The Eastern volleyball team went into last weekend’s Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne tournament looking for a fresh start to a new season. After coming out of the first two matches against Kent State and IPFW with victories, the Panthers fell short two matches in a row including a three set sweep against Butler (21-25, 22-25, 17-25) and a five set heartbreaker (25-21, 26-28, 25-16, 25-27, 15-12) against Drake University.

As opposed to previous seasons where the Panthers may have been content with a 2-2 record coming out of a tournament, the mindset for the team coming out of the IPFW tournament is anything but.

“We have to learn how to finish matches,” head coach Alan Segal said.

Closing out sets was a struggle over the weekend for Eastern especially against Drake Saturday afternoon.

After amounting an early 6-3 lead to open the match, Segal decided to run a 6-2 offense for the first time in the tournament, leading to an 8-2 run by the Bulldogs. If the Panthers are going to succeed this season, they feel they will need to learn to close out their matches, and that will probably start with basic fundamentals.

“We played hard, but not very good, fundamental volleyball,” Segal said.

Junior outside hitter Alex Zwettler said there are a variety of things the team still needs to improve on.

“We need to work on our defense and picking up the speed of the ball,” Zwettler said.

Standout Performances

Though the Panthers won only two of four matches over the weekend, breakout performances were witnessed throughout the entire tournament. Zwettler recorded four double-double performances, putting up double digits in digs and kills in each of the four matches at the IPFW tournament.

Junior outside setter and transfer Kylie Cavanah was a key part of the offense over the weekend, recording 42 assists against Kent State.

Sophomore libero Brittany Wallace put up solid performance in the second match of the tournament against IPFW, putting up 24 digs, which was her personal career high.

Senior outside hitter Jessica Wheeler also had a successful tournament leading the team in kills in the last game of the tournament against Drake with 16.

OVC Roundup

All of the Ohio Valley Conference schools started their seasons over the weekend, with only two teams leaving the weekend undefeated and two winless.

Jacksonville State started its season 3-0 by winning the Deacon Invitational title in Winston-Salem, N.C. Morehead State also left the weekend unscathed by winning its own tournament, the Comfort Inn and Suites Classic in Morehead, Ky.

Murray State – the OVC favorites in the preseason coaches’ poll – was one of the teams that remained winless after the weekend, dropping all three matches at the Middle Tennessee State Invitational in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

Kevin Maras can be reached at 581-7944 or kjmaras@eiu.edu.

Sophomore middle blocker Melanie Boykins spikes the ball during practice Monday afternoon in Lantz Fieldhouse. (Eric Hiltner/The Daily Eastern News)

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