Eastern’s volleyball team looks like they have finally turned their season around. The Panthers put their own backs against a metaphorical wall with a less-than-stellar start to their season, losing five of their first six Ohio Valley Conference matches. At that point a light bulb seemed to go on, as the Panthers reeled of five wins in six matches, with four of those wins coming against OVC teams.

The Panthers then ran into a buzz saw last weekend, losing matches to OVC foes Eastern Kentucky and conference leader Morehead State. This past Tuesday Eastern appeared to have moved past those defeats, as they flat-out dominated conference opponent Southeast Missouri State, sweeping the Redhawks for the second time in a span of less than two weeks.

The Panthers swept SEMO in Cape Girardeau, Mo., and then thrashed them again in Lantz Arena this week. In light of their most recent match, the Panthers look to continue their roll going into what is definitely a crucial weekend coming up at home. The Panthers will play Austin Peay and Tennessee State; both are OVC opponents. Eastern is currently tied with Tennessee State for the sixth and final conference tournament spot, so their fate is still in their hands with four matches left on the regular season schedule.

The Panthers are still in control of whether or not they reach the post-season, but they still cannot afford to look past any of their opponents; they need to keep taking things one match, one set, and one point at a time. The Panthers have been saying all year that they’re taking things one match at a time and not looking past anybody, so we can only hope and assume that this will hold true for the rest of the year. If the team wins out and gets into the OVC tournament seeded sixth, it will play the number one seeded team, who at this point looks like Morehead State.

The Panthers have lost both matches this year against Morehead State, who were the preseason favorites. The Panthers have proven that the Golden Eagles are indeed human, as they won the opening set against them in Morehead, Tenn. this past weekend before losing the second, third, and fourth sets. But that set should be a building point for the Panthers, if they can go back and review what they did right in that set, they can try to duplicate and maintain their success and hopefully advance in the tournament, where anything can happen.

As Panther head coach Kate Price has said several times this year, any OVC team can beat any other team on any given day, and hopefully this holds true for the Panthers if they make it into the OVC tournament.

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