The Eastern volleyball team had a plan for the opening weekend of Ohio Valley Conference play – go to Tennessee Tech and Austin Peay and leave with a pair of wins.

And that’s exactly what happened.

The Panthers (10-3, 2-0) dropped a pair of conference foes, downing Tennesee Tech 3-1 (27-30, 30-24, 31-29, 30-23) and Austin Peay 3-0 (30-12, 30-22, 30-20).

“We knew we had to go out there and beat the teams we felt like we should beat,” senior outside hitter Erica Gerth said.

After a tough loss in the first game against the Golden Eagles Friday, Eastern rebounded behind Gerth’s career-high 33 kills to steal the road win. Gerth was one kill shy of the Eastern single match record, set by Leslie Przekwas and Karryn Sadler.

Gerth said despite the slow start against Tennessee Tech (5-7, 1-1), the team didn’t lose their composure.

“We didn’t get off to the best start in game one, but after that we came out on fire,” she said. “I think it really carried us for the rest of Friday and into Saturday.”

The Panthers didn’t let up and capped the road trip with a decisive three-game sweep of Austin Peay (4-9,1-1).

Sophomore outside hitter Mary Welch and Gerth paced the Panther attack with 17 kills each. Gerth also notched a team-high 27 digs.

The Eastern defense limited Austin Peay to a .130 hitting percentage, contrasted against Eastern’s .333 clip.

With the two wins, the Panthers surpassed their victory totals for each of the last two seasons, when the team won nine matches.

And Gerth said the team isn’t satisfied.

“We’re excited to go to practice everyday,” Gerth said “And we’re excited to get out and play on the weekends and keep getting wins.

“We love playing volleyball right now.”