Pre-Championship Notes (PDF)

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- The entire season has led to this week, as Eastern Illinois volleyball is set to partake in the three-day, eight-team Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, hosted by regular-season champion Murray State in Murray, Ky. on Nov. 20-22.  The #6-Panthers will face #3-Eastern Kentucky in the 10 a.m. opening match on Thursday (Nov. 20) morning at Racer Arena.

The Panthers finished the regular-season with an even 8-8 OVC mark, and 14-15 overall record, tying Austin Peay for sixth place out of 12 squads.  After earning the tiebreaker thanks to two wins over the Lady Govs during the year, Eastern enters the tourney as the sixth seed and for the second consecutive year will open league tourney action on Thursday morning versus the Eastern Kentucky Colonels, who enter as the third seed.  Last season, the rankings were reversed as EKU upset the Panthers in a five-set thriller to end EIU's season early in the opening round.

The eventual tourney champ will determine which squad will represent the league at upcoming NCAA Regional action.

Live stats and web streaming of all the tourney action is available via Murray State's website (GoRacers.com), with semifinal and championship play also being streamed live via the ESPN3.com network.

PANTHER QUICK SETS
•    EIU advances to the end-of-season league tourney for the third consecutive year and 11th time.  The Panthers own an even 9-9 mark at the tourney, which includes the 2001 title (and NCAA berth), plus three runner-up honors and three semifinalists finishes.
•    Unfortunately, EIU has dropped their last three opening-round matchups in the event, including losing to SEMO in five sets in 2005, falling to BEL in a four-set affair in 2012, and last year's marathon loss to EKU.
•    Marah Bradbury earned her 10th career OVC 'Setter of the Week' honor this past Monday (Nov. 17) as she paced the league last week with 102 total assists (11.33 aps) and helped the Panthers finish with an impressive .261 team weekend attack.  She also recorded her 32nd all-time assist-dig double-double off a 62-assists/10-dig performance in the regular-season finale at TSU last Saturday.
•    The loss to the Tigers on Saturday snapped EIU's season-high four-match win streak in the late season.
•    Quick look at team stats and the Panthers continue to lead the opposition in nearly every stat category, including owning team bests in kills, attack, assists, aces, digs, and points, yet just trailing in overall blocks.
•    Juniors Abby Saalfrank and Chelsea Lee both sport 300+ kills on the season as the duo own respective 390 (3.31 kps) and 384 (3.25 kps) numbers, while Saalfrank also leads her squad with 437.5 points.  Lee follows with 410.0 points of her own as she leads with a .205 attack, while Saalfrank is hitting .202 heading into the tourney.
•    Newcomer Allie Hueston owns the net defense with 104 total blocks, including 12 solo and 92 assisted stuffs.  Last weekend she broke the freshman block record which had stood since the 2002 campaign by former standout Megan Kennedy.  Hueston is also hitting .254 on the season with 241 kills and a 322 point tally.  As of now, she also sports a new true freshman mark for attack, the previous mark (.241) was set by current junior Abby Saalfrank in 2012.
•    Redshirt-freshman Josie Winner currently leads all full-time EIU hitters with her own .278 clip as she has 172 put-downs on the season.
•    Junior setter Marah Bradbury has dished out 1284 assists this season (10.88 aps) which ranks second in the OVC for the entire season and third in league-only contests.  She also has ten assist-dig double-double performances this season, and 32 for her career.
•    Behind the service line, senior serving and defensive specialist Dakota Springer continues to fire on all cylinders as she leads her squad with 30 aces on the year.  That mark ranks 10th overall in the OVC, while her 23 league-only tally sita all alone in second place.
•    Fellow junior Stephanie Wallace leads the backcourt defense with 515 digs (4.56), as she ranks second in the OVC for league-only action.
•    Individually, seven EIU players continue to rank in the OVC Top 10 in a variety of stat categories, led by Bradbury's second place tally for assists-per-set and Springer's runner-up mark for aces in league-only action.  Wallace also owns Top 5 dig totals for both the season and in conference play.  While in OVC-only stat numbers, Hueston and Winner sit fourth in respective block and hitting % ranks.
•    Team-wise, Eastern ranks second in six different stat categories, including hitting %, assists and kills for the season, plus runner-up honors in OVC-only action in assists, kills and also aces.

QUOTING HEAD COACH KATE PRICE
"We are excited to be in a position to be returning to the tournament as four other teams have not made it," said fifth year head coach Kate Price.  "Wins and losses no longer matter as everyone is on an even level again, yet we need to beat EKU to advance.

"We saw them at home and they are a good team, so we will need to be prepared for what they want to do," she added.  "The excitement is high and the past few years we have made the tournament only to lose in the first round, we will look to get a tournament victory this year."

EIU TRIO EARNS ALL-OVC KUDOS
•    For the third straight season, the Panthers have nabbed at least three All-Ohio Valley Conference post-season honors, as was announced by the league office prior to the start of the OVC tourney.
•    Juniors Marah Bradbury and Abby Saalfrank were each named to the All-OVC team, while newcomer Allie Hueston earned a spot on the OVC All-Newcomer unit following her fine freshman campaign.
•    The awards for Bradbury and Saalfrank mark the fourth career honor for the duo, as Bradbury also earned All-OVC kudos last fall, while both previously were named to the All-Newcomer Team in 2012 as Saalfrank was also tabbed as the OVC 'Freshman of the Year' that same season.
•    Bradbury and Saalfrank have also earned Preseason All-OVC honors prior to the start of their 2014 and 2013 seasons, respectively.

PANTHERS EARN WEEKLY HONORS
•    This week Bradbury earned her 10th career OVC 'Setter of the Week' honor, while last Monday, she joined Saalfrank to nab two of the three weekly OVC accolades, as they earned respective 'Offensive Player' and 'Setter' honors following their fine previous weekend play.  Last week's award for Saalfrank marked the second in her Panther career.
•    Early in September, Saalfrank joined Wallace to earn 'Offensive Player' and 'Co-Defense' Players of the Week awards, respectively.  The honor for Wallace marked a career first.

OFFENSIVE HIGHLIGHTS
•    For kills, Lee's 28 putdowns vs. DePaul back in late September is the most by a Panther this season, as her 29.5 point tally is also the best mark by an EIU player this season.
•    Allie Hueston's .619 attack vs. East Carolina not only ranks as the top clip this season, but also set a new school record for a five-set contest.
•    Bradbury dished out a season-best 63 assists in an early-season five-set road loss at JSU.  She also fired off four aces at SIUE this past week, to tie three additional Panthers in that season-best category.  She now owns 3,556 career assists to rank second most for the current OVC-era, and fourth all-time during the overall NCAA DI years.
•    In individual match-by-match highs this season, Lee has led the squad in kills in 14 contests while Saalfrank has been tops in points 13 times.  Hueston and Wallace have led the team's blocking and digging defense on 20 and 28 occasions, respectively.  While in aces, Bradbury, Saalfrank and Wallace have all fired off team-best ace numbers in eight contests.

DEFENSIVE ACCOLADES
•    Wallace paces all Panthers with 537 digs this season, which currently ranks third-best in EIU single-season ranks.  Earlier this year she notched a new career-high 31 ups during EIU's win over DePaul at the Penn State Classic early in the year.  That performance helped her earn a spot on the Panthers' career 1,000-Dig club.  She now sports 1,345 all-time digs and continues to move up the EIU record book as she now ranks 12th out of 26 members of the 1,000-Dig Club during the NCAA DI era.  While in the OVC-era (1996-present), she sits in seventh place overall.
•    Fifth-year senior Kelsey Brooke sports 953 career digs and could possibly also add her name to the EIU 1,000-Dig club as well as she has upped 277 opponent attacks this season to rank second on the squad.
•    At the net, Hueston leads the way with 104 total blocks, including 92 assisted and 12 solo stuffs.  As mentioned earlier, that mark is a new freshman record by a Panther blocker.  She roofed a season-best eight Racer attacks as EIU dropped a tough four-set affair at OVC regular-season champ Murray State.

PANTHERS RANKED IN THE NCAA
•    Bradbury and Wallace continue to rank in the NCAA Top 50 for respective assist and dig numbers.  Bradbury's 1,284 season assist tally sits at fifth (out of 150 ranked) in the nation, while also 42nd off her 10.88 aps mark.  Wallace is 33rd (of 150) this year with 537 digs.  Saalfrank also sits 74th in total kills with 390
•    Team-wise, the Panthers are ranked seventh in the nation for overall kills, eighth for total assists, 12th in attacks and 23rd in team digs.

EIU OVC TOURNEY HISTORY
•    Eastern is making their third straight appearance at the end-of-season OVC tourney.
•    Panthers own an even 9-9 record at the event, but have lost their last three opening-round matches, including falling in 2005, 2012 and last fall.
•    EIU won the 2001 OVC Tourney to advance to their first NCAA Regional and have also finished second three times, the last of which came about in 2004.

DOUBLE-DOUBLE TOIL & TROUBLE
•    Thus far this year, Saalfrank has notched 12 kill-dig duo-duo performances, which ups her career tally to 13 all-time.  She earned consecutive double-doubles in EIU's home wins over EKU and MOR last weekend.
•    Bradbury, meanwhile, has now registered 32 all-time assist-dig double-doubles of her own, including her recent 62-A/10-D performance in EIU's tough marathon loss at TSU.
•    Newcomer Maria Brown also has two career double-doubles under her belt, as she added to her season tally with a 10-K/13-D match at SEMO last month.

ANOTHER LOOK AT THE COLONELS
•    Eastern Kentucky earned the third seed of the OVC tourney off their 21-13 overall and 11-5 league mark this season.  The Colonels enter the event having won their last two matches.
•    Alexis Plagens continues to lead her squad with 452 kills (3.50 kps) and 508 points.  She also leads behind the service line with 36 aces and has 264 digs to her credit, yet is hitting just .187.
•    Rahel Vick follows with 353 kills of her own, while owning the top attack at a .314 clip and ranking second in blocks with 91.
•    Ciera Koons owns the net defense with 98 stuffs.
•    Setter Abbey Cvelbar has dished out 1285 assists (10.04) and owns her own tough serve with 30 aces.
•    In back row defense, senior Dena Ott has made her case for OVC Defensive Player of the Year kudos as she leads the league with 653 digs.
•    In team numbers, EKU leads their opposition in nearly every statistical category, except in total assists and blocks.
•    EKU sports just a 5-12 overall record when playing at the OVC tourney, yet did ruin EIU's season last fall by upsetting the Panthers in a five-set thriller before falling in the semifinal match.
•    The all-time DI series between EIU and EKU is now tied at 18-all, thanks the Panthers' convincing home three-set sweep of the Colonels during the regular-season.  That Panther win helped snap a two-match winning streak by the Colonels.  A quick overall look at the series history shows that EIU won 14 of the first 16 meetings, dating off-and-on back to 1983 thru early 2002.  From that point on, however, the Panthers have only been able to pick up four victories in 20 matchups to their fellow Eastern rival.

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