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CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Eastern Illinois volleyball team (24-4, 14-3 OVC) defeated Western Illinois (9-19, 8-9 OVC) 3-1 on Wednesday evening to secure the Ohio Valley Conference regular season title. EIU entered the week with a one game lead over SEMO in the conference standings, just needing to win their final two matches to clinch the championship. However, moments after Eastern finished off WIU, news broke that Lindenwood had knocked off SEMO, which eliminated the Redhawks from contention and allowed the celebration in Charleston to get underway a little early. The title is Eastern's third ever OVC crown and their first won outright since 1998.

The set scores of Wednesday's match were 25-21, 25-18, 8-25, and 25-20.

The Panthers started fast and got out to a 9-3 lead to begin the opening set. However, WIU slowly closed the gap and eventually overtook Eastern 20-19 behind a 4-0 scoring run. But as they have many times this season, the Panthers responded, closing out the set on a 6-1 run to take a 1-0 lead. Giovana Larregui López led the set with six kills while Catalina Rochaix handed out 14 assists. Christina Martinez Mundo had a big set with 9 digs.

EIU kept things rolling in set two as they led virtually the entire way to take the commanding two set lead. Kaitlyn Flynn led the Panthers' scoring effort with six kills and a solo block, as she brought her hitting percentage to .400 through the first two frames. Meanwhile, Martinez Mundo stayed locked in on defense with another nine digs.

Eastern found themselves out of sync in set three, as they finished the frame with a very uncharacteristic -.161 hitting percentage and struggled to find an answer to a Leatherneck team that hit .500 and recorded 4.0 total team blocks in the set.

Set three proved to be an aberration, though, and the Panthers wasted no time getting back on track in the fourth set. They only briefly fell behind by a point before a 9-1 scoring run put the Leathernecks in a hole they could not dig out of. Larregui López scored EIU's last three offensive points before a WIU attack error clinched the victory for Eastern, and along with it, the conference title.

The duo of Giovana Larregui López and Kaitlyn Flynn led the EIU offensive attack with both players recording 15 kills (3.75 KPS). Natalie Mitchem just missed her 12th consecutive game with double-digit kills, finishing the match with nine.

Catalina Rochaix gave out 40 helpers for an average of 10.0 assists per set. It was her 14th game of the campaign with at least 40 assists.

Christina Martinez Mundo had a big night on the back line, as she racked up 29 digs for 7.25 digs per set. It was her third highest dig total of the season.

As conference champions, EIU will host the OVC tournament next week in Lantz Arena, but first they have one more face off with Western Illinois to put a bookend on the regular season. The contest is scheduled for Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m.