Home sweet home: Golden Eagles open play in Eblen Center with sweep of EIU
February 14, 2021

Home sweet home: Golden Eagles open play in Eblen Center with sweep of EIU

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – It was a resurgent Sunday for the Tennessee Tech volleyball team, as the Golden Eagles looked dominant on their way to a doubleheader sweep of visiting Eastern Illinois.

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By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – It was a resurgent Sunday for the Tennessee Tech volleyball team, as the Golden Eagles looked dominant on their way to a doubleheader sweep of visiting Eastern Illinois.

Tech (2-2, 2-2) claimed a pair of wins over their Ohio Valley Conference foe on the day, starting with a 3-1 (25-22, 19-25, 25-12, 25-16) decision in the first match. Match two followed suit with the final two sets of the team's first contest of the day, leading to a 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-12) victory for the purple and gold.

"That was nice to see," Tech head coach Jeannette Waldo expressed. "We looked and felt more like ourselves. Being at home absolutely was a huge contributing factor to that, so if we were going to play two in one day, having them at home and knowing what we were walking into was huge. We were in a pretty good spot after the first match, so it was really almost to our benefit to play right away again. We could feel the momentum and that feeling to just do that again, just repeat that. If we had a night's sleep, we may have had to start over a little bit, so that worked out."

In the first match of the day, both sides traded blows in the opening two sets, but it was the Golden Eagles who swung the advantage to their side and kept it there. Tech hit a whopping .310 in the third set, accounting for 15 kills with just six errors.

Another strong showing in the fourth and decisive set saw the Golden Eagle defense shine, forcing the Panthers into nine attack errors and a -.133 hitting percentage.

Match two saw more dominant defense by the purple and gold, holding the EIU offense to a -.010 attack percentage for the entire match. The third set was a particularly impressive one for the Golden Eagles, as they hit an astounding .421 with 12 kills and just four attack errors.

Preseason All-OVC selections Ali Verzani and Taylor Dorsey paced the Tech squad all day, proving why the veterans were chosen by their peers as some of the best in the league. Dorsey led the way with 14 kills and seven blocks while hitting an eye-popping .571. Verzani turned in 10 kills eight digs and three blocks.

Verzani took control in the second match, recording a double-double with a team-high 13 kills and 10 digs on the back of a .478 hitting percentage. Dorsey hit .500 with eight kills and five more blocks to continue her great home-opening weekend.  

"They really came into their own this weekend," Waldo said of her veteran pair. "The opening weekend really didn't go the way any of us wanted it to, but the way we, and especially those two, responded was not surprising at all. They're such great leaders on our team. They really showed some grit and some drive to make sure that that was not going to happen again. They were going to try and take control as much as they possibly could."

Setter Ashley Hand did her part in both matches, accounting for 41 assists on 49 kills in the first contest, adding 12 digs to the mix. In match two, the junior collected 29 more assists while registering a kill and a pair of blocks.

"She's always smiling," Waldo said of Hand," and unfortunately you can't see it right now [due to the masks]. She's a really light-hearted addition to our team and keeps everyone cool, calm and collected, and it shows in her game play. She's so confident and she really spread the ball around well today."

The Golden Eagles will stay in the comfort of the Hooper Eblen Center for another weekend, welcoming Eastern Kentucky to Cookeville for a pair of match-ups on Sunday, Feb. 21 and Monday, Feb. 22.

Photo by Jim Dillon