Jenny Hazelwood spoke fast and with excitement when she spoke about her team playing this weekend.

The Austin Peay head coach said she had a clear purpose for the weekend.

Hazelwood wants to see her team have a .500 record by Friday night. The Governors (7-11, 2-4 Ohio Valley Conference) to pull even in the OVC, the Governors will have to defeat Southeast Missouri (4-4, 8-10) and Eastern (1-7, 8-9).

She said she thinks her team can pull off both victories because she thinks her team is playing well.

“We’ll need to minimize our errors,” Hazelwood said. “But if we play aggressive and excitement, we can win. Our outside hitters are playing well and if our middle blockers step up again, I think we’ll be in good shape.”

Hazelwood said the two middle blockers, freshmen Maegan Squibb and Jessica Mollman, have gained a lot of experience playing this season and says their performance will be key in the match. Mollman, a 6-feet, 1-inch Cincinnati native, has 132 kills and 29 total blocks as well as playing in 60 out of 65 games this season for the Governors. Squibb, who is also 6-feet, 1-inch, is from Fort Wayne, Ind., and has 52 kills and 10 total blocks this season.

Eastern head coach Lori Bennett said she did not want to overplay the significance of two freshmen at middle blocker.

“It’s possible we can use it to our advantage,” Bennett said. “But we need to come out fresh and play hard. That’s the only way we’ll see what they can and can’t do. Watching them on tape and playing them are different things. They can sometimes be an entirely different team.”

Eastern senior outside hitter Eliza Zwettler said she thinks the Panthers may have an advantage to attacking the inexperienced players.

“We have a fast offense,” Zwettler said. “We probably have the fastest offense in the entire OVC and I don’t think they’ve seen anyone that runs an offense like us. So we’ll see what they can do, but we hope to use their inexperience to our advantage.”

However, Bennett did say she thinks there is an advantage with the amount of rest between the two teams. Eastern has only had one practice, on Wednesday, since their 3-2 defeat against Tennessee-Martin. That was the Panthers seventh five-game match of the season. The Panthers are 3-4 in a fifth game situation.

The Governors will have to play SEMO first and that is where Bennett said she believes there is an advantage.

“I think it’s a slight disadvantage to them,” Bennett said. “Recovery time is important and I think we’re well rested for the match.”

Hazelwood said she thinks her squad can beat Eastern, but still respects the team.

“EIU is a decent team,” Hazelwood said, “They have a rough conference record, but they have played in some tough matches. Our girls will have to play aggressive because EIU won’t back down. We have to continue to keep our high-level of play.”

Both Bennett and Hazelwood talked about how tight the race for the OVC is.

Hazelwood talked about how there are now no undefeated teams in the conference since Morehead State has lost standing at 6-1 now, tied with Tennessee State in the OVC.

“It just shows how close the conference is this season,” Hazelwood said. “It’s really strong and competitive this year and it’s great. We don’t really know who the top three teams are or who will be the top six teams to make the tournament.”

Bennett said she also liked how close the conference is this season.

“It’s very competitive and I don’t think there are huge differences between the teams,” Bennett said. “We’re certainly going to continue to see competitive matches and that just shows how competitive we all are.”

Zwettler said she thinks that the conference is still in reach.

“It’s really exciting,” Zwettler said. “There are still a lot of opportunities. We are in control of our destiny with what we do. It’s in our hands.”

The Panthers-Governors match begins at 7 p.m. at Dunn Center in Clarksville, Tenn.

Shaina Boylan, sophomore libero, moves the ball into postition during the Sept. 18, match against Southeast Missouri in Lantz Arena. Eric Hiltner/The Daily Eastern News

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