Eastern Illinois (11-18, 4-14 OVC) lost its opening round match in the Ohio Valley Tournament on Thursday evening against the number one seed Southeast Missouri (24-7, 14-4 OVC) 3-0. The set scores were as followed for the match: 13-25, 15-25, 18-25.
EIU kept it close early on in the first set against Southeast Missouri, but ultimately fell 13-25. The score was 8-9 through 17 points, but SEMO went on a 13-2 run to increase their lead to 22-10.
Danielle Allen led the way for Eastern with three kills in the first while
Summerlyn Smith added five assists. On the defensive side of the ball,
Ashley Sharkus led the way with six digs against the Redhawks. SEMO was led by Colby Greene with six kills on nine attempts and Laney Malloy with five kills. Claire Ochs also had 14 assists in the first.
The Panthers again kept it close for the first half of the second set when it was tied at 10, but SEMO's offense took off late to take down the Panthers 15-25. EIU was held to a .000 hitting percentage in the set while SEMO hit .276 in the second.
Emily Wilcox led the way for EIU with three kills while
Kaitlyn Flynn added three blocks for EIU. Malloy added four kills to her total in the set while Greene picked up three more kills.
Eastern's season came to a close as the Redhawks defeated the Panthers in the final set by a score of 18-25. In their final sets, Allen and
Kylie Michael both picked up five kills each. Smith started to get the offense going in the third as she helped the Panthers with nine assists. EIU collected 12 kills in the last set, but gave up 10 errors to help lead SEMO to the next round. Greene picked up five more kills for the Redhawks and Ochs finished her night with nine assists.
SEMO was led by Greene with 14 kills, Malloy with 10 kills and 10 digs, Ochs with 32 assists, and Zoey Beasley with eight kills. SEMO will go on to the next round of the OVC Tournament to face-off against the number five seed Murray State.
EIU was led by Allen with 10 kills, Michael with nine kills and 10 digs, Smith with 17 assists, and Wilcox with six kills and two block assists. Volleyball will return in the spring when EIU starts their first ever beach volleyball season.
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