MURRAY, Ky. – Going up against the top team in the OVC, the Eastern Illinois Panthers volleyball team knew they were in for a challenge as they continued conference play at undefeated Murray State. The Panthers battled Murray State, but came up empty as they were defeated in straight sets 21-25, 18-25, 13-25. The loss drops the Panthers to 8-11 (3-2 OVC).   

A back and forth first set saw a kill by the Panthers' Maria Brown pull EIU to within one 15-16. A Murray State error followed the Brown kill as the score was knotted at 16-16. Murray State would proceed to go onto a little rally of their own scoring the next four points. Chelsea Lee and Taylor Smith cut the Racers' lead to two points on two separate occasions with kills of their own with the final occasion bringing the score to 22-20 for Murray State. Murray would take advantage of a Panther error and finish the first set at a 25-21 score.

The Panthers came out of the gates firing to start the second set; although Murray State would precede the Panther fast start with a rally of their own to lessen the EIU lead to 8-7. EIU would go on to score the next five points, with three of the five coming from kills from Brown. A Murray State timeout appeared to be the answer the Racers were looking for, as they stormed back to tie the match up at 18-18. Murray State closed the second set on a 7-0 run and would win the set by a 25-18 advantage.

A complete opposite start compared to the second game, saw the Panthers down 5-0 to begin the third set. The Panthers brought the deficit to three points on five different occasions with the last being 6-9 coming from another kill from Brown. A trend of seven straight Racer points followed by another string of five in a row put the game out of reach for EIU. Josie Winner tried to rally the Panthers back with a kill, but the Racer attack was too much in the set as Murray State clinched the match with a 25-13 game three victory.

Lee led the Panther attacking game with seven kills at a .467 hitting percentage. Stephanie Wallace tried to keep EIU in the match as best as she could with 17 digs.

"Murray played a solid game from start to finish. They did a great job earning kills off of our block, and we struggled offensively minus Chelsea Lee" said coach Wolinski after the game.

EIU will travel to Austin Peay tomorrow (Oct. 10) for a 2 p.m. contest against the Lady Govs.