Red Hawks rally to beat Panthers 3-1 at Ohio Valley Conference match - Volleyball
The city of Cape Girardeau in Missouri recently hosted an exciting volleyball affair between local teams from Southeast Missouri University (Redhawks) and Eastern Illinois Panthers at the Houck Fieldhouse arena on Tuesday, October 4. The hosts profited from
the home advantage and posted a 3-1 (25-9, 25-19, 22-25, 25-15) win over Panthers. The Redhawks exhibited a spectacular performance on home soil and improved their record to 4-0. Overall, they stand with 7-11 record, while Panthers fell short to 4-14 on the
year.
Set 1
The hosts could not have a better start in the match as they grabbed a lead of 7-1. They hit with a sizzling percentage of .440 and committed no errors at all. The Panthers were taken aback with the early strike of Hawks. Tough serves and tricky passes of
hosts forced the visiting team off-system. Hawks continued with great energy and took the score to next stop of 15-5. Panthers seemed awfully troubled with the ways Hawks attacked them. They were restricted to 9 points in first set, which marked the lowest
single-set record for Panthers in the season. On contrary, Hawks performed amazingly well and secured the opening set at 25-9.
Set 2
The Hawks stayed on the same course in following set and recorded .281 hitting percentage. The second set perfectly portrayed the same picture as of previous set. Hawks jumped to an early lead of points and continued to put pressure on the Panthers. Eastern
Illinois would battle back in the frame, but the home squad gave them no chance to return in the game. Hawks improved from 7-5 to 13-11 and then to 21-17. Emily Franklin of EIU struggled to bring her team back in the game but frequent attack and reception
errors led Panthers to the loss of another set (19-25).
Set 3
The start of third set was good for Hawks as they put away early points and blocked the way of opponents. MSU led the scores up till 12-7 but Eastern Illinois ladies fought back and gradually found their feet in the game. Dakota Springer put EIU in lead
at 15-13. Panthers got the groove to hit powerful serves and further stretched the gap of points. Eventually, they were able to claim third set of the match, 25-21.
Set 4
EIU captured the third set but could not carry the momentum in fourth set. Hawks came up with aggressive attacks and snatched fourth set from Panthers with 25-15 on board. Hosts pulled off success in the match at the expense of only one set.
The winning coach of RedHawks, Julie Fooliard, was satisfied with her team’s performance. She appreciated everyone’s effort in achieving success against the Panthers and stated: "We got off to a great start tonight, we were very aggressive, our middles got
involved right away and we were passing very well, which allowed used to spread the ball around.”
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