The Panthers had an undefeated season going into Saturday night’s matchup against the Southern Methodist Mustangs at the SMU Tournament.

The Panthers had swept opponent McNeese 3-0 on Friday and Western Carolina 3-0 earlier in the day.

Eastern won the first two games against SMU 33-31 and 30-25, but game three proved to be the turning point of the night.

The Mustangs came back to win three games in a row to take the match and win their own invitational 3-2 with victories of 30-20, 30-23 and 15-8.

Eastern head coach Lori Bennett said she was proud of the overall performance of her team.

“Overall, I was happy with how we opened the weekend,” Bennett said. “Our first two matches went very well. For a young team to do that well right away, is a good sign.”

She said she was impressed with the play of the freshmen, but she was not shocked by their performance.

“We compete so much in practice every day,” Bennett said. “I’ve seen what everyone can do on a daily basis. There is so much pressure on the players every day at practice, but they like it and they thrive on it. It’s no different with the match.”

Freshman outside hitter Alex Zwettler was one of the examples of the freshmen having a good weekend as she recorded her first double-double of her college career as she had 19 kills and 12 digs against SMU.

Other notable freshmen performances were by outside hitter Kelsey Orr, who had her first double-double of her career with 13 kills and 15 digs, and Natalie Barton with two service aces.

Junior middle hitter Lauren Sopcic said she was impressed by the freshmen performances as well and credited it to their ability to win eight games in a row.

“They did very well,” she said. “They were nervous, but they really stepped up.”

She said it was nice to see the younger Zwettler get named to the All-Tournament Squad, an honor Sopcic herself also earned this weekend.

Senior setter Maren Crabtree said she felt the team had good ball control and now that the freshmen have had a few good matches behind them, that other teams will “think twice” and “not underestimate them” because they are a young team.

Some of the returning players had standout nights as seniors Eliza Zwettler. an outside hitter, and Crabtree, sophomore libero Shaina Boylan and Sopcic posted good numbers.

The elder Zwettler had two double-doubles on the day. Against the Mustangs, Zwettler had 17 kills and 17 digs.

Sopcic had 16 kills and had an overall hitting average of .554 for the two-day tournament.

Sopcic said she gives the credit for her performance to her teammates.

“We communicate and play very well as a team,” Sopcic said.

Boylan had 27 digs, while Crabtree came close to breaking one of her own set school records of sets with 62, 11 shy of her 73 set record.

Bennett said the one thing she felt changed in the match against SMU was Eastern’s inability to maintain its high- evel of play.

“The goal right now is to get to a high level of play and stay there,” she said. “For eight out of 11 games, we did that. In game three, they started to push back at us and we got a little bit shaky but that’s because the season is young and we haven’t played that much together yet, but we will improve on that as the season goes.”

Crabtree said she felt the team played at a high-level for the majority of the tournament.

“I thought we played strong and consistent,” Crabtree said. “Our low levels were not by any means bad. We never stayed down too long.”

Eastern finished the tournament as runner-up, despite the loss to SMU. Bennett said she was excited the way her team played SMU because she said they are a good team in a good tough conference.

The Panthers will next play when they host the EIU Pepsi Challenge Tournament at Lantz Arena next weekend.

The first match starts at 10 a.m. Friday against Memphis with a later match against Indiana State at 7 p.m.