), assists (48-to-43), aces (six-to-five), digs (44-to-39), digs (seven-to-six), and points (66.0-to-56.0). Â Eastern did finish with one additional service error, while both squads tallied five blocking and one ball-handling miscue, respectively.
The match featured just four ties and three lead changes, as each unit pulled ahead for early leads in each of their respective sets won. Â EIU hit a blistering .522 in the opening set, to .222 for the Cougars, while the Panthers enjoyed a .407-to-.121 attack advantage in the second frame. Â SIUE would turn the tables in the third by out-hitting Eastern, .208-to-.037 to extend the match, but the Panthers would earn the four-set win with a .469-to-.079 clip mark in the deciding set.
SIUE freshman Ashley Witt paced all players offensively with 16 kills, while hitting .367 and nailing three aces. Â Sophomore Taylor Held added 10 additional kills for the Cougars, while newcomer Katie Shashack led her squad's back row defense with 10 digs. Â EIU held the OVC attack leader, junior Kristen Torre, in check all match as she finished with just seven kills, yet did earn four total roofs at the net.
Tonight's match marks the tenth meeting between the two instate league rivals, as EIU has now won four straight to extend their series lead to 6-4 all-time.
... for more info, contact Bart Rettberg, Asst. SID
