Box Score vs. Marshall I Box Score vs. Southern Illinois

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Eastern Kentucky suffered a pair of 3-1 losses to Marshall and Southern Illinois on Saturday at the Thunder Invitational hosted by Marshall.

Marshall (4-7) won by scores of 25-19, 24-26, 25-23 and 25-20. Southern Illinois (3-7) earned its victory by scores of 24-26, 25-18, 25-14 and 25-23.

Against Marshall (4-7) the two teams split the first two sets. After the Thundering Herd went up 1-0, EKU squeaked out a 26-24 win in the second set. Marshall had set-point at 24-23, but the Colonels rolled off three straight points. Ally Peters tied it with a kill. After an attack error by Marshall, Ashley Edmond ended the set with a kill.

In the key third set, Eastern had a 21-19 lead after a kill by Rachel Vick, however the Thundering Herd went on a 6-2 run to end the set and take a 2-1 lead. With the fourth set tied 13-13, Marshall used an 8-3 run to build a five-point cushion and held control the rest of the way.

Edmond led Eastern with 15 kills to go along with 12 digs and three blocks.

A kill by Alexis Plagens and a service ace by Julia Mindlina got the Colonels off to a good start with a 26-24 win in the first set against Southern Illinois. However, the Salukis won the next two sets by margins of seven and 11 points.

EKU led 23-22 in the fourth set in an effort to force a fifth. SIU scored the next three points, two of which came off Colonel attack errors, to secure the match.

Edmond had a match-best 14 kills for Eastern. Vick added 11 kills. EKU had nine more kills than SIU, but committed 12 service errors and was out-blocked 14.5 to 2.0.

Jessica Whitehead led the Salukis with 12 kills.

The Colonels will participate in the Penn State Classic next weekend. EKU faces Yale at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. On Saturday, Eastern takes on Penn State at 10 a.m. and Albany at 4 p.m.