Box Score |
Photo Gallery (By
Sandy King)
CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois volleyball hosted Southeast Missouri in the Panthers' final home match of the 2016 season on Saturday night. Eastern Illinois fell to SEMO in straight-sets (15-25, 25-27, 15-25). With the loss, Eastern Illinois drops to 5-24 (2-12 OVC) while Southeast Missouri improves to 5-23 (4-10 OVC). The Panthers will travel to Murray State and Austin Peay next weekend for their final two matches of the 2016 season.
After an ace by SEMO tied the first set at 5-5, the Panthers went on to score the next three points to take an 8-5 lead. The Eastern Illinois lead grew to as many as five points at 12-7 on a kill by
Katie Sommer, but SEMO stormed right back to tie the score at 12-12. After SEMO broke a 13-13 tie on a kill by Nzingha Clarke, the Redhawks held the lead the rest of the way and picked up the first set victory.
Eastern Illinois jumped ahead 4-1 to begin the second set on a block by
Josie Winner and
Abby Knight. SEMO quickly worked their way back into the set and knotted the score at 5-5. The two teams went back-and-forth the rest of the set as the score would become tied 14 times throughout the second game. SEMO picked up the final three points in the set and moved ahead 2-0 over the Panthers.
SEMO broke a 9-9 tie and scored back-to-back points to take an 11-9 lead over the Panthers. Winner cut the deficit in half on the next play as she found a hole in the SEMO defense. SEMO would use a 7-0 run to extend their lead to 18-11 in the middle of the set. The Panthers looked to rally late as Smith earned a pair of kills, but SEMO earned the final point of the match on a kill by Marie Less.
Smith ended the match with a double-double for the Panthers as she finished with 12 assists and 12 digs.
Josie Winner finished with a team-high in kills and digs as she recorded eight and 17 respectively.Â
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