CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. ? Austin Peay State University's volleyball team finished the regular-season on a positive note, posting a 3-1 (26-24, 25-18, 23-25, 25-20) Ohio Valley Conference victory against Eastern Illinois, Saturday afternoon at the Dunn Center.

Austin Peay finishes the regular-season with a 21-10 overall mark and 13-5 conference record. The Lady Govs finish in a third-place tie with Murray State in the league race after finishing 11th in 2007. However, due to the Racers winning both regular-season matchups they will be seeded third in the upcoming tournament while the Lady Govs are seeded fourth.  Eastern Illinois closes its campaign with a 5-24 overall record and 2-16 in conference action.

Eastern Illinois, which won its first road OVC contest Friday night at Tennessee State, gave Austin Peay all it could handle throughout the match. In the opening set, EIU had two opportunities at set point. It took back-to-back kills by sophomore Jessica Mollman to tie the match, 24-24, followed by back-to-back Panthers errors to hand the set to the Lady Govs, 26-24.

Austin Peay controlled the second set from the first serve as Eastern Illinois could only force three ties in the early going, the last coming at 10-10. The Panthers committed three consecutive errors to give the Lady Govs a 13-10 advantage which they would not relinquish. Later, an 8-4 scoring run put APSU at set point, 24-18, which they would convert courtesy another EIU error.

The Panthers roared out to a 5-0 early lead in the fifth set as the Lady Govs committed three errors in those first five points. Austin Peay would recover and led throughout the later stages, including 22-20. However, Eastern Illinois scored five of the last six points to take the set, 25-23.

The Lady Govs returned the favor in the fourth set, utilizing a trio of Panthers attack errors to break out to a 6-1 lead which they would not relinquish. EIU would close within a pair of points several times, but could not get any closer as APSU closed out the regular season with a 25-20 set win.

“In the third game we were up late in the game and even though we lost we had 19 kills in the game and Eastern Illinois hit .366, so they played really well and found kills all around the court,” said Lady Govs head coach Jenny Hazelwood. ” In the fourth game, we did a great job of bouncing back from game three. We jumped out from the start and never looked back.”

Mollman led Austin Peay with a match-high 17 kills and posted a .484 attack percentage. Junior Stephanie Champine added 16 kills while freshman Kayla Grantham posted 12 kills. Junior Kirstin Distler added 10 kills and posted a match-high seven blocks. Senior Caroline Frens posted a match-best 23 digs and a kill in her final home game.

Austin Peay won the offensive battle with a 65-57 edge in kills and a .241-.201 advantage in attack percentage. They also won the net defense battle narrowly, 10-9.

“We had good offensive balance tonight with four players with double digit kills, which is what we do when we are playing our best,” said Hazelwood. “The team played very well today and even though it was their last match they still came out and played a great game and working hard on offense and defense.”
Alex Zwettler led Eastern Illinois with a match-high 17 kills at a .275 attack percentage. Melanie Boykins chipped in 13 kills.

Austin Peay now prepares for post-season action and will face Southeast Missouri in a Thursday contest at the Ohio Valley Conference Volleyball Championships hosted by Tennessee Tech in Cookeville.

“We are coming up on the conference tournament, so we have to keep doing what we have been doing in practice and executing our game plan,” said Hazelwood. “However, we are really going to have to step it up to another level when the tournament starts.”