The male Panther of the Semester is going to Mason Miller from the football team.
The graduate punter from Avon, Indiana, averaged just under 47.4 yards per punt on 53 total punts. He had a season-high 65-yard punt against Illinois State and had 19 total punts of 50 yards or more.
Miller was named the Ohio Valley Conference-Big South Special Teams Player of the Year and was also named to the all-conference first team.
Miller’s 47.4 yards per punt average is good for a program record.
Miller transferred to EIU after spending five years at Marian University, where he led the NAIA in punting average.
The female Panther of the Semester is going to Catalina Rochaix from the volleyball team.
The senior setter from Cordoba, Argentina finished the season with an OVC-best 1,206 assists.
Rochaix ran the offense for almost every game during the Panthers’ championship winning season and averaged 10.86 assists per set.
Rochaix was a top 15 setter in the nation in total assists. She was named OVC setter of the year for the second time in her career after winning the award in 2023.
Rochaix was named OVC setter of the week four times over the course of the season and surpassed the 3,000 career assist mark in a game against Western Illinois earlier this year.
The Coach of the Semester is going to Ryan Millar from the volleyball team.
Millar inherited a program that was spiraling following the departures of head coach Sara Thomas and assistant coach Manolo Concepcion and guided it to a winning season amid facility changes and outside doubt.
The Panthers started the season with a 5-0 record, but after a couple of losses in non-conference play and a 2-2 start in OVC play, the season could have easily gone in a different direction.
However, Millar helped infuse a new culture into the program, and the Panthers responded in kind by rattling off 12 straight wins to clinch the OVC regular season co-championship.
Eastern went on to win the OVC title and earned an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.
Millar was named the OVC coach of the year.
Gabe Newman can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].
