SATURDAY’S SCORES
@Morehead State 3, UT Martin 0 (25-17, 25-13, 25-18)
@SIUE 3, Murray State 0 (25-18, 25-22, 25-18)
@Eastern Kentucky 3, Southeast Missouri 2 (19-25, 27-25, 25-23, 20-25, 15-8)
@Eastern Illinois 3, Austin Peay 2 (25-22, 21-25, 25-18, 23-25, 15-11)
Belmont 3, @Jacksonville State 0 (25-18, 26-24, 25-14)
Tennessee State 3, @Tennessee Tech (25-20, 25-19, 25-21)
MOREHEAD STATE 3, UT MARITN 0
MARTIN, Tenn. - Morehead State's volleyball team kept its winning ways intact Saturday with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-13, 25-18) sweep of visiting UT Martin. The Eagles extended their success streak to 16 matches and remained perfect in the Ohio Valley Conference at 10-0.
According to the MSU record book, MSU's current winning streak is the program's longest in the OVC-era. The league began sponsoring volleyball as a championship-level sport in 1981.
UT Martin slipped to 8-16 overall and 4-6 in league contests. The Eagles extended their winning streak over UTM to 14 matches as the Skyhawks haven't defeated MSU since 2005.
Senior right side hitter Ellie Roberson landed 16 kills and hit .444 on a team-high 27 attempts to pace the Eagle attack. Senior middle blocker Annie Gruenschlaeger registered 11 kills, hit .421, and had six total blocks in the all-around effort.
The Eagle offense was consistent throughout, hitting better than .300 in all three frames and finishing with a .360 attack efficiency, while the defense held UTM to .038 hitting. MSU picked up nine team blocks and out-dig the visitors 35-25.
A highlight for the Skyhawks was libero Kasey Elswick. She had a match-high 13 digs and set the OVC career dig mark in the process. Elswick upped her career total to 2,458, surpassing former Eastern Kentucky defender Brittany Nobilio's previous league standard. Shelby Hoskins hit .333 and had a team-best eight kills for UTM.
Senior setter Caitlin Clark piled up 33 assists, leading MSU's offense to hit .321 in the opening frame, .367 in the second set and .387 in the finale. The Eagles smacked down 45 kills and made only 13 mistakes.
EASTERN KENTUCKY 3, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 2
RICHMOND, Ky. - The Colonels took sets two, three and five to win the match behind an exciting performance from junior, Ashley Edmond. Eastern rallied back from significant deficits in sets two and three.
EKU (7-13, 4-6 OVC) won by scores of 19-25, 27-25, 25-23, 20-25 and 15-8.
Edmond had 24 kills and 27 points. Dena Ott had 43 digs while Abbey Cvelbar had 41 assists. Alexis Plagens and Kelsey Kuehner contributed 13 and 12 kills respectively.
Southeast Missouri came into the game with the second best record in the OVC. They are now 16-9 this season, 8-2 in the OVC.
SEMO’s Emily Coon had 18 kills and seven blocks in the match while Julie Shives dealt 51 assists.
In the second set Eastern trailed 24-20 before scoring five straight to take a one point lead. Edmond’s kill followed by a Redhawk error tied the match 1-1. In the third set the Colonels trailed 20-16 and 23-21 before staging another comeback. Back-to-back kills by Plagens and Edmond tied the set. An ace by Kuehner and another Edmond kill gave EKU a 2-1 lead.
Southeast Missouri won the fourth set to set up a decisive fifth set. Eastern Kentucky fell behind again, this time by a 3-1 score. However, the Colonels used a 10-1 run to take control. Edmond’s 24th kill of the match gave EKU the victory.
SIUE 3, MURRAY STATE 0
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - As important as offense is to scoring in volleyball, SIUE showed Saturday that defense has its place.
SIUE swept past Murray State 25-19, 25-22, 25-18 at the Vadalabene Center powered by 11 blocks from Kelsey Augustine and seven from Leslie Lindsey. As a team, the Cougars finished with 15 blocks for the second straight match.
The Cougars, now 8-13 overall and 4-6 in the Ohio Valley Conference, were hungry for a victory.
Augustine's 11 blocks was the most by a Cougar in a single match during the Division I era. She also became the fourth player in school history to record double-digit blocks in a three-set match, equaling the feats of former standouts Michelle Gilman, Andrea Voss, and Samantha Schulte.
Augustine hit .316 on offense with eight kills and just two attack errors.
Lindsey was strong at the net for a second straight day. The Cougar freshman also added five kills.
Emily Schmahl led the Racers with 11 kills
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EASTERN ILLINOIS 3, AUSITN PEAY 2
CHARLESTON, Ill .- -- Currently enjoying a season-long three-match winning streak, the Eastern Illinois volleyball squad gutted out a crucial five-set home win over Ohio Valley Conference west division rival Austin Peay (25-22, 21-25, 25-18, 23-25, 15-11) on Saturday afternoon.
Five different Panthers registered double-digit kill totals as junior Reynae Hutchinson and freshman Abby Saalfrank each drilled 15 put-a-ways from the outside attack. Hutchinson, meanwhile, upped her career kill-dig double-double tally to 21 with the addition of 17 digs in the contest.
EIU also had the middles firing in all cylinders as senior Alison Berens and junior Stephanie Arnold both chipped in 12 kills off respective attack clips of .250 and .357.
Kayla Nesbitt added 10 kills on the leftside as the freshman committed zero errors to register an impressive .526 clip, which naturally set a new career attack mark.
Freshman setter Marah Bradbury did a fine job of sharing the ball to a variety of hitters as she set a new career high assist tally with 56, while tying Arnold with four blocks each.
In other defensive numbers, sophomore libero Kelsey Brooke led all back court players with 18 digs, while freshman defensive specialist Stephanie Wallace upped 13 APSU attacks as well.
Berens paced the Panthers behind the service line with three aces.
Team-wise, the Panthers led the Lady Govs (13-13/6-4) in nearly every stat category, which included kills (68-to-65), attack (.260-to-.232), aces, (seven-to-five), digs (70-to-68), blocks (eight-to-five), and points (83.0-to-75.0), as EIU set new season-highs for kills, assists and points. Both squads finished with identical 63 assist numbers.
APSU was led by senior Nikki Doyle's 25 kills, while Jada Stotts finished with a 13-kill, 11-dig duo-duo of her own and drilled two aces. Hillary Plybon followed with 13 kills, a .400 attack and a team-high four blocks, as Lauren Henderson tallied an additional 11 put-downs. Libero Liz Landon led all Lady Govs with 14 digs.
Meeting for the 34th time, the match featured 21 ties and eight lead changes as the all-time series between the two league rivals is now tied at 17-all following Eastern's home win, which also snaped a five-match win streak by the Lad Govs. The two OVC foes end up splitting the regular-season series with both squads capturing home victories.
BELMONT 3, JACKSONVILLE 0
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - Belmont swept (25-18, 26-24, 25-14) the Jacksonville State volleyball team to complete the season sweep of the Gamecocks Saturday afternoon at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
Belmont also swept (25-23, 25-10, 25-20) JSU earlier this season in Nashville. With Saturday's loss the Gamecocks fall to 11-13 overall and 5-5 in Ohio Valley Conference play. The Bruins improve to 6-4 in conference play and 10-14 overall.
The Bruins used a balanced attack in the first set to claim the 25-18 victory. Alex Martin recorded four kills while Jen Myer and Jocelyn Youngdahl finished with three kills apiece.
The Gamecocks opened up the second set with a 10-5 lead before the Bruins rallied back to tie the match at 15 apiece behind yet another balanced attack. The Bruins then used a 4-0 run to take control of the game. The Gamecocks would fight back and tie the set at 24-24 thanks to two Bruin attack errors. Kelsey Anderson's service error then set up the Bruins Jen Myer's kill to clinch the second set. Four Bruins finished with four or more kills in the 26-24 game two victory.
The Bruins then opened the third set with a 11-3 run and hit .333 as a team on way to securing the 25-14 match clinching victory.
The Gamecocks were led by Emily Rutherford with nine kills and 13 digs. Alina Agamy recorded her sixth double-double of the season with 19 assists and 12 digs. Kelsey Anderson finished with a team-high 20 digs, her seventh game with 20 or more digs on the season. Kelly Cole also added 11 digs.
The Bruins were led by Jen Myer's double-double with 12 kills and 15 digs. Alex Martin added 11 kills while Jocelyn Youngdahl added 10 kills. Jamie Lundstrom finished with a match high 22 digs while Scarlet Gable added 13 digs.
TENNESSEE STATE 3, TENNESSEE TECH 0
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Tech volleyball hosted Tennessee State Saturday afternoon and was swept 3-0. The Golden Eagles are still searching for their first OVC victory with six conference matches left this season.
Set scores for Tennessee State were 25-20, 25-19, and 25-21.
The Golden Eagles were led by Kelsey Gray with eight kills. Ellen Conti had six kills and Natalie Penrod and Audrey Lewis each had four terminations.
Defensively, Tech was led by a 21-dig effort by Courtney Smith. Conti chipped in with nine digs. Tech again outblocked their opponent Saturday in an 8-3.
The Tigers were led by Naomi Wells with 14 kills.