The Eastern volleyball team rolled over Tennessee State Saturday in four games (30-15, 30-26, 28-30, 30-19), winning its third consecutive conference match.

Four Panthers reached double-figures in kills, including junior outside hitter Erica Gerth who had a game-high 22.

Eastern has shown much more confidence and has played better as a team since ending its early tough non-conference tournament schedule.

“I think each (non-conference) match we went into, we knew we were playing a tough team,” middle hitter Shanna Ruxer said. “We kept looking forward to conference because we knew we could be competitive and win some games.”

The Panthers (6-11, 3-1) took advantage of a Tiger team that came out flat in the first game. The Tigers (4-11, 0-4) had a .089 attack percentage in the first game compared to the Panthers’ .395, and had several attacking and serving errors.

Game two was more of the same as Eastern jumped to an early 5-1 lead with two kills and a service ace from freshman middle hitter Kara Sorenson.

Tennessee State would recover, getting as close as 20-19 before Eastern pulled away for a 30-26 win.

Eastern was ready to go for the sweep, up 17-9 in the third game, but the Tigers had other ideas.

Tennessee State eventually came back to tie the game at 26 and took its first lead of the entire match with a 29-28 lead after a Gerth attack error. The Tigers took the game after Gerth had another error, forcing a fourth game.

The fourth game went back and forth with eight lead changes until Eastern broke loose while up 21-18. The Panthers outscored the Tigers 9-1 in the final 10 points to end the match.

To join Gerth in double figure kills was Mary Welch (13), Megan Kennedy (11) and Ruxer (12). Tennessee State was led by senior Jennifer Corral with 15 kills and 18 digs. Eastern out-hit Tennessee State .257 to .152, overall.

One aspect of the Panthers’ offense that doesn’t show up on a statistics sheet is the passing game by Heather Redenbo. She set up clear chances for Eastern setters, allowing for clean kills.

“Heather passed very well today,” Eastern coach Brenda Winkeler said. “I think she also had a career match in digs.”

Redenbo did complete a career high in digs with 17, which beat her old mark of 16 last season against Murray State.

The win has Winkeler optimistic her team can continue its winning ways in the OVC and said her players showed some resiliency coming back after a disappointing third game.

“It’s a good learning experience,” Winkeler said. “They showed they can come on top and play well. It’s a good start for us.”