Click Here For Live Stats
RICHMOND, Ky. – Eastern Kentucky will host its first home match of the 2008 season on Tuesday. The Colonels (2-9, 1-1 OVC) will face Tennessee State (1-6, 0-2 OVC) at McBrayer Arena. The match is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.
EKU is coming off a win over Eastern Illinois. The Colonels opened conference play this past weekend with road matches at Southeast Missouri and EIU.
Just as it did on Friday, Eastern opened its match against Eastern Illinois by winning the first two sets, on Saturday the Colonels finished the job, beating Eastern Illinois 3-0 in Charleston. The win snapped a seven-match losing streak for EKU and evened the team’s conference record at 1-1. Lindsey Loescher led Eastern Kentucky with 17 kills, including the match-winner. She added five digs and two assists to her totals. Senior Amanda Wilson totaled 11 kills, a .320 attack percentage and three blocks.
On Friday, two players registered 17 or more kills, eight players finished with two or more digs, six players had an assist and six players recorded a block, but the Colonels couldn’t hold off a rally by Southeast Missouri State and fell 3-2 in the conference opener for both teams. Loescher led EKU with 19 kills. Wilson finished with 17 kills and four block assists. Freshman Jill Henneman turned in a career-best 36 assists.
Loescher leads the team with an average of 2.92 kills per set. In two OVC matches last week, the junior newcomer averaged 4.5 kills per set. Wilson leads the Colonels with 16 blocks and is second on the team with an average of 2.05 kills per set.
Before 2008, Henneman had never served as a team’s setter. The freshman was thrust into the role at the beginning of the season when returning setter Kate Hendle went down with an injury. Henneman showed her improvement this past weekend, finishing with 72 assists in two matches. Henneman set a career-high with 36 assists in a five-set match against SEMO. The next day she matched her career-best with 36 assists in a three-set win over Eastern Illinois. She also had nine digs against the Panthers.
Tennessee State opened conference play by losing to Jacksonville State 3-2 and Tennessee Tech, 3-1. The Tigers lone win this season came at home against Alabama A&M. TSU opened the season with four loses to Kansas State, Purdue, Duke and Kentucky.
Senior Christian Lowe is the team’s top offensive threat. She has more than twice the number of kills (83) than anyone else on the team and leads the squad in blocks (12). Lowe averages 3.32 kills and 0.48 blocks per set. In addition to leading the offensive attack, Lowe is a contributor on defense as well, averaging two digs per set. She recorded her second double-double of the 2008 season on Friday against Jacksonville State, finishing with a season-high 21 kills and 12 digs.
Yamari Collazo is the team’s primary setter, averaging 4.2 assists per set. Candace Saleaumua leads the Tigers with an average of 3.68 digs per set.
