Crabtree Moves Up in Rankings

Maren Crabtree added another feat to her multiple achievements here.

The junior setter moved up to third all-time for assists, surpassing 1989 graduate Donna Sicher.

“I knew it was a matter of time, I just didn’t know when it would happen,” head coach Lori Bennett said. “She’s had a great career here so far.”

Crabtree, who has a career total of 3,291 assists, now has 569 assists this year. She is currently averaging 11.61 assists per game.

“She should be able to (move into first place) as she’s gotten this far in two years,” Bennett said.

As the primary setter, Crabtree earns numerous assists each game, easily ending with double digits at the end of the match.

Crabtree moved up in rankings on Saturday night against Tennessee-Martin, earning 55 assists leading to a team total of 60.

“I’m probably one of the few that have set from their freshman year till now so it’s to be expected to be higher up there,” Crabtree said.

Along with this newest achievement, Crabtree has the top two spots in assists per game in a season. She also holds the career record right now; recording 13.28 assists per game in two seasons.

This year, though, Crabtree has been having competition in practice from freshman Lauren Schutte, who red-shirted last year.

“Maren’s been playing the college game for two years longer then Lauren and they both give great things to the team,” Bennett said. “The competition from the two of them have definitely been making the team better.”

Panthers Extends Streak to Seven Matches

The Panthers already have another streak going this season.

However, it is a streak the team does not want.

The team has been on a seven match-losing streak since losing to Western Illinois on Sept. 9.

“We just need to be a little more patient and work harder to stay in our system,” Bennett said. “We have a lot of younger players and we just need to mature.”

To help this maturing process outside of the games, the coaches have been working hard with the team in practice.

The coaches give feedback to the players while scrimmaging and watch videos of previous performances.

“A lot of times they’ll think they’re doing something the right way and they’re really not and they can see that on film,” Bennett said.

Junior outside hitter Eliza Zwettler also agrees on how helpful the feedback is in practice.

“It’s always good because they know a lot about it (the problems) and are helping us to get better,” Zwettler said.

Against Murray State last Friday, the Panthers had multiple streaks of errors attacking, while being held to a .105 hitting percentage throughout the match.

“We’d have three serving errors in a row, or just mindless, silly errors that we don’t normally make,” Bennett said. “Against a team like Murray, who never gives you any breaks with their defense, you just have to stay focused. We got impatient against them and thought we had to do different things and went away from what is working.”

Eastern had been taken out of their offensive playing style this past weekend by both Murray State and Tennessee-Martin, Bennett said.

One thing the Panthers have been working on in practice this week has been to stay in their offensive style for longer during rallies.

Eastern plays a quicker paced offense then most other schools and has a tendency to slow down their play.

“As rally’s go on it’s very easy to do that, just to be a little more safe rather than stay high-risk and fast,” Bennett said. “Slower is more comfortable; slower is safer so just the natural tendency is to be more careful sometimes. What it needs to be is more aggressive and that’s just something our team needs to get more comfortable doing.”

Another problem the Panthers have had lately is dictating the pace of the match.

Instead of attacking first and keeping the opponents off guard, the team has been playing more conservative.

“We sometimes sit and wait to see what the other team’s going to do and then respond, when we need to do a better control then that,” Bennett said.