Eastern was missing a few notable players Saturday afternoon at Murray State.

Mainly, two senior players and the leader in both sets and serves.

Outside hitters Kara Sorenson and Mary Welch, along with setter Maren Crabtree were off the court at various times against Murray State as the Panthers lost 3-0.

The three players combined to play four games Friday night at Ohio Valley Conference opponent Tennessee-Martin.

Eastern also lost that match 3-1.

“We had some success against Martin in game three with a couple of other players,” head coach Lori Bennett said. “I liked the momentum that I saw; I liked the attitude I saw with those girls so I stayed with them Saturday.”

Welch and Sorenson had been good contributors in attacking, having 2.45 and 2.71 kills per game, respectively.

Friday night, though, Welch had only two attacks and four errors in one game for a -.182 hitting percentage. Sorenson had two attacks and two errors for an even .000 percentage.

Sorenson did not start the game, but instead came off the bench.

Welch, on the other hand, started game one, but was replaced in game two by sophomore Caitlin Balsam.

Crabtree played two games Friday, getting just 15 assists and 9 digs, one dig away from continuing her double-double streak.

She was replaced halfway through the game by freshman setter Lauren Schutte. This marks only the second time this season that Crabtree has not played all the games in a match.

Saturday was the first time she did not play a match at all. Instead, Schutte started her first game this year.

“We were playing very well, and I didn’t want to make any changes,” Bennett said.

With these two losses, the Panthers (5-14, 0-8 OVC) extended their losing streak to 13 games. They also added 50 more attack errors to their totals this year, which were 484 before Friday.

While the Panthers had 103 attacks this weekend, they were held to a .136 team hitting percentage Friday and .196 Saturday.

“We were in a position to win all those games (Saturday), with the exception of the second game where we made some errors halfway though,” Bennett said.

She was not sure if the same starters from this weekend would continue to start next game.

“We’ll have to see what the week brings, what happens in practice,” Bennett said.