The Eastern volleyball team blew away the Western Illinois Westerwinds at Lantz Arena in a 3-0 shutout Tuesday night.

The Panthers (17-7) trailed only twice in the match, winning 30-16, 30-19, 30-22.

“It was a good chance to get back out on the court before our big weekend,” Panther volleyball coach Brenda Winkeler said. “We did a good job of blocking, even though it didn’t show in the stats, we covered the ball well.”

The Eastern defense frustrated Western (4-16) into several attack errors, as the Westerwinds had a paltry .057 attack percentage.

The Panthers had two players in double-digit kills. Freshman Erica Gerth led the offensive attack with 15 kills and a .458 attack percentage. Senior Leslie Przekwas had 10 kills and a .444 attack percentage.

Eastern pounded out a balanced attack, breezing balls over the heads of the Westerwinds. Senior Amy Heimann filled in for junior outside hitter Karen Liss, who only played the back row in two games. Liss has been used sparingly in recent matches due to a nagging shoulder injury. Heimann picked up the slack and provided some intensity with nine kills. Senior Marcia Hahn also had nine kills.

“I think the intensity is always there for us,” Przekwas said. “Just because it’s a non-conference match doesn’t mean we’re not going to have the intensity. It’s good to play well against a non-conference team and to get some confidence.”

The match provided a much-needed tune-up for the Panthers. Eastern will play three consecutive Ohio Valley Conference home matches starting on Friday with Tennessee Tech. If the Panthers win two of the three, they clinch second place in the league, earning them a No. 2 seed and a bye in the conference tournament.

Eastern out-dug the Westerwinds by 20 and out-hit them by 22 kills. The Panthers also beat Western in transition, something they haven’t been doing in recent matches.

“We wanted to beat them there because they were slow and we were fast,” Winkeler said. “It’s a lot like basketball; if you’re against an up-tempo team you try to slow things down and vice versa.”

Winkeler said she tried to keep her squad focusing on the technical aspects of the game instead of being concerned with the score.

“You’d think at this point in the season we wouldn’t have to worry about that,” Winkeler said. “But you have to re-focus on those sorts of things when you’re playing in games.”