Photo Gallery (by Sandy King)
CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Eastern Illinois volleyball team defeated Southern Illinois in Lantz Arena on Monday to open up their Ohio Valley Conference schedule. It was a back a back-and-forth affair, with the Panthers overcoming a scrappy Screaming Eagles team 3-2.
The opening set was complete domination by the Panthers. After falling behind 3-0, EIU would outscore USI 25-3 the rest of the way, including a run of 17 unanswered points. Eastern hit a staggering .667 in the set with 15 total kills.
Natalie Mitchem led the attack with six kills, as
Catalina Rochaix collected nine assists in the set.
Christina Martinez Mundo recorded three service aces to bolster the fantastic offensive effort.
Southern Indiana struggled to get anything past the Eastern Illinois defense, as they finished the set with a team hitting percentage of -.120. Martinez Mundo led the set with six digs.
The second set was a different story, however, as the Screaming Eagles refused to bow out after a tough opening set. Abby Bednar recorded seven kills to help USI improve their overall hitting percentage to .099. They also had a big set at the net, racking up 4.0 team blocks. EIU combined for 17 kills in the set, but it was not enough as Southern Indiana evened things up at 1-1.
EIU would bounce back to take set three, but Southern Indiana did not make it easy. The Panthers trailed by four points on two separate occasions but showed great resolve to rally and knot things up at 17. They would then close the set by outscoring USI 8-3 to secure the 2-1 advantage. Giovana Larregui López led the Panthers with seven kills, followed by Mitchem and
Kaitlyn Flynn with five each. Rochaix handed out a huge 14 assists in the set. Defensively,
Julia Stanev doubled up on blocks for the second straight set to bring her match total to five.
In the fourth set, Eastern built a 16-11 lead and looked poised to pull away, but the Screaming Eagles would not go quietly into the night. Following a timeout, Southern Indiana rallied to overtake EIU and force a fifth set.
However, the Panthers proved to be too much in the extra set. Just like in the first set, EIU fell behind 3-0, but they showed great poise to respond and overcome the deficit. Larregui López led the way, tallying five kills in the set to bring her match total to 25, while Rochaix collected another seven assists to reach 54 total on the evening. Freshman middle blocker
Layne Witherspoon came up big as well, recording a kill and two block assists to help push Eastern across the finish line with a 15-10 win.
Giovana Larregui López and
Catalina Rochaix both recorded double-doubles for the second consecutive match. Larregui López finished with 25 kills and 13 digs, while Rochaix had 54 assists and 10 digs. It was Larregui López's first match of the season with over 20 kills, and her .468 hitting percentage was a season second-best. It was Rochaix's third match with at least 50 assists.
Two other Panthers recorded double digit kills, with
Natalie Mitchem and
Kaitlyn Flynn collecting 17 and 13, respectively.
Kate Dean and
Julia Stanev also got in on the action with six kills apiece.
Christina Martinez Mundo led the match with 23 digs, while also adding four service aces.
Laura Paniagua also recorded double-digit digs with 14.
The Panthers recorded 20 block assists on the match, led by
Julia Stanev with five. Stanev also added a solo block to bring EIU's team total to 11.0.
EIU will get a few days off before traveling to UT Martin for a pair of matchups this weekend. The first match is set for Friday, September 22
nd at 6 p.m., and the second match is scheduled for the following Saturday at 2 p.m.
