TUESDAY'S SCORE
*@Eastern Illinois 3, SIUE 1
EASTERN ILLINOIS 3, SIUE 1
CHARLESTON, Ill. - The Eastern Illinois volleyball team (5-12, 1-6 OVC) picked up a big 3-1 conference win over SIUE (7-11, 2-5 OVC) on Tuesday evening inside Groniger Arena. The final set scores were 31-29, 25-18, 21-25, and 25-12.
The opening set was electric, featuring 10 lead changes and 17 tied scores. Down the stretch, EIU fended off three SIUE set points before closing the frame out on a 4-1 run to take a 1-0 match lead. Destiny Walker came out firing on all cylinders with a team-leading eight kills in the set.
Set two was all Big Blue, as the Panthers went ahead 5-2 early and never looked back, extending their lead to as many as nine on their way to taking a 2-0 lead. Ireland Hieb lead the Eastern offense with five kills and two blocks in the frame.
The Cougars responded in the third set and built an early six-point lead. The Panthers fought back to narrow the gap to just one, but were unable to complete the comeback as SIUE prevailed to make the score two sets to one.
In the fourth set, EIU jumped on SIUE with an early 5-0 run before eventually extending the lead to 13-3. The Cougars put together brief run to cut the lead to six, but Eastern locked in an finished the frame on a 10-3 run to take the set and match. Katie Kopshever led the EIU attack with five kills in the frame.
Destiny Walker headlined the Eastern Illinois offense on the evening with a season-high 20 kills. She also added a team second-best 12 digs for a double-double.
Kaitlyn Flynn and Ireland Hieb also recorded double-digit kills with 10 terminations apiece.
In her first action since early September, Catalina Rochaix handed out a team-high 28 assists. She was followed by Sylvia Hasz with 24 helpers.
The Panthers compiled 12.5 total team blocks. Ireland Hieb led the way with seven blocks. She was followed by Julia Stanev with five blocks and Lilli Amettis and Karli Mann who both had four rejections.
Laura Paniagua anchored the EIU defense with 22 digs.