CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Lindenwood women's volleyball team (4-5, 0-1 OVC) fell 3-1 against Eastern Illinois (7-4, 1-0) in their OVC opener on Friday evening. The Lions led by at least six points in three of four sets but struggled to hold off a resilient EIU squad.

Game Overview
The Lions came out strong and led by as many as six in the opening set, but the Panthers ended the frame on an 11-4 run to steal the set. Autumn Bax led Lindenwood with four kills in the frame.

The Lions went up 11-4 in set two, but following another big EIU run, found themselves trailing 18-17. Lindenwood fought back to hold set point, but were unable to close it out, dropping the set 27-25. Kylee Richey had a massive set with eight kills in the frame.

The Lions pounced on the Panthers again in the third set, going up 12-5, but were again unable to maintain their advantage, as an 8-1 EIU run made the score 13-13. However, despite eventually falling behind 22-21, Lindenwood outscored Eastern 7-4 to close out the set and extend the match. Autumn Bax headlined the LU attack with eight kills in the set.

Lindenwood was unable to extend the match to a fifth set, dropping the fourth frame 25-13.

Four Lions recorded double digit kills, led by Autumn Bax with a season-high of 18.  She was joined by Kylee Richey (11), Ashley Geluck (10), and Jade Roth (10).

Meghan Donoughue had another strong showing with 48 assists, averaging 12.00 assists per set and helping the Lions to a team hitting percentage of .227.

Meanwhile, Dana Grib led the team with 19 digs.

Quotable
"While I don't like the outcome, I do like the progress", said Lions head coach Will Condon. "We are definitely in control of who is scoring points, unfortunately we are scoring a few too may for the other team. Having four hitters in double digit kills is a positive, we just have a few too many errors in total. I thought we did a good job of getting to 20. I'm not sure if we relaxed or tensed up from that point on, but we need to maintain our aggressiveness in that area of the game better."

Next Up
The Lions and Panthers will run it back on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.