Eastern Illinois (10-15, 3-12 OVC) drop their opening match against Tennessee Tech (13-13, 8-7 OVC) Friday night, 3-1. These were the set scores of tonight's match: 18-25, 25-23, 21-25, 19-25. The Panthers win streak ends at three matches after beating SIUE and Tennessee State last week.
EIU started Friday's match with a 18-25 loss in the first set. The Panthers were out hit .139 to .263 in that set. Tennessee Tech also recorded six blocks to just two from Eastern.
Emily Wilcox led the way for the Panthers in the first with four kills, and
Summerlyn Smith added nine assists.
Ashley Sharkus also collected six digs. The Eagles had five kills from Madolyn Isringhausen and four from Madeline Furtado. Ashley Hand also chipped in 12 assists to lead TTU.
The Panthers bounced back to collect their only set win in the second with a 25-23 win. EIU was down 13-9 early in the set, but manged to fight back to even the match.
Danielle Allen recorded seven kills in the second to go along with three block assists. Smith also picked up 14 more assists in the set. The Eagles saw Taylor Dorsey add four kills while Hand added 12 more assists to her total.
Tennessee Tech took the lead back from the Panthers to go up 2-1 after winning the third, 21-25. Although EIU had a .441 hitting percentage, the Eagles posted a .500 percentage with 16 kills. Allen collected 10 kills while
Ella Collins chipped in five. Smith had 14 more assists in the third. Dorsey led the way for the Eagles as she added five kills and Skyler Boom added four more. Hand also collected 15 assists.
The evening came to a close, as the Panthers fell short of the win losing in thr fourth set. Allen and
Kameryn Sillmon both had four kills to lead EIU, but it was not enough to overcome Tech's .219 hitting percentage. Eastern was held to a .000 percentage. Sillmon and
Elisavet Papageorgious both added a block assist. The Eagle's Furtado had six kills to lead all attackers in the fourth set.
Tennessee Tech was led by Furtado and Dorsey with 14 kills each, Isringhausen with 12 kills and 11 digs, Hand with 50 assists, and McKenna Young with 17 digs. The Eagles improve their record to 13-13 on the season with an 8-7 Ohio Valley Conference record.
The Panthers were led by Allen with 24 kills and four block assists, Smith with 42 assists, Sharkus with 16 digs, and Collins with nine kills. EIU drops to 10-15 on the season, and 3-12 in the OVC. They remain in eighth place in the conference.
Eastern Illinois returns to action tomorrow afternoon, Saturday, Nov. 6 at 2 p.m. as they play their second match against Tennessee Tech. LiveStats and ESPN+ will be made available.
