Tweet #W1NasONE

CHARLESTON, Ill. – Eastern Illinois volleyball opened up Sunday's match with Tennessee State behind the solid hitting of senior Laurel Bailey but could not sustain that momentum for the entire match losing in five sets, 3-2.
 
TSU won the match 18-25, 25-16, 21-25, 25-15 and 15-9 to win its first match of the season and improve to 1-8.  EIU fell to 0-9 on the year.
 
In the opening set, EIU fed the hot hitting of Bailey as she had nine kills on 18 attacks to hit .389 in the opening set.  As a team EIU connected for a .222 attack percentage with Ireland Hieb (4 kills) and Kameryn Sillmon (2 kills) the only other EIU players with multiple kills.  TSU was held to just eight total kills in the set, four off the attack of Kendall Bullock.
 
Both teams feeding Bailey and Bullock would be a constant theme in the match.  Bailey finished with 21 kills for EIU on 60 swings while Bullock had 16 kills on 41 attacks for the Tigers.
 
The solid hitting disappeared for the Panthers in the second set as they hit negative .049 in the set.  In the three sets EIU lost during the match they hit .027 in the fourth and negative .120 in the fifth.
 
TSU warmed up and attacked consistently in the final four sets hitting .250 or above in all four and finishing the match with a team attack percentage of .222.
 
In the second set, TSU broke an 8-8 tie with a 9-2 run to take control of the set.  EIU had four attack errors during that run with TSU collecting three blocks.  As a team TSU finished with 11 team blocks, middle blocker Aria Holmes had six block assists. 
 
In the third set, Danielle Allen provided a late spark as she had three kills during a five point run as the EIU broke from a 17-17 tie to take control.  Sillmon had two kills in the final stretch as she had nine for the match.
 
TSU took advantage of three EIU attack errors midway through the fourth set to open up a 17-11 lead.  Aniya Williams would drop in two late kills and TSU won the set on a service ace by Micahlea Njie.
 
In the fifth, TSU jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the set and never trailed.  Bullock and Williams had early kills for the Tigers.  EIU would close to within 9-8 after a kill by Ella Collins and setting error by TSU.   TSU closed the match on a 6-1 run.
 
Williams joined Bullock with double figure kills for TSU with 11.  Gina Rivera Ortiz had 24 digs.
 
Bailey finished with a double-double with 21 kills and 13 digs.  She now had 999 career digs and needs one more to become the 29th player in school history in the 1,000 digs club.  Christina Martinez Mundo had 27 digs while Ashley Sharkus had 13 digs and Kylie Michael 10.