CHAMPAIGN (WCIA) — It’s a match that won’t count for anything but pride and Eastern Illinois volleyball has a lot of it after beating Illinois on its home floor Wednesday night in an exhibition match, walking out of Huff Hall with a four-set victory, 19-25, 25-23, 29-27, 25-23.

“Obviously, the outcome is what we wanted,” EIU head coach Sara Thomas said. “We still have a lot of things we want to keep working on as a team. This is the beginning of our season and we want to keep it going the whole time.”

“I wasn’t looking for a particular result, just more responses and so you know we had to throw, we got some early season injuries here, and we had to just throw some different lineups out and see how some people would respond,” Illinois head coach Chris Tamas said. “I saw some really good things and some not so good things and that’s what the whole point of this was.”

Illinois opens its season next Saturday visiting Northern Illinois. EIU opens its regular season hosting the EIU Panther Classic.