The Eastern volleyball team continues their conference schedule today and Saturday as they travel to Louisville, Ken. to take on Wichita State, Louisville and Ole Miss.

The Panthers are coming off a season in which they went 2-2 in Terre Haute, but this week the team will have sophomore outside hitter Reynae Hutchinson returning to the lineup after being out with illness last week.

Hutchinson said she is excited to get back on the court and open up her season after watching last weekend.

“I felt like I could have gone last weekend,” Hutchinson said. “Doctor’s orders, I guess, so now I’m just chomping at the bit now to get in and win some games.”

Hutchinson was medically cleared to return to practice Monday after missing several days last week.

Assistant coach Ryan Sweitzer said the team is ready to get back into action and having Hutchinson back in the lineup is a positive.

“It was good to get the nerves out of our system last weekend,” Sweitzer said. “We’ve got Reynae back in the lineup, she’s not sick anymore so it’ll be good to have her back in the lineup. We’ve had a good week of practice going in so I think we can give all the other teams a pretty good run for their money.”

Sweitzer said he thought going into last weekend the absence of Hutchinson on the court should have made more of an impact than it did. He said several of the other players stepped up well to fill the void.

The Panthers only have two seniors this year after losing five seniors from last year’s squad. This year’s seniors, setter Chrissie Albers and libero Brittany Wallace, have stepped up as leaders on the court and off, according to several of the underclassmen.

Freshman outside hitter Katie Kirby said they have been a great influence and help in keeping everybody mentally in the game during sets.

“On the court they (Albers and Wallace) will tell us where to be, where to go, what to do,” said Kirby. “If we mess up or something they have our back, they’re really good at being leaders.”

Hutchinson also said she thinks both Panther seniors do well stepping up on the court.

“I think they both do a fantastic job out there,” Hutchinson said.”(They are) keeping everyone positive, keeping everyone’s heads in the game and focused on the ultimate goal. We couldn’t ask for better leaders out there on the court.”

As far as how the Panthers match up head-to-head with the teams they are facing this weekend, Sweitzer said while the other teams were bigger, the Panthers have a plan to combat that and have gameplans set up for how to go at each of their weekend opponents.

The Panthers start their weekend today at 4 p.m. against Wichita State before playing a pair of matches tomorrow against the host Lousiville Redbirds and Ole Miss at 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., respectively.

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