CHARLESTON, Ill. - Eastern Illinois (14-14, 8-7 OVC) drops a heart breaker in Lantz Arena on senior day against Tennessee Tech (16-12, 13-3 OVC) in five sets. Seniors,
Ireland Hieb,
Annika Black and
Summerlyn Smith were all honored prior to the match. The final set scores were: 25-20, 18-25, 21-25, 25-20, 14-16.
The service line was the decider in this five set battle between the Panthers and the Golden Eagles. EIU, despite having seven aces, lost that battle as Tennessee Tech posted 11. Eastern Illinois also had 13 service errors compared to TTU's 11.
Christina Martinez Mundo, Smith and Catalina Rochaix all had two service aces.
Giovana Larregui Lopez took over for Eastern against the Golden Eagles as she posted 26 kills and was third on the team in hitting percentage with a .238. Her 26 kills was a career high and marked her fourth 20 kill match this season.
Lilli Amettis stepped up at the net for Eastern with 11 kills of her own while Hieb added eight more kills.
Kaitlyn Flynn and Kate Dean also had six kills each. The Panther offense had 61 kills compared to TTU's 53 and also had a higher hitting percentage at .233.
Rochaix and Smith racked up over 20 kills each at the setter position for the Panthers. Rochaix led the way with 24 after posting a career high last night. Smith also added 20 on senior day. Martinez Mundo was also able to capture eight. EIU had 54 assists on 61 kills.
The Panthers clawed their way back in the second and third set, while tying both sets at 17 all. Both times Tennessee Tech called a timeout to slow the Panthers down and eventually went on to win those sets. EIU was also up 14-11 in the fifth set when the Golden Eagles rattled off five straight points.
Martinez Mundo led a defense that racked up 47 digs and six blocks. Mundo had a match high 13 digs with Smith contributing seven. Ten different Panthers collected at least one dig on defense. Hieb and Black were busy at the net with two block assists each while
Ella Collins added two block solos.
Tennessee Tech was led by four different attackers with at least 10 plus kills. Madolyn Isringhausen led the way with 14 kills and five aces. Skylar Boom had 11 kills and four total blocks. Jordan Karlen was the leading setter in the match with 42 assists.
EIU will be back in action at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9 when Southern Indiana comes to Charleston for the final home volleyball match of the season. The match will be streamed on ESPN+. Eastern will end their regular season at Lindenwood next weekend.
