Eastern Illinois (11-16, 4-13 OVC) knock off Austin Peay (19-11, 12-5 OVC) to earn their fourth Ohio Valley Conference win of the season. This win also clinches EIU a spot in the OVC tournament next week. The Panthers won 3-1 with the following set scores: 25-13, 25-13, 21-25, 25-20.
EIU started off hot in the first set winning 25-13. The Panthers jumped out to a 10-4 lead, and extended it to 17-8 later in the set. The defense was led by
Ashley Sharkus and
Bailey Chandler who both had incredible digs to help EIU pick up the win.
Danielle Allen and
Elisavet Papageorgiou both had three kills in the set while
Kameryn Sillmon added three block assists. Brooke Moore picked up three kills for the Governors while Austin Peay was help to a -.114 hitting percentage.
The Panthers did not slow down in the second as they held Austin Peay to 13 points for the second straight set. EIU jumped out 13-7 early and never let up their efforts on the defensive side of the net. Allen continued to lead the offense with four kills while Papageorgiou and Annka Black chipped in with three a piece.Â
Kylie Michael also added two kills and five digs. The Panthers defense allowed APSU to hit .000 in the second. They were led by Tegan Seyring with five kills.
Austin Peay took their lone set of the night in the third by a score of 21-25. The Panthers had a strong third with 17 kills on a .318 hitting percentage, but it was not enough to overcome 19 kills and a .386 hitting percentage from the Governors. EIU saw Allen lead the way with six kills and
Emily Wilcox also added five of her own.
Summerlyn Smith also added nine assists. Seyring added five to her total for Austin Peay and Caroline Waite collected 10 assists.
EIU would not be held down for long as they swarmed back to win the fourth set 25-20, and end the match at 3-1. Eastern's defense was dominating all night as they held Austin Peavy to a .118 hitting percentage throughout the entire match. Allen ended her night with five more kills while Michael added three kills and three digs. Kaylah Jackson had three kills of her own in the fourth, but it was too late for the Governors.
Austin Peay was led by Seyring with 11 kills and two block assists, Waite with 18 assists , Mikayla Powell with nine kills and Maggie Keeenan with three block assists. The Governors drop to 19-11 on the season and 12-5 in the OVC.
Eastern Illinois was led by Allen with 18 kills and three block assists, Papageorgiou with 11 kills, Sharkus with eight assists and 18 digs, Sillmon with five kills and six block assists, and
Kylie Michael with five kills and 14 digs. The Panther improve to 11-16 on the season and a 4-13 record in the conference.
The Panthers will be back in action tomorrow night as they play their final regular season home match against Austin Peay at 4 p.m. EIU will be honoring its four seniors prior to the start of the match. LiveStats and ESPN+ will be made available.
