The Panther volleyball team Tuesday lost its 12th consecutive game and fell to 6-19 overall, but the squad believes its season hasn’t begun yet.

Eastern lost 3-0 to a Loyola team that might be the best in school history. The Ramblers have defeated Northwestern, Illinois and at 7-1 in Horizon League conference play, they are cruising to their second-straight conference title.

The Panthers’ 30-15, 30-17, 30-18 loss was seen as a preseason tune-up for the tough road ahead.

Eastern must win all of its next five conference games and get some help to earn a berth to the Ohio Valley Conference tournament, of which it is the defending champion. The Panthers can win four of their next five games and still make the tourney, but they would need more help from the rest of the league.

“Loyola is a very good team,” Panther head coach Brenda Winkeler said. “And I think overall we did well against them.”

Eastern switched its lineup and defensive formations in each of the three games in preparation for this weekend’s match against Tennessee State and next week’s matches at Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech.

“I think we gained some things from the loss,” Winkeler said. “Maybe at least we’ll see a slower ball this weekend.”

The Ramblers’ fast ball, especially off the serve forced Eastern into 11 serve recovery errors. Eastern had one blocking error and five ball handling errors with only two team blocks against Loyola. The Ramblers blocked six Panther attacks.

Despite the lopsided loss, sophomore middle hitter Shanna Ruxer said the match and Monday’s practice had a lighter atmosphere to it.

“It wasn’t a hard loss at all,” Ruxer said. “We had fun. We’re not terribly down right now. We’re looking forward to this weekend.”

And Ruxer made her role on the court look fun. Ruxer had seven kills on 11 attempts with no errors.

Freshman outside hitter Jessica Ackerman had four kills on eight attempts with one error.

“It was a huge confidence boost,” Ackerman said.

While the Panthers believe they have a clean slate, some weaknesses are still glaring. Eastern was out-dug 43-35, something Winkeler has stressed the importance of all season.

“We’re still asking for one thing – consistence in stopping,” Winkeler said. “We know that going down the stretch here we’ve really got to pick up our tips and rolls.”