The Eastern volleyball team will look to extend its winning streak to a season high three games this weekend as the Panthers host Tennessee State at 2 p.m. Saturday at Lantz Arena.

The match will feature a pair of teams heading in different directions. The Panthers, at 2-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference, appear to have put early season losses behind them and are playing their best volleyball of the season. Tennessee State will head into Charleston looking for its first conference win in nearly two seasons. The Lady Tigers went 0-16 last year in the OVC and have dropped their first two conference games to Jacksonville State and Stamford this year.

With the Lady Tigers struggling for wins, Eastern’s junior outside hitter Erica Gerth is confident the Panthers will come away with a victory.

“The team we’re playing on Saturday is a team we should beat easily,” Gerth said after Wednesday’s victory over Southeast Missouri State. “But after this (Tennessee State) game, the conference will get much tougher.”

Despite Tennessee State’s sub par record and Gerth’s comments, Eastern head coach Brenda Winkeler is not about to overlook the Lady Tigers.

“Tennessee State is a much improved team,” Winkeler said. “They have a very good group of outside hitters.”

One of those “good outside hitters” is junior college transfer Jennifer Corral. After playing two seasons at Ventura Junior College, where she was an All-California Junior College team selection and an Athlete of the Year honoree, Corral relocated to Tennessee State and immediately became an impact player.

In her first year with the Lady Tigers, Corral was named as All-OVC honorable mention. She led the squad in kills with 470 and was second on the team with 39 service aces. Corral was tops in digs with an average of 3.23 per game last year.

This season Corral has stepped up her game with an average of 4.38 kills per contest and a team leading .245 hitting percentage.

“Basically Jennifer is playing well,” Tennessee State head coach Dawn Reese said. “She suffered a sprained ankle two weeks ago but has done a good job overall this season.”

With those impressive accolades and statistics, Winkeler knows Corral is a player the Panthers have to focus on in order to avoid an upset.

“Jennifer Corral is someone who has been playing well and we will need to stop,” Winkeler said.

Both teams realize the importance of this match up. At 2-1 in the OVC, the Panthers are over .500 for the first time in recent memory and would like to stay there.

“Last year we never got to .500 (in the OVC) so it’s nice to be playing well, and we need to continue to play hard,” Gerth said.

After two losses to open the OVC, Reese said a victory by the Lady Tigers would be significant.

“A win would be very important for our confidence,” Reese said. “We have a young team, and we start four freshman so we could use a win.”

A victory might be too much to ask for a team that has freshmen starting in over half of their positions and has seven freshmen on the active roster. Last week against Stamford, Reese said she was just trying to work on team unity.

“In the Stamford game, we were basically playing around with the lineup and developing chemistry.”