CHICAGO – Eastern Illinois volleyball looked to avenge a midweek loss at home against Indiana State last Tuesday night (Sep. 1), and did so accordingly in the opening match of the DePaul Invitational on Friday night (Sep. 4) as the Panthers defeated the Purple Aces of Evansville in straight sets, winning 25-13, 25-14, 25-17.
In the first set, the two teams displayed the similar style of play that Coach Wolinski talked about earlier in the week, as both sides traded leads making the game 7-7 after an
Abby Knight kill. The Panthers found their rhythm and began to take over the first set with a kill from
Kayla Nesbitt moving the score to 20-12 in favor of the Panthers. A put-down by
Abby Saalfrank, followed by a service ace from
Anne Hughes, helped sealed up the first set victory.
Evansville took the first three points in the second set but EIU was able to tie the game up at 4-4 with the help of a
Chelsea Lee kill. The Purple Aces again went on a little run only to see the Panthers tie the set up once again at 10-10 due to another Nesbitt kill. That appeared to be the turning point in the set as EIU would erupt for a 15-4 run to take the frame and enjoy a 2-0 match advantage.
In the final set, the Panthers would continue their dominance, racing out to a quick 5-0 lead forcing an Evansville timeout. The timeout did not seem to take the early momentum away, as EIU soon earned a commanding 15-5 mark thanks to a kill from Nesbitt. Evansville tried to work their way back into the set, as they cut the Panther lead down to four, but a service ace from
Marah Bradbury would eventually seal the match for the Panthers.
Coach Wolinski was pleased with the result against Evansville stating, "We did a great job executing our scouting report verses Evansville. Our serving game was on this afternoon as we took them out of system. Marah did a great job distributing the offense to all of our attackers. Our middles were also very effective this afternoon."
Allie Hueston and Lee led the Panther offense with nine put-downs apiece, while Bradbury paced the attack with 29 helpers and
Stephanie Wallace tallied 16 digs for the EIU defense.
Meeting for the 17th time, the Panthers now own the all-time series lead over the Purple Aces (3-2) by a commanding 15-2 margin.
The Panthers continue DePaul Invite action tomorrow (Sep. 5) as they are scheduled to open the morning session versus Toledo at 10 a.m., before finishing up the tourney against the host Blue Demon squad in the 7 p.m. nightcap.
