EIU Box Score |
Photo Gallery (By
Sandy King)
CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Eastern Illinois volleyball team squared off against Alabama A&M to officially kick off the EIU Panther Classic. Eastern Illinois won a three-set match over Alabama A&M, winning by scores of 25-9, 25-12, and 29-27.
Tournament play will resume tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. with Western Illinois facing Alabama A&M. Eastern Illinois will play the 1 p.m. game against Chicago State and will complete the tournament against Western Illinois at 7 p.m.
With the win, Eastern Illinois advances to 4-3 on the season.
EIU came out aggressive dominating the first two sets of the match. The Panthers totaled a season-high side-out percentage hitting 100% (9-of-9) and attacking percentage of .560. EIU finished the set with 14 kills and no attack errors. Offensively the Panthers spread the ball around with
Taylor Smith,
Maria Brown and
Maggie Runge finishing the set with three kills each. The Panthers started off strong in the first set jumping out to an early 8-0 run sparked by an
Abby Knight kill. The Panthers would take charge of the set and never look back taking a 7-0 run late from a Brown kill to secure the set.
The Panthers started off the second set with a 4-0 run fueled from another Brown kill. Taking control of the set for the Panthers was Brown who totaled five of her team high 14 kills, and
Laurel Bailey who had four of her ten kills. The Panthers went halfway through match totaling not a single attacking error, finishing the set hitting .353.
The third set included the Panthers toughest test for the day winning the set by a score of 29-27. The Bulldogs answered back to the 2-0 lead the Panthers took early in the match making the Panthers really battle for the win. Syretha Pride led the Bulldogs with a team high eight kills on the day, and Meredith Sieck had a team high 21 assists. The Panthers were able to jump out to secure the victory with the help of Brown who had a set high six kills and Smith who had her best assist total of the match with 11 in the set. Smith finished the match with 27 assists.
Bailey posted her second double-double of the year finishing the match with ten kills, and a team high 16 digs. Runge had nine kills while
Anne Hughes added 11 digs. Knight led EIU with three blocks.
...............................................................
Chicago State 3, Western Illinois 1 (25-18, 32-30, 24-26, 25-12)
Chicago State squared off against Western Illinois to close out the first day of the Panther Classic. The Cougars downed the Leathernecks 3-1 with the help of outside hitter Lauryn Dela Cruz who totaled a team high 24 kills. Also leading the Cougars was outside hitter Carmen Carvajal who totaled 23 kills.
EIU Panther Classic resumes play tomorrow morning at 10 am.
