Coming off a victory in its season opener Tuesday against Illinois-Chicago, the Eastern volleyball team went 1-2 in the Best Western Indiana State University Classic Friday and Saturday.

In the muggy Indiana State arena, the Panthers struggled in the first two matches, being swept in three sets by Indiana State and Ball State before winning their final match versus Chicago State.

The Panthers started the tournament on a bad note Friday night against host Indiana State. The Panthers did not use humidity as an excuse and believed it had nothing to do with their performance in losing straight sets (25-23, 25-22, 27-25) in the steamy ISU arena.

“The no air conditioning did not affect us,” said junior outside hitter Alex Zwettler. “We played all of preseason in the field house and it was warm in there. We were used to it.”

Zwettler led Eastern with 15 kills.

Senior outside hitter Jessica Wheeler recorded a double-double with 10 kills and 11 digs. Freshman defensive specialist Mattie Watts also recorded 11 digs.

The next match against Ball State was like déja vu for the Panthers as they lost three straight sets (25-14, 25-22, 25-17.)

“We just played horrible. We didn’t pass. We made multiple hitting errors,” said head coach Alan Segal.

Sophomore libero Brittany Wallace had nine digs in the loss.

After a 0-2 start to the tournament, the Panthers beat the Cougars in their final match with three straight sets (25-13, 25-11, 25-20.)

Zwettler notched 11 kills and received a spot on the All-Tournament team for the fifth time in her career.

As opposed to the first two matches, the Panthers established ball control throughout the match. Junior setter Kylie Cavanah had 33 assists out of the Panthers 39 kills. Wallace finished with a team-high 16 digs.

While the Panthers were happy to get the win, beating a team that did not win a set during the entire tournament is not the type of success the Panthers were hoping to achieve.

“We really struggled this weekend on our side of the net. Our opponents were not doing anything special to beat us, we beat ourselves,” Zwettler said. “We had way too many errors, hitting, serving, ball handling and blocking errors.”

The Panthers open the Ohio Valley Conference this weekend when they travel to Jacksonville, Ala., to take on Jacksonville State at 7 p.m. Friday.

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