Eastern Illinois (8-14, 1-11 OVC) pulls off their first Ohio Valley Conference win of the season after traveling to SIUE (5-18, 2-10 OVC) and defeating the Cougars 3-1. The set scores were as followed: 21-25, 25-20, 25-10, 31-29. EIU ends their 13-match losing streak this season.
The Cougars took their only match of the night in the first set after winning 25-21. EIU was led by senior
Danielle Allen as she had seven kills in the first, and
Summerlyn Smith provided 10 assists for the Panthers. Eastern posted a .077 hitting percentage, their lowest of the match while SIUE posted a .314. SIUE was led by Annie Ellis and Savannah Christian with three kills each, and Alyse Drifka with five assists.
The Panthers bounced back after their opening set loss to win the second 25-20. The match was even at 15-15 when EIU went on a 10-5 run to end the set.
Kameryn Sillmon had a set high four kills for EIU while Smith added 11 more assists and five digs.
Elisavet Papageorgiou also added three kills. Ellis and Christian both added three kills for the Cougars in the second. EIU posted a .290 hitting percentage.
The third set saw a dominate win by the Panthers as they defeated SIUE 25-10. EIU took a 10-3 lead to open the match, and then extended it to 20-6 before they closed the set.
Ella Collins got in on the action as she added four kills to the Panther's total while Smith added nine more assists and two block assists. EIU posted their highest hitting percentage of the match with a .455 percent. Julia Treichel led the way for the Cougars as she had three kills and three digs.
EIU closed the night in exciting fashion as they were down to set point four different times, but continued to fight for their first OVC win of the season. The match ended in a 31-29 set victory for the Panthers. Allen capped her night off with seven kills in thr fourth while Collins and
Ireland Hieb both collected four kills. Smith also had a set high 17 assists. SIUE was led by Ainsley Ranstead with six kills, and Grace Beekman with eight assists in the fourth.
Overall, the Cougars were led by Ellis with 11 kills, Drifka with 18 assists, and Treichel with seven kills and 10 digs. SIUE drops to 2-10 in the OVC and 5-18 overall.
The Panthers were led by Allen with 17 kills, Smith with 47 assists and 14 digs, Papageorgiou with six kills and six blocks, and Hieb with 10 kills and six blocks. EIU improves to 8-14 on the season, and 1-10 in the OVC.
Eastern will return home this weekend for a showdown with Tigers of Tennessee State. Match one with be played on Friday, Oct. 29 at 6 p.m. Match two will be played on Saturday, oct. 30 at 4 p.m. Both matches will be held in Lantz Arena and will be streaming on ESPN+.
