The male Panther of the Semester is going to Pierce Holley from the football team.
The graduate quarterback from Arvada, Colorado, finished the 2024 season with 19 passing touchdowns.
Holley also put his name in the record books, being the fourth quarterback in program history to record over 3,000 passing yards within a single season (3,125) behind Tony Romo, Sean Payton and Jimmy Garoppolo.
Along with his 19 passing touchdowns, Holley recorded a rushing touchdown of his own.
Throughout the season, Holley recorded 249 completions out of 408 attempts.
The female Panther of the Semester is going to Abby Reinl from the women’s soccer team.
The sophomore forward from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, finished the 2024 season with eight goals and was also named the 2024 Ohio Valley Conference midfielder of the year.
Along with goals, Reinl recorded 31 shots and 18 of them were on goal.
Reinl recorded 1,168 minutes throughout the season and helped lead the team to an overall record of 5-8-6 and an Ohio Valley Conference record of 3-3-3. With this record, the Panthers qualified for the OVC tournament for the second straight year in a row.
At the end of the season, Reinl was named a Third Team All-Region player as she is the first Panther since 2005 to be named an All-Region Player.
The coach of the semester is going to Dirk Bennett from the women’s soccer team.
Finishing his second season as head coach for the Panthers, Bennett coached the team to their second straight OVC tournament appearance.
Bennett coached 2024 midfielder of the year and first team conference player Abby Reinl. Bennett also coached sophomore forward and second team conference player Alex Tetteh and freshman defender and newcomer conference player Colleen Bauer.
Despite the adversity the team faced with injuries within the goalie position, Bennett helped both goalies Ashlyn Hoover and Ella Kratochvil for a total of seven shutouts throughout the season.
Zaria Flippin can be reached at 581-2812 or at zhflippin@eiu.edu.
