CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Eastern Illinois volleyball team picked up right where they left off before their off week with a convincing 3-0 sweep of Morehead State in Lantz Arena on Thursday. The victory brings their conference record to 5-0, with their overall record improving to 15-1. The final set scores were as follows: 25-16, 25-17, and 25-20.
The Panthers did fall behind early when the Eagles went on a 7-0 run to take a five-point advantage. However, EIU was quick to respond, ripping off a 10-2 run of their own to regain the lead. They did not look back and cruised to the set one win. Giovana Larregui López led the Panther attack with five kills in the set.
After going up 4-3 in set two, Eastern was able to retain the lead for the remainder of the set, holding off a couple of brief Morehead runs and eventually pulling away at the end. Larregui López,
Kaitlyn Flynn, and
Natalie Mitchem each had a quartet of kills in the set, as
Catalina Rochaix recorded double digit assists with 10.
Set three was tightly contested early on with a few lead changes, but after taking a 9-8 lead, EIU was able to create enough separation to hold off the Eagles and win the match.
Kaitlyn Flynn led the Eastern attack with five kills, including three consecutively toward the end of the set.
Catalina Rochaix handed out 15 assists in the set.
Giovana Larregui López was EIU's leader on offense with 13 kills (4.33 KPS) on a .355 hitting percentage. She also added a pair of service aces to bring her point total to 15.0.
Kaitlyn Flynn was also in double digit kills with 10. It was her fifth consecutive match with 10 or more kills.
Kate Dean had a strong performance with eight kills on a .583 hitting percentage, while also adding a couple of blocks. It was her fourth match of the season with a hitting percentage at or above the .500 mark.
Natalie Mitchem finished the night with seven kills and four blocks, including three solo.
Catalina Rochaix continued to rack up the assists, tallying 33 (11.0 APS) on the evening and helping the Panthers to a .316 team hitting percentage.
Christina Martinez Mundo led the match in digs with 17 on a perfect 1.000 reception percentage. Laura Paniagau and Larregui López also had perfect reception percentages with nine and seven digs, respectively.
Julia Stanev continued to be a force at the net for EIU, collecting four blocks including two solo.
EIU will be back in action on Friday in their second matchup with Morehead State. The match is set to begin at 4 p.m. in Lantz Arena.
