Eastern junior Maggie Runge found an opening.

To prepare her team for a set three win, she drilled the ball between a cluster of Belmont defenders, all happening before any one of them could say, “I got it.”

But by the end of the fourth set, the Bruins could affirmatively declare, “We got it,” as the Panthers stumbled 3-1 to Belmont Saturday afternoon.

For the second straight game this season, the other being a 3-2 loss to SIUE last weekend, Eastern, which had two Panthers in double figures, fell short despite a triple double from one of its players.

It was senior Taylor Smith, in fact, who mustered up a triple double in both matches, finishing with 11 kills, 16 assists and 11 digs against Belmont. 

“Their crowd is loud,” head coach Julie Allen said. “I think if their crowd wasn’t there, it would have been a whole different ballgame.”

It was not loud the entire game, however. 

Silence enveloped the Lantz Arena crowd when, just minutes into the fourth set, a Laurel Bailey injury resulted in the stoppage of play.

“I am not sure exactly what happened, but I got punched in the chest and kind of took my breath away, but nothing too crazy,” Bailey said.

On the ground for about 30 seconds, Bailey picked herself up and sauntered over to the Eastern bench.

Allen adjusted the lineup accordingly, sending out Morgan Matusik to play in lieu of Bailey. 

After a 3-0 Bruins run, Bailey returned to the court with her team down 14-5 and, in due time, Eastern reeled off two 5-0 runs to get within three. 

Belmont sophomores Mackenzie LePage and Akia Warrior, sure enough, responded in kind, propelling the Bruins forward with some decisive kills to seize the match.

 “When someone gets hurt, it stops the play and the momentum, our team did a good job trying to come back right away, but when it’s a new player joining it’s a different kind of a game,” Allen said. 

The Panthers closed the opening set of the match with a rife of attack and service errors. They had 12 errors in all, the highest total in a single set all season. 

Allen, though, was content with the manner in which Eastern responded to these mishaps.

 “We definitely stopped making as many errors,” head coach Julie Allen said. “They were aware of it, they took care of the situations that they needed to take care of when it was not pretty and that’s a good student of the game that understands when you point out something they start to tackle it.”

The Eastern loss afforded Belmont its first win on the road this season, as the Bruins were 0-8 in such matches leading up to a near sweep at Lantz Arena. 

Tom O’Connor can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].