Photo gallery vs. TTU 
               
 CHARLESTON, Ill. – After being away from Lantz Arena for four straight weekends, the Panthers finally returned home in style to begin Ohio Valley Conference play as they swept the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles in straight sets (25-14,26-24,25-15) on Friday night.

Prior to the start of the game, senior outside-hitter, Abby Saalfrank was honored for her recent accomplishment of becoming the newest EIU member to the 1,000 career kills club. 

Returning to play in front of the home crowd for just the second time this season, the Panthers matched the crowd's energy from the get-go to begin the first set. After a TTU service error gave EIU a 13-9 lead, the Panthers rolled off the next four points topped off by an Abby Saalfrank kill for a comfortable 17-9 advantage. The Panthers continued applying the pressure to the Golden Eagle defense as Maria Brown and Saalfrank finished the first set with booming kills to give the Panthers a 25-14 first set victory.

The hot streak continued into the early part of the second set for the Panthers, as Kayla Nesbitt used a kill of her own to put EIU ahead by six points. TTU worked their way back into the set and tied the game at 24-24. Taylor Smith ended the Golden Eagle rally with a put-down, and a TTU attacking error finished the second set with a 26-24 Panther decision.

With their sights set on a clean sweep to begin conference play, the Panthers would refuse to let the Golden Eagles play spoilers. After Allie Hueston put EIU ahead by six with a kill; TTU called a time out to regroup. The time out would work momentarily as TTU cut the lead in half to a three point margin, but a service ace from Stephanie Wallace shifted the momentum back in favor of the Panthers as EIU would go on to score seven of the next nine points. Brown would put the game away with a kill earn the Panthers a 25-15 win in the third set.

Nesbitt lead the Panther attacking game with 11 kills, while Hueston chipped in 10 of her own. Wallace paced the EIU defense with 18 digs, and now sits at four digs shy of becoming the All-Time career digs leader in program history.

Coach Wolinski was pleased with the effort of her team saying, "We had a really good week at practice, and I think that focus and the consistency of what we did at practice really showed tonight."

EIU comes back tomorrow afternoon (Sept. 25) for another OVC matchup, this time against Jacksonville State. The match is set to begin at 2 p.m. in Lantz Arena.