The Panther volleyball team used rocks and a blue bucket to build chemistry last year.

This year the squad led by eight newcomers has put away all its toys.

“We had a little bit of bonding,” head volleyball coach Brenda Winkeler said. “A lot of that has to do with the senior leadership and the bond that’s there.”

Before the season’s opening serve last year, Winkeler had each player write her personal goal on a rock and put it into a blue bucket with “EIU” written on it. This year the team hasn’t made any goals yet.

Winkeler believes her team doesn’t need to make the goals known just yet. They won’t be made until after this weekend’s Tiger Invitiational at Colombia, Mo.

“Of the six matches we’ve had so far, we’ve only played poorly in one,” Winkeler said. “We’ve played a lot of tougher teams well so far.”

At 3-3 the Panthers are on track to build momentum for their second season – the Ohio Valley Conference schedule.

“Team unity is really the big strength on this team right now,” Winkeler said. “They definitely have a good ability to communicate.”

But when the team has little defense against the powerful offenses of the OVC communication doesn’t mean much. The Panthers are seventh in the league in attack percentage against and Eastern is sixth in digs with 14.24 per game.

A defense is only as good as its blocking corps and it’s an area the Panthers are lacking.

“It sounds simple, but in order to block well you have to have your hands above the net and extended,” Winkeler said. “We weren’t doing that all the time. It’s strange because we were a great blocking team at the beginning of the year, but last week we didn’t do as well.”

Inconsistency is an unwanted side effect of youth – which Winkeler expects to be served in some capacity soon.

Freshman middle hitter Megan Kennedy has shown improvement in almost every game and averages 1.54 kills per game, leading all freshmen. Freshman Aja Kohlbecker served for the first time last weekend and scored an ace.

Winkeler said libero Laura Schuette didn’t miss a beat while filling in for struggling sophomore standout Erica Gerth.

“They’re all contributing in some way or another,” Winkeler said. “There’s a lot of sparks there.”