Box Score CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Eastern Illinois volleyball dropped a hard-fought five-set affair at Ohio Valley Conference arch-rival Southeast Missouri (23-25, 25-23, 25-19, 18-25, 15-10) on Saturday evening, despite having three Panthers nail double-digit kill numbers.
The loss moves EIU to 9-12 overall and 3-5 at the mid-point of the conference season, while the Redhawks of SEMO improved to 8-14 and an even 4-4 in the OVC. Â The battle came down to which team would currently sit in seventh place in the league standings.
Junior
Abby Saalfrank continued her fine weekend play by pacing all players on the court with 22 kills, while securing a .475 attack. Â She also added an ace, four digs, and two blocks. Â Classmate
Chelsea Lee chipped in 17 additional put-downs.
Freshman
Maria Brown recorded her second career double-double off her 10 kill, 13 dig performance, and led all players at the net with five blocks.
Junior setter
Marah Bradbury secured her own 60 assist, 13 dig duo-duo, tying fellow junior
Stephanie Wallace and redshirt-freshman
Josie Winner with two aces apiece.
Wallace tied Brown and Bradbury with 13 digs as well, while senior
Kelsey Brooke tallied 12 ups off the SEMO attack.
Team-wise, the Panthers out-paced the host squad in kills, attacks, assists, digs, and points, while SEMO led EIU in overall attack, aces and blocks.
Junior Taylor Masterson's 16 kills and .609 clip led the way for the Redhawks, while seniors Andrea Baylin and Kelsey Keeve each chipped in 12 put-downs. Â Freshman Nzingha Clarke added 10 kills and made her presence known at the net with eight total stuffs.
Meeting for the 45th time, the contest featured 29 ties and seven lead changes as SEMO extended their all-time series lead over the Panthers to 29-16. Â It also marked the third consecutive time that the two rivals battled to five sets when playing at SEMO.
The current EIU four-match road swing continues next weekend as the Panthers will have rematches versus Austin Peay and Murray State on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Â Just a week ago at home Eastern fell to the Racers but picked up a five-set win over the Lady Govs.
... for more info, contact Bart Rettberg, Asst. SID
