While Lantz Arena will have the sounds of Foreigner playing, another part of Eastern will have the sounds of a game.

The Student Recreation Center will play host to the Panthers when they play Tennessee Tech on Saturday night.

“I think it’s going to be great,” said head coach Lori Bennett. “It’s going to be a nice, small, loud place and I hope that we get a lot of students to come out and fill the place up. I think it will be a great advantage for us to play there.”

TTU head coach John Blair said he is not excited about playing at the recreation center.

One of the reasons he gave for this is he thinks the lighting is not fit for a game.

“I’ve actually looked in there when we’ve been there for matches, and my recollection of it was that it did not allow itself playable for a collegiate volleyball match,” Blair said.

Eastern knew about the scheduling conflicts in mid-August, said Mark Bonnstetter, associate athletic director for operations and head athletic trainer.

After the concert had been scheduled, both teams had tried to look into possibly rescheduling the game. Dates suggested, though, did not work out for the teams.

“They (TTU) were pretty agreeable,” Bonnstetter said. “They looked into possibly changing the date, but it didn’t work for them.”

Blair said this was due to missing more school then they wanted to.

TTU already plays Southeast Missouri on Friday night, and plays Eastern on Saturday on its way back to Cookeville, Tenn.

“The dates that were proposed were not agreeable, because we would be missing two additional days of classes,” Blair said. “With Eastern not being able to play the match on Sunday, no other day was acceptable to us.”

The Panthers also tried looking at different places to play.

Charleston High School could have been one possibility, but Bennett said the team wanted to stay on campus.

Another possible location would have been McAfee Gym, but was already preoccupied as well, Bennett said.

“McAfee is booked also,” she said. “There are events being held there, so Student Rec is the best option.”

When they decided that the recreation center was the best choice, Bonnstetter and Bennett met up with Ken Baker, director of campus recreation, to finalize planning of this event.

“They first came looking for a site to play,” Baker said. “They looked at a couple of different options and with the locker room facilities and things here, this was the best option for them.”

This will be the first time the Panthers have played in the Student Rec.

The Panthers have only had to play away from Lantz one other time. That was in Oct.15, 2000, when Eastern lost to Creighton at Charleston High School

The match was moved because of Family Weekend and conflicts with activities on Eastern’s campus.

The match this weekend will be played on court five, which Baker said was to keep out of the way of students wanting to play on the other courts.

“Court five is off and out of the way, so we still have (courts) one through four for the students, so the game does not get in the students way,” Baker said.

Another reason court five was chosen is that it is larger then the other courts, Baker said.

There is work to be done before the court will be able to host an Ohio Valley Conference match, though.

“We have to convert it from looking like a basketball court to a volleyball court,” Bonnstetter said. “We’re going to use some of the moveable seating they have at the Rec Center. We have to set up risers for the official score table and team chairs. Also, just make sure we have the audio working for the scoreboard and the computer stats.”

Another piece of equipment needed to be taken down was actually part of the basketball court itself.

“The biggest thing is that we need to take down one of the backboards, and the carpenters have already done that,” Baker said.

The backboard on the right side does not rise up like the left side. It possibly could have interfered with the teams’ jumps serves when they threw the ball up.

With the game being played in the recreation center, the seating will not be as numerous as in Lantz.

“We have four sets of portable bleachers, and we’ll bring all four of those over there for them so they can have some seating,” Baker said. “We can seat about 160 on those bleachers.”

The seats will also be closer to the court and not so spread out.

“I think there’s potential for us to have a great crowd,” Bennett said. “I’m looking forward to it really. We’re going to bring some seating in and there’s a lot of room to stand and I think it will be a great atmosphere.”

Even with all these changes to the recreation center, Bennett said it will not matter where they play.

“Volleyball is volleyball, and we all know at the end of the day it’s not going to matter where we play, but how we play, and that’s what our focus is,” she said.