Eastern Illinois (6-2) vs. Iowa State (7-1)

Date & Time: September 19th at 6:00 p.m.

Live Coverage: BIG+ | Live Stats

All Time Series: 0-1

 

Eastern Illinois (6-2) vs. Illinois (4-3)

Date & Time: September 21st at 1:00 p.m. 

Live Coverage: BIG+ | Live Stats

All Time Series: 2-11

 

Eastern Illinois has been on a long road trip to start their 2025 season campaign, which featured trips to Athens, Ohio, Carbondale, Illinois, and Terre Haute, Indiana. With the heavy mileage considered, EIU has been off to a tremendous start, holding a 6-2 record. They will have two final road matches before finally playing on home territory, where they will start conference play against Lindenwood. Although this past weekend was a tough stretch record-wise, EIU came away with a couple of individual awards. Ariadna Pereles and Tori Mohesky were awarded All-Tournament Team selections for the Pepsi Sycamores Volleyball Invite. 

 

About the Panthers: After facing the first true test of the season, EIU will look to correct things next weekend. The Panthers, at 6-2 overall, dropped two matches against Montana and Indiana State before they went on to beat Butler University. Both Ariadna Pereles and Tori Mohesky led the Panthers over the weekend, earning their All-Tournament team selections. Mohesky totaled 21 kills, 2 blocks, and 23 digs. Her partner in crime, Pereles, also was awarded the OVC defensive player of the week in addition to her tournament selection. Ariadna was dominant, recording 82 digs and 21 assists, a tremendous bright spot for head coach Ryan Millar. However, this weekend, the Panthers will need more contributions around the court to end the road trip on a high note. As a team, EIU is averaging 12.2 kills, 11.5 assists, 17.26 digs, and 2.2 blocks per set. The Panthers remain at the top of the OVC in winning percentage, opponent hitting percentage, and digs per set. Outside of the OVC, the 17.26 digs per set is ranked 6th in the nation. 

 

About Iowa State: The Cyclones will enter the weekend with an impressive 7-1 record, with the loss coming from the University of Northern Iowa. Iowa State was in the same Ohio Bobcat Tournament to start the year as Eastern Illinois, but the two programs would wait until this upcoming weekend to face off. Iowa State handled Bucknell and Ohio pretty swiftly with back-to-back match sweeps. The Cyclones are led by head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch, who is in her 21st season with Iowa State. Johnson-Lynch has a career coaching record of 380-219, and her key contributors come from three different classes: a freshman, sophomore, and senior. Freshman outside hitter Alea Goolsby is the team leader on offense. She has recorded 88 kills and 94.5 points in 25 sets played. The sophomore leader is Rachel Van Gorp, a libero/outside hitter who leads the team defensively with 116 digs. The senior lead for the Cyclones is Morgan Brandt, who leads the team with 298 assists. The previous meeting against Iowa State was on September 14th, 1996. Iowa State won the first and only match between these two programs 1-3. 

 

About Illinois: The Fighting Illini come into the weekend at 4-3 with wins over Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Cincinnati, and Illinois State. One of their losses came from the third-ranked team in the nation, Louisville. Illinois is led by head coach Chris Tamas entering in his ninth season. Tamas is led by multiple key performers across the board. Offensively, Taylor de Boer leads the program with 92 kills and 96.5 points. Kenna Phelan, a junior from Arkansas, holds the top spot on the team in assists with 254. Lastly, on the defensive side, Taryn Kirsch has totaled 76 digs to lead the Illini. The history of these programs has the all-time series slotted at 2-11 favoring the Illini. The last match between these two teams was on September 16th, 2005, which Illinois won 3-2. 

Both matches can be followed on the BIG+ network or the live stats listed above.