This weekend the Eastern volleyball team went into East Lansing, Mich. to play three games.

They were coming off a season opener last weekend in which the Panthers went into the Harvard Invitational and came out with three victories.

However, this weekend proved to be a bit tougher for the Panthers, as they came out of the Michigan State Invitational with a win over Clemson after dropping matches to Eastern Michigan and Michigan State.

The Panthers began the tournament slowly on Friday, losing to Eastern Michigan in three sets.

They continued with another loss to the Michigan State Spartans, the tournament’s host. Eastern head coach Kate Price said the losses were due to the Panthers not playing their best volleyball in the opening two matches.

She said that the hitters struggled and the team beat themselves on those first two matches, in which their energy level was lower than she or the girls would have liked. Price said, however, she was impressed with how the girls really came alive in the final match against Clemson, winning their final match of the tournament over the ACC team.

“We played very well the last match, and I’m happy with that,” Price said.

Price said she felt the Panthers could have potentially won all three matches if they had played the first two with the same intensity and energy as they had against Clemson.

Freshman outside hitter Reynae Hutchinson said that it was a good win over Clemson, but she felt that the Panthers didn’t play their best in their first two matches.

Senior outside hitter Kelsey Orr took good things and bad from the tournament.

“I thought it was really good for us (beating Clemson),” Orr said. “And sometimes a loss can be a learning experience”

As far as the rest of the season is concerned, Hutchinson said there is a positive outlook.

“I think we can surprise a lot of teams this year and have a really good season,” Hutchinson said.

The Panthers are looking ahead to another tournament next weekend and the rest of the season with a positive attitude, hoping to build off of their first two weekends, in which they went 4-3 combined.

Eastern will look to build on it for the rest of their season, which continues next weekend at Pittsburgh’s Blue & Gold tournament, where they will take on Robert Morris, Bowling Green and Saint Francis.

Bradley Kupiec can be reached at 581-7944 or bmkupiec@eiu.edu

Junior libero Brittany Wallace passes the ball during practice onThursday. (Jordan Boner

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