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CHARLESTON, Ill. – Coming into tonight's game facing the lone undefeated team in the OVC, the Panthers were in for a tough task facing the likes of the Murray State Racers. In front of a large capacity crowd for Eastern Illinois' Homecoming Weekend, EIU was able to top Murray State and hand them their first loss of the season in OVC action in a five set affair. The Panthers came away with a 3-2 victory (25-21, 14-25, 20-25, 30-28, 16-14) as they improved to 8-2 in the conference while Murray State drops to 9-1.

The Panthers came out of the gates hot to start the game as they earned the first three points capped off by a Josie Winner kill. Murray State quickly scored three straight points of their own to tie the game at 3-3. Both teams kept the game close, until the Panthers were able to begin to separate themselves in late in the set, thanks to three Murray State attacking errors. Taylor Smith ended the first set for the Panthers will a kill marking the score at 25-21.

Murray State came out with a sense of urgency in the second set, as the quickly raced out to a 6-1 lead. The Panthers could not quite bring themselves back into the game, as the Racers would earn the second set by a score of 25-14.

Abby Knight would put the Panthers ahead towards the middle of the third set with a kill, but their two point, 14-12 lead, would quickly vanish as Murray State began to settle in. After taking a 15-14 advantage, Murray State never looked back the rest of the set and would take a 2-1 set lead following a third set, 25-20 win.

In a set that saw the score tied on 17 different occasions, neither team would be able to lead by more than four points. Sam Bedard put Murray State up 20-16, but the Panthers would not quit just yet. A pair of kills by Allie Hueston and a Murray State error knotted the set at 23-23. Neither team could quite take an advantage over one another as the score would be tied at 24-24, 25-25, 26-26, 27-27, and 28-28. Hueston and Kayla Nesbitt teamed up for a block to seal up the closely-knit fourth set 30-28 in favor of EIU.

Again the Racers would jump out to a commanding lead to start the fifth set, this time by a score of 7-2. This time however, EIU was determined not to let the set get too out of hand again. Hueston would bring the Panthers back to within one with another kill, but Murray State would extend their lead to three. Knight brought EIU back to within one again 12-13, causing Murray State to call for a timeout. With EIU facing Murray State serving for match point, Nesbitt and Hueston again teamed up, this time on the offensive end, as they used back-to-back kills to give the Panthers the 16-14 fifth set victory.

Despite a shaky night on the offensive end as a team, Hueston was able to finish the match with 11 kills. What kept the Panthers in the match and allowed them to earn the victory was their effort on the defensive end. Smith and Stephanie Wallace finished with a team-high 19 digs on the night each. Winner slowed down the quick hitting Racer attack with 12 blocks on the night as the Panthers collected 20 total blocks as a team.

"We talked about grit and grind, and in-between sets two and three we talked about forgeting the stats sheet, forget about anything, and this is about a way to execute who is going to find a way to get it done and that was awesome" said Coach Wolinski after the key victory.

The Panthers look to remain as one of the top teams in the OVC as they travel to Southeast Missouri and UT Martin next weekend.