Eastern’s beach volleyball team fell just short to the Lindenwood Lions 3-2 on Thursday afternoon at Sister City Park. 

The pair of redshirt junior Julia Udell and junior Lilli Amettis started strong for the Panthers, securing the first win for the Panthers. 

The other win for Eastern came from the duo of juniors Sylvia Hasz and Tori Mohesky. 

“The biggest strength me and Tori had today was our composure,” Hasz said. “We lost the first set, but we knew we could play just a little bit cleaner and a little bit smarter.” 

In the second and third sets, Hasz and Mohesky defeated Lindenwood’s duo of Gabby Belcher and Aubrey Sheppard 21-15 and 15-13. 

“We kept it simple and did what we were good at picking up the pace in places we needed too,” Hasz said. “Tori had a great defensive day, and we were able to lean off of that and make good shots tiring out the other pair.” 

The duo of Hasz and Mohesky are currently 3-3 for the season. 

Eastern’s pair of senior Kaitlyn Flynn and freshman Ariadna Pereles took a loss to Lindenwood’s Abby Van Buskirk and Taylor Gentemann in two sets, 21-10, 21-15. 

Flynn said the biggest strength between her and Pereles was their serve and pass game. 

“We are a newer pair so we’re really focused on building our chemistry and are excited to keep working together and improving, but there was a lot of good things we saw today,” Flynn said. 

For the Panthers, the pair of senior Laura Paniagua and junior Emma Schroeder were the last game of the day as the Panthers and the Lions were tied 2-2. Ultimately, Paniagua and Schroeder were defeated by Lindenwood’s Nyah Wilson and Katie Bockhorst in two sets, 21-5, 21-18. 

Paniagua said the biggest strength between her and Schroeder was their resilience throughout the match. 

“We started a little off on the first set by giving them a lot of points on our mistakes but after picking it up and figuring out we definitely starting competing head-to-head,” Paniagua said. 

This was the first time Paniagua and Schroeder played as a pair. Paniagua said she’s excited to keep competing with Schroeder and record some wins throughout the remainder of the season. 

“We are figuring each other out but I think we definitely have a great connection, and I really enjoy playing with Emma a lot, and I’m definitely really excited to keep competing and pull some wins,” Paniagua said. 

Although the team recorded the loss, Flynn said she thought the team did a great job overall. 

“We were able to pull out two wins which was really awesome especially being able to do it at home with our supporters,” Flynn said. “We had a few other games that were close in score, so overall I think we did great and are excited to keep training.” 

Eastern will play their next game on Friday, April 18 against University of Tennessee-Martin and Morehead State during the OVC Weekend at Morehead State. 

Hasz said she’s excited about the OVC Weekend matchups.

“Going into this next OVC weekend we know we will have a few tougher matches with Chattanooga and UTM,” Hasz said. “But we are way more ready now to stay confident in how we play and make quicker adjustments when needed.” 

Eastern is set to play Tennessee Tech and Chattanooga on Sunday, April 19 to close out the OVC Weekend. 

The Panters are set to compete against the Skyhawks at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time.

Zaria Flippin can be reached at 581-2812 or at zhflippin@eiu.edu.