Team falls below .500 in league, overall record

The Eastern volleyball team fell below .500 on the season Tuesday as they dropped a four-set match (25-17, 24-26, 25-19, 28-26) to Murray State at Racer Arena in Murray, Ky.

It was a long night for the Panthers at the non-air conditioned Racer Arena as the team committed multiple hitting errors in falling to the Ohio Valley Conference preseason favorites.

Head coach Alan Segal was quick to say it was not the Panthers’ best effort.

“We played horrible,” Segal said. “We just played bad. We had multiple hitting errors and bad serving. Not good at all.”

The win was only the second victory of the season for the Racers as they are now on a two-match winning streak after starting out the year 0-10.

Though the Panthers have a better overall record (7-8), the Racers are now ahead of them OVC play as Eastern is 1-2 and Murray State is 2-1.

Though there was not many positives about the Panthers, junior outside hitter Alex Zwettler once again led the team in kills (14). She also had a team-high 16 digs, notching her 31st double-double of her career.

Another positive for Eastern was the return of junior outside hitter Erin Hake.

After missing several matches with a foot injury, Hake finished with 12 kills.

Senior outside hitter Jessica Wheeler also put up a decent performance with 10 kills, but it was not enough as Eastern was out-hit by the Racers .285 to .173. Wheeler finished with six digs. Sophomore libero Brittany Wallace finished with 10 digs.

Eastern junior setter Kylie Cavanah had a double-double with 48 assists and 10 digs.

Hitting errors were also a huge problem for the Panthers Tuesday as the team ended up with 10 service errors.

Like many of their previous losses, Eastern failed to finish out sets and let Murray State jump right back in after taking leads.

The Panthers got out to an early 4-1 lead in the fourth set, only to let the Racers come back and win the set 28-26 which allowed them to win the match three sets to one.

Murray State junior outside hitter Ashley Nenninger led the Racers with 17 kills.

Junior outside hitter Becca Lamb added 16 kills. Freshman libero Lydia Orf led the Racers with 13 digs. The Racers have won their last two of three matches.

After beginning the season with 14 of their first 15 matches on the road, the Panthers look forward to their Ohio Valley Conference home opener at 6 p.m. Thursday against Tennessee State (1-10, 0-1). The Panthers also host Austin Peay (7-4, 1-0) at 2 p.m. Saturday. Both matches will be held in Lantz Arena.

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

Sophomore libero Brittany Wallace returns the ball during the match against Illinois-Chicago Sept. 8 in Lantz Arena. (Eric Hiltner/The Daily Eastern News)

(more…)