The Eastern volleyball team defeated Southern Illinois-Edwardsville in four sets (25-18, 27-25, 23-25, 25-20) in its home opener Tuesday night in Lantz Arena.

Coach Kate Price called a timeout as Eastern was 15-10 in the second set against Edwardsville.

Despite a first-set win already in their back pocket, the Panthers they could not allow the Cougars to even the match.

“The second set is probably the hardest to win, because you won the first one and think the other team is going to rollover, but obviously not, because (Edwardsville) fought harder,” outside hitter Reynae Hutchinson said.

Price told the Panthers to regroup and take a step back and to simply play smarter is what geared them up for the 10-4 run that the Panthers would go on to take, Hutchinson said.

Eastern had its first lead of the set at 20-19. But three lead changes and three ties later, Dakota Springer served the ball from Eastern’s end line with the Panthers facing set point, leading the second set 25-24.

Springer then recorded her only service error, tying the game at 25.

“Everyone knew that was just a fluke, and we were still going to take the set,” Hutchinson said.

After Edwardsville had an attack error of its own, Eastern was back up 26-25. Hutchinson then nabbed her fifth kill of the set to give Eastern a 27-25 second-set win.

After a third set loss that featured 13 ties and five lead changes, where neither team led by more than two points, Eastern fought back to win the fourth set 25-20 behind a 7-2 run when the set was tied a 10.

“We always talk about working to get that next point,” Price said. “It’s the same team we played the set before. We need to go on our own runs. They went on theirs, now we need to narrow that gap and work our way back in.”

Eastern improved to 8-8 overall and 2-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference, while Edwardsville fell to 5-11 overall and 1-2 in conference.

Eastern, the OVC’s top team in hitting percentage, out-hit Edwardsville .256 to .165.

Three Panthers had 16 kills in Hutchinson, outside hitter Chelsea Lee and rightside hitter Abby Saalfrank.

Hutchinson’s 16 digs also gave her 31st career double-double performance. Lee now has 206 kills on the season — second in the OVC. And Saalfrank’s .448 attack led all players.

Coming off her OVC Setter of the Week, Marah Bradbury dished out 54 assists with three kills and zero errors.

The Panthers beat the Cougars in just about every statistic including assists (62-53), digs (66-65), blocks (eight to three) and service aces (five to two).

Eastern will host Tennessee State at 7 p.m. Friday in Lantz Arena. Tennessee State is last in the east division and 3-9 overall with a 0-2 conference record.

Anthony Catezone can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].