CHARLESTON, Ill. - Lindenwood women's volleyball (9-10, 5-3 OVC) fell short on Saturday afternoon as Eastern Illinois (17-2, 7-1 OVC) won in four sets. The Lions were held to a .183 hitting percentage while EIU hit .310.

Nyah Wilson earned a team high 11 kills in four sets while also leading the team in digs with 13. Wilson is now on a four match double-double streak. Addy McAleer had 10 kills and six digs while Allie Otten posted a team-high 25 assists.

"I thought we had our moments and did a good job of creating some good opportunities and leads but we just were not able to be consistent enough," said head coach Will Condon. "I do not think it was any one thing, it was more of a moving target and that can be hard to adjust over the course of the match."

Early back and forth action for the Lions and the Panthers in the first set, but EIU closed out the set to take the lead with a 25-20 score. LU led early 7-3 but an EIU timeout stopped the momentum and led to a 13-10 EIU lead.
 
Lindenwood battled hard to come back late in the set before Eastern Illinois took the 1-0 lead. Wilson and Ashley Geluck led the Lions with three kills each. The first set saw 10 kills for the Lions and a .125 hitting percentage.
 
The second set was as close as it could be with a total of 16 ties and seven lead changes. EIU led midway through 15-14 before a media timeout was called. The Lions were tied at the 23-23 point before the Panthers got the final two points to go up 2-0.
 
Lindenwood picked up 15 more kills in the set while improving their hitting percentage to .140. EIU's defense was showcased causing the Lions to have nine attack errors in the set. McAleer picked up five kills in the second.
 
The Lions got on the board in the third set avoiding the sweep with a 25-20 set win. Lindenwood's offense challenged the EIU defense in multiple ways with six different Lions scoring a point. Rebecca Janke and Ozge Tan stepped up with four and three kills respectively.
 
After being down 6-1 early in set three, Lindenwood responded tying the set at 13 all. Condon made a huge challenged that reversed an EIU point and gave Lindenwood momentum to help them take the set. LU hit .268 for the set.

The final set saw EIU picked up the win as they held the Lions to just 14 points in the fourth. Lindenwood had six attack errors in the set compared to just two by Eastern Illinois. EIU also had two solid blocks in the set to secure the weekend split.

"The positives were that the effort was there, we had some great runs were things clicked and looked good," said Condon. "Overall, for the weekend we played some good volleyball and competed against a quality opponent on the road. We created some good opportunities, we just need to find the ability to take advantage of them." 

Janke finished the match with nine kills and four blocks with a season high eight digs. Tan also contributed eight kills and a block in the loss. Abby VanBuskirk helped off the bench with 20 assists.

The Lions will be back in action at Hyland Arena next weekend on Oct. 20-21 as they hosted the Eagles of Morehead State. For more information go to lindenwoodlions.com.