FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The Eastern Illinois volleyball team has high expectations coming into the 2015 season, and looked to use their game against UIC Friday night at the IPFW Invitational to see where they were as a team to begin the season. The Panthers took the season opener in four sets by a score of 25-23, 19-25, 25-18, 25-16.
In a close scoring first set, the Panthers were able to earn the set by a score of 25-23. EIU took an early 7-3 advantage before UIC came back with a rally of their own to take the lead 8-7. A kill by the Panthers
Chelsea Lee tied the game back up at 8-8, but UIC went on another run to make the game 15-11. The Panthers made the score 15-12 after a kill from
Kayla Nesbitt, and seemed to take the momentum away from the Flames for the rest of the set. A 10-4 Panther advantage saw the set at 22-19. A pair of kills from UIC's Kasey Harris brought the Flames back to within one point. From there the two teams traded points until another kill from Lee finished the set at 25-23 in favor of the Panthers.
The Panthers looked to keep the momentum in their favor to begin the second set as they took the first two points, but UIC quickly knotted the game back up at two. From there, UIC only trailed the Panthers one time during the remainder of the set as they went on to win 25-19. After seeing themselves down 14-8, the Panthers a pair of kills from Nesbitt and three service aces from
Allie Hueston to tie the set up at 14. The Flames attack found some holes in the Panther defense, and used an 11-5 advantage to take set two.
Just like in set two, the Panthers looked to set the tone early as they earned the first three points of the set to take a 3-0 lead behind kills from
Josie Winner, Lee, and Nesbitt. The Flames managed to work their way back into the set when a Panther service error made the score 5-6, still in favor of the Panthers. The Panthers then scored seven of the next eight points in the set after a pair of kills from
Abby Saalfrank and service aces from
Marah Bradbury and
Anne Hughes. The Panthers went on to put the set out of reach after that point and went on to take the set by a score of 25-18.
The fourth set saw a lot of wire-to-wire action where neither team led by more than three points, until the Panthers went on a 9-2 run after the set was tied at 13-13. During that run, Hueston set a career high for service aces in a game (5). The Flames looked to rally late in the set, but an attack error sealed the set and the match for the Panthers who won 25-16.
Lee earned her second career double-double with 15 kills and 10 digs. Nesbitt earned double digit kills in the match as well with 11. Bradbury set up the Panther attack with 42 assists. While
Stephanie Wallace paced the Panther defense with 21 digs.
Coach Wolinski after the game, "A balanced attack on offence really helped. Allie earned some great runs on her serve. Our blocks really helped us defensively as we earned some points in the latter sets."
The Panthers are back in action tomorrow at the IPFW Invitational as they take on Central Michigan at 9:30 a.m. and host IPFW in the nightcap at 6:00 p.m.
Live stats of each match will be available via the IPFW website (GoMastodons.com), while Panther fans can also catch online video broadcasts of each contest, via the same website, for a special $9.95 weekend pay-per-view package price.
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