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CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois volleyball hit past visiting Morehead State (25-20, 25-21, 25-15) on Saturday evening to earn the Panthers' third consecutive Ohio Valley Conference sweep.

The win moves EIU to 13-14 overall and even 7-7 in league action to now tie for sixth place in the conference standings.  The Eagles drop to 2-27 and 2-12, respectively.

Junior Abby Saalfrank led all players with a 15 kill, 14 dig double-double performance, as now sports 13 all-time in her career. The rightside attacker also finished with a fine .464 attack while also delivering a pair of aces.

Classmate Chelsea Lee added 12 kills of her own behind a .400 clip, while also earning a pair of blocks.

Fellow junior Marah Bradbury handed out 38 assists, while helping lead Eastern to a .293 match attack.  She also had a fine night at the net defensively, tying freshman Allie Hueston with five stuffs apiece.  Hueston and junior Kayla Nesbitt each tallied six kills as well in the win.

In back court defense, junior libero Stephanie Wallace upped 18 Eagle attacks, senior Kelsey Brooke registered 11 additional Panther digs.

Prior to the match, the Panthers honored four senior -- Kelsey Brooke, Katie Kirby, Kelsey Roggemann, and Dakota Springer -- for their multi-year contributions to the EIU volleyball program.

The visiting Eagles were led by senior Laura McDermott's eight kills, as no Morehead State player earned double-digit kills.  Senior setter Colbey Cameron had four kills and zero errors to hit .400, while another MOR senior, Alex Fitzmorris, tied junior Hannah Sigala with seven put-downs.  Fitzmorris also had no hitting miscues to sport a .304 attack in the loss.  Defensively, sophomore libero Hope Rillema led all players on the court 20 digs, while SIgala led the blocking with four roofs.

Team-wise, the Panthers held the advantage over the Eagles in every statistical category, including kills, attack, assists, aces, digs, blocks, and points.

Meeting for the 33rd time, the Panther win helps EIU now lead the all-time series with the Eagle, 17-16, and snaps a two-match losing streak in the history between the two schools.

The Panthers led the opening frame nearly start-to-finish, as the visiting squad only was only able to tie EIU on four occasions.  EIU out-hit MOR, .262-to-.189 in that frame to earn the 25-20 victory.

The second set was the tightest as it had seven ties and four lead changes.  EIU jumped out to a 4-0 advantage before enjoying a 6-3 lead, yet the Eagles would go on a run to tie it up finally at 7-all.  However the last tie would come about at 13-all as two Eagle miscues and a kill by freshman Josie Winner would give Eastern the three-point cushion.  The hosts would push ahead some more up 21-17, but the Eagles would again counter to pull within 21-20 of Eastern.  However, a final 4-1 EIU run would give the Panthers the 25-21 win and two-set lead.

The third frame started tight on both sides, but EIU would bust out of the 4-all tie with a 10-4 run.  Eastern would maintain the eight and nine point advantage en route to the easy 25-15 third set victory and first sweep of the Eagles since upsetting the then OVC leading squad back in 2011.

Panthers will now finish up the regular-season with a pair of road OVC contests this coming week.  First up is a Tuesday evening match at instate rival SIU Edwardsville, followed by a trip to Nashville, Tenn., to face the Tigers of Tennessee State next Saturday.

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