Sophomore outside hitter Caitlin Balsam set a career high in kills Saturday at the Northwestern Invitational.

Balsam had a team-high 26 kills against Pittsburgh, besting her previous high by nine.

“She hits the ball very hard and she’s a very good player,” senior outside hitter Mary Welch said.

The performance wasn’t enough for the Panthers, however, as they lost to Pitt 3-2 in their third match of the tournament. Eastern lost all three matches.

Balsam, who has 110 kills in 31 games this season, had 36 kills this weekend.

Senior outside hitter Kara Sorenson said she was getting her job done on the court.

“She was playing smart and looking for open shots,” she said.

She is currently second on the Panthers in kills, behind junior outside hitter Eliza Zwettler who has 116 kills in 34 games.

In games three and four, Balsam had 27 errorless swings, getting 14 kills. This helped Balsam lead the team with a .297 hitting percentage.

“Caitlin was just on fire in the Pittsburgh game,” Zwettler said. “She was hitting to spots they couldn’t get to.”

Overall, the team had .151 hitting percentage and Pitt hit .259.

“We were up against a lot bigger blocks then we’re used to,” Sorenson said. “Our offense doesn’t really have the height for this tournament.”

In the first two matches, Eastern didn’t hit nearly as well.

The Panthers also had .017 and .096 hitting percentage against the Northwestern Wildcats and Arizona Wildcats.

“It was low but there were definitely improvements,” Welch said. “Our defense was pretty good. They got a couple of kills here and there. We also had a lot of serving aces.”

Eastern finished the weekend with 11 service aces.

Junior outside hitter Kera Griffin led the team with four.

Sorenson also thought the team improved offensively as well.

“We played smarter and made better shots and decisions (as the weekend progressed),” she said.

Throughout the games, Welch said, the Panthers made a lot of hitting and setting adjustments.

“Just everything had to be a bit different,” she said. “Being able to adjust to the teams this weekend helped a lot.”

The adjustments helped the Panthers take Pitt to five games and Arizona to four games after falling to NU in three games.

“We made huge strides keeping a game from Arizona,” Zwettler said. “They’re ranked No. 24 in the nation. We made huge strides sticking with those teams and keeping them out of their system.”

Welch thought the team made improvements throughout the tournament, allowing them to keep up with the bigger schools.

“A lot of the coaches told our coach they were impressed with our team,” she said.

Zwettler said the tournament is a good preparation for conference play starting this week.

“It let us see what we need to bring day in and day out,” she said.