EIU Wins in Conference Action

The Eastern Illinois University volleyball team finished their week with an Ohio Valley Conference match at UT Martin. The Panthers defeated the Skyhawks in four-sets to pick up their first conference win of the season. EIU defeated UT Martin by scores of 23-25, 26-24, 25-13, 25-18. EIU improves to 4-15 (1-3 OVC). The Panthers will begin a four-match home stand next weekend as they host Austin Peay and Murray State.

The first set started out close between Eastern Illinois and UT Martin, but a kill by Josie Winner gave the Panthers a slight edge at 11-10. The Skyhawks began to take control of the set as they worked a 23-17 lead. Maria Brown pulled the Panthers within a single point later on, but UT Martin took the first set 25-23 on a kill from Hayley Gray.

After Eastern Illinois took a 7-6 lead in the early part of the second set, the Panthers extended their lead to 14-9 with the help of a 6-0 run, capped off by a Taylor Smith kill. UT Martin began to chip away into the EIU lead, and eventually knotted the score at 24-24. The Panthers took advantage of a error from UT Martin and followed it with a kill by Allie Hueston to clench the second set victory at 26-24 for EIU.

Eastern Illinois controlled the third set from the very beginning as a kill by Brown put the Panthers ahead by a score of 9-2. The lead extended to 13-4 on a Taylor Smith kill, and forced UT Martin into a timeout. The Panthers would not slow down as they extended their lead to 11 points as a kill by Winner moved the score to 23-12 in favor of EIU. The Panthers won the third set 25-13 as a Hueston kill and a Skyhawk error gave EIU a 2-1 advantage.

The Panthers took an early lead in the fourth set, after a block by Hueston put the score at 7-1 in favor of EIU, and forced UT Martin into a timeout. The timeout worked in favor of UT Martin as they were able to trim the EIU lead to 7-5 after the break. The Panthers were able to keep their rhythm out of the timeout as they extended their lead to 15-7 following a block by Abby Knight. The lead grew to as many as nine points as an error by UT Martin put the Panthers ahead 23-14. UT Martin attempted a late comeback going on a 4-0 run, but EIU finished off the fourth set on a kill by Katie Sommer and Knight gave the Panthers the win by a score of 25-18.

Smith picked up a triple-double in the match as she finished with 11 kills, 31 assists, and 11 digs. Winner led the Panthers with 13 digs. Lindsey Powers finished with 16 digs to lead EIU.