After four sets Eastern got their first Ohio Valley Conference win of the season against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville 3-1 (31-29, 25-18, 21-25, 25-12) Tuesday evening in Groniger Arena.
A substantial difference for EIU this game was the return of 2023 OVC setter of the year junior Catalina Rochaix. She is back for the first time since Sept. 13.
“Having their setter back gave them some good momentum, {Rochaix’s} very consistent,” SIUE’s head coach Kendall Paulus said. “They clearly have better rhythm with her.”
Rochaix had 28 assists and six digs in the game.
“[It was] like she never left honestly,” graduate middle blocker Ireland Hieb said. “Our connection is great. And practicing this week was good. And just our communication, she is such a leader on and off the court too.”
Another bright spot in the game for the Panthers was freshman outside hitter Destiny Walker. She had her best game of the season with season highs in kills (20), points (22), digs (12) and blocks (2). She had the most kills and points out of everybody on the court.
“We don’t care if you’re a freshman, super senior it doesn’t matter, we have standards and [Walker] held them tonight, she did really well,” Hieb said.
Hieb was second on the team in points (14) and led the team in total blocks (7).
A different freshman outside hitter, Katie Kopshever, finished off the match with a kill after a set from Junior Sylvia Hasz. Kopshever’s hit was digged by Cougar’s redshirt senior setter Corinna Jones to graduate middle back Nicole Medlin who hit it out of the Panther’s sideline.
Kopshever didn’t join the match until the score was 21-16 in the third set, but she still recorded six kills.
The final set was the only one won by a large margin, something the game didn’t start off with.
The first set featured 10 lead changes and 17 tied scores. Both teams struggled to pull away for the two-point win margin but eventually ended at 31 points after back-to-back kills by Walker.
The second set was all EIU. The Panthers had a four and six point run that led to a seven-point set win.
The one after that saw a few runs too. The biggest one being EIU’s five-point one that changed the score from them being down 13-8 to only down one.
The Panthers kept stringing together runs in the fourth set, starting it off with a five-point one. Then they would have another run of the same point total later in the game. Then they finished off the match with a four-point run.
EIU’s head coach Sara Thomas said they play with mini goals in mind.
“The beauty of volleyball is that the beginning of every set, the score is 0-0. So, we said let’s do the best to first to 5, first to 10, first to 15 so we have mini goals that we want to execute,” Thomas said. “Especially when you get to point 15 and point 20, how clean can you play? Then almost like what I like to call flip the switch, can you flip the switch and refocus even more than what we were doing towards the end of the set.”
The Panthers will play again at Groniger Arena this Friday and Saturday against conference opponent Tennessee Tech, Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m.
Bryce Parker can be reached at at 581-2812 or at baparker2@eiu.edu.
