Junior middle hitter Lauren Sopcic says this Friday’s match against Tennessee Tech will be just as important as the following day’s match against Tennessee State.

But she said the match against the Golden Eagles might have more of her attention.

“I’m really concentrated on Tennessee Tech because they come first, but I also played on a club team in high school with a girl that plays for Tennessee Tech,” Sopcic said.

Sopcic, a Freeport native, was talking about Tennessee Tech’s middle blocker Jessica Asplund from Pecatonic. Sopcic said she played with Asplund for a year in high school on a club team and that they were also high school rivals for their high school teams where they both did the high-jump as well as volleyball.

Contending with last year’s ghosts

The Golden Eagles defeated the Panthers in last season’s match in five games finally falling 2-3.

Senior outside hitter Eliza Zwettler said she does not think that loss factors in all that much since most of the team was not on the squad last season.

“So few of our players were involved for that match,” Zwettler said. “I think it will be extra motivation will be to show everyone how good of a team we are. We had such a great preseason.”

Zwettler said more of the motivation for the conference play will come from the fact that many of the coaches selected Eastern to finish at ninth place this season. She said she wants to show what Eastern volleyball is really about.

Sopcic thinks the loss factors in a little personally for the veteran players including her.

“We beat them my freshman year, but lost to them last year,” Sopcic said. “We’d like to show them we’re not the same team this year.”

The Start of OVC play

This Friday starts the Ohio Valley Conference portion of the season.

Most of the Panthers have said they are excited to have finally arrived at this part of the season.

“I think we’ve done a good job at preparing in practice and in our preseason,” Sopcic said.

Sophomore libero Shaina Boylan shares Sopcic’s enthusiasm.

“We’re all really excited for the start of conference play and going in at 7-2,” Boylan said.

The Freshmen Factor

The freshmen on the team have played a big role so far this season.

Kelsey Orr has four registered double-doubles on the season and posted 11 kills and a .318 hitting percentage against Illinois State last weekend.

Freshman Alex Zwettler has also been strong so far in her first season posting a five-consecutive double-double performance up until last weekend at Illinois State. She said she is not surprised at how well the younger players like her have been playing so well.

“I know Eastern recruited a lot of players that would make an immediate impact on the team,” she said. “It’s nice to see the team has came together so quickly.”

Zwettler said she is not worried about the stress of the OVC portion of the season starting.

“I’ll just look to the leaders of the team to help us through this,” she said.

Getting ready for the week

Coach Lori Bennett said earlier in the week one of the problem’s with last week’s loss to Illinois State was that the team were not passing as well as usual.

Boylan said they got Monday practice off, but that they hit the court hard on Tuesday’s practice and practiced on passing among other things.

The Panthers will play Tennessee Tech at 7 p.m. Friday at the Eblen Center, then take on Tennessee State at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Freshmen Alex Zwettler digs a ball during practice at Lantz Arena Tuesday afternoon. Eastern opens Ohio Valley Conference play this Friday against Tennessee Tech.

(more…)