SATURDAY'S SCORES
@Eastern Kentucky 3, Tennessee State 1 (25-13, 25-18, 23-25, 25-23)
@Eastern Illinois 3, Tennessee Tech 0 (25-17, 25-15, 25-14)
Murray State 3, @UT Martin 2 (25-17, 24-26, 16-25, 25-13, 15-13)
@SIUE 3, Jacksonville State 1 (26-24, 18-25, 25-17, 25-16)
@Southeast Missouri 3, Austin Peay 0 (25-15, 25-20, 25-18)
@Morehead State 3, Belmont 2 (23-2, 25-20, 25-20, 16-25, 15-11)
EASTERN KENTUCKY 3, TENNESSEE STATE 1
RICHMOND, Ky. - Eastern Kentucky defeated Tennessee State 3-1 Saturday at McBrayer Arena.
EKU won by scores of 25-13, 25-18, 23-25, and 25-23.
Eastern (16-14, 8-6 OVC) had 16 kills on 27 attempts, recording a .481 attack percentage, while holding the Tigers to .115 in the first set. The Colonels came out fighting, leading 6-0 early in the match. The Tigers (10-15, 6-8 OVC) fought to rally back to within six to make the score 15-9 mid-match.
Eastern Kentucky went on to take the set over TSU, 25-13. Sophomore Rachel Vick recorded four late kills to push the Colonels over the Tigers.
Vick led the team in points recording six, also making six kills to lead the Colonels in the first set.
EKU hit .250 in the second set, as Eastern took an early lead over TSU, 5-1. The Colonels continued their powerful momentum mid-match compliments to junior Alexis Plagens recording five kills and freshman Johanna Boyer with three kills and five points. EKU controlled the remainder of the set to give the Colonels a 25-18 win in the second.
The third set saw a thrilling battle back by the Tigers. TSU took an early lead over the Colonels, 3-0. The set saw 14 ties, with the last one coming at 22 apiece. A kill by junior Naomi Wells pushed TSU over the Colonels, 25-23, to send the match into a fourth set.
Plagens continued to dominate adding six more kills and scoring a total 13 points.
EKU and TSU battled back and forth during the fourth and final set. The match point was won on an attack error by freshman Arijana Anderson giving the Colonels the set, 25-23.
Plagens was the match leader with 16 kills and 17.5 points. Boyer was second best for the Colonels with 13 kills and 13 points. Sophomore Mallori Moffat had four service aces and senior Ashley Edmond contributed 18 digs.
Junior, Naomi Wells led the Tigers with 14 kills and 15.5 points.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 4, TENNESEE TECH 0
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Eastern Illinois volleyball finished a perfect 8-0 home campaign as the Panthers swept Ohio Valley Conference East Division foe Tennessee Tech (25-17, 25-15, 25-14) on Saturday (Nov. 9) afternoon.
The victory moves EIU to 17-10 overall and 11-3 in league, play as the Panthers have now won eight consecutive conference matchups. The Golden Eagles drop to 5-19/1-13.
Senior outside hitter Reynae Hutchinson paced all players on the court with 11 kills, off a career-best .474 attack, while leading the point tally with 16.0. She also tied sophomore Marah Bradbury with three unreturnable serves as the Panthers fired off a season-best 12 aces in the win.
Sophomore Chelsea Lee chipped in nine put-downs to finish with 11 total points, as classmate Stephanie Wallace registered nine digs as the starting libero.
Prior to the match, the Panthers honored a trio of seniors -- Hutchinson, in addition to Stephanie Arnold and Amy Martin -- for their contributions to the volleyball program, as Arnold and Martin both nailed three and four kills, respective, with zero errors. The three seniors also combined for 10 blocks as the Panthers held a nine-to-three advantage in stuffs.
In fact, EIU hit .667 in the opening set behind zero miscues and finished the match with just seven errors to account for the lowest tally of the season. EIU out-hit TTU, .341-to-.090.
The Golden Eagles had no player register double-digit kills with Ellen Conti and Audrey Lewis coming one shy with nine put-a-ways apiece. Lewis also paced the TTU attack, hitting .538 in the loss, while libero Courtney Smith led the back court defense with 10 digs.
Meeting for the 38th time, EIU extends their all-time series lead over TTU to 24-14 following the win.
MURRAY STATE 3, UT MARTIN 2
MARTIN, Tenn. - Sam Bedard's triple-double and Alyssa Lelm's 22 kills paced the Racers to their second straight OVC win. After beating SEMO in five sets Friday (Nov. 8), Murray State again was taken to five sets, this time taking down UT Martin, 3-2 (25-17, 24-26, 16-25, 25-13, 15-13). The win gives the Racers 15 wins this season, their most since 2010 and puts their record at 15-13 (5-9, OVC).
Like the previous night, the Racers had their backs against the wall, trailing two sets to one, but came back to win sets four and five and take the match.
Bedard, who fell two kills shy of a triple-double against SEMO, this time completed the feat, her second of the season. Bedard led the Racers with 41 assists and also picked up 10 digs and 10 kills. To go along with her match-high 22 kills, Lelm earned her first double-double of the season, recording a career-high 11 digs.
Katlyn Hudson and Taylor Olden led the defensive effort with 20 digs apiece. As a team, the Racers registered 89 digs, with six athletes finishing in double-figures.Scottie Ingram also logged a double-double with 13 kills and 13 digs.
The match began with an extended back-and-forth in the opening set. UTM scored the first two points, but neither team could break away with more than a one-point shortly thereafter. Murray State broke a 10-all tie and took an 11-10 lead, causing the Skyhawks to use a timeout. Coming out of the break, MSU exploded for four straight points to take their biggest lead of the set, 15-10. Olden served up back-to-back aces and Lelm landed two kills during the 5-0 run. UT Martin couldn't get any closer and the Racers were on their way to a 25-17 win and 1-0 lead in the match.
Murray State had a chance to go up 2-0, but let two separate leads slip away. The Racers stormed out of the gate, taking a commanding 11-3 lead. Trailing 14-7 UTM made their first move, scoring five straight points to cut the lead to two, 14-12. It didn't take long before the Skyhawks tied the set at 16-apiece. MSU took advantage of a pair of UTM attack errors and reclaimed a 20-17 lead. That lead too disappeared as the Skyhawks scored the next four points to take their first lead, 21-20, since they went ahead 3-2. Murray State tied the set at 23 and again at 24 to force extra points, but Madison Wessling completed the Skyhawk comeback with two kills to even the match, 1-1.
The third set started out much like the opener, with both squads jockeying for a lead. UTM's 9-6 lead was the largest in the early going, and the Racers were able to come back to tie the set, 15-15. The rest of the set belonged to the Skyhawks as they scored the next nine points and 10 of the final 11 to go ahead 2-1 in the match.
Trailing 2-1 in the match for the second consecutive night, MSU took a 4-3 lead and never looked back, cruising to an easy 25-13 set win. The Racers landed 17 kills, their most in any set this match.
Any momentum from the fourth set was quickly washed away as UT Martin went up 11-7 in the fifth and final set. The Racers refused to quit though, and scored four straight points, two off kills from Bedard, to tie the set, 11-11. UTM went back on top, 12-11 with a kill from Allie Whimpey, but MSU scored the next three to take their first lead of the set, 14-12. Emily Keaton brought the Skyhawks back to within one, 14-13, with a kill, but Emily Schmahl put the match away with her second kill of the set.
For the Skyhawks (9-21, 3-11 OVC), Keaton and Whimpey led the way with 15 kills each. Wessling chipped in 10. Setter Amanda Crask led the match with 47 assists. She also recorded 12 digs and seven kills. Libero Chelsea Bowles finished with a match-high 24 digs.
SIUE 3 JACKSONVILLE STATE 1
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - With senior Kelsey Augustine at her side, fellow senior Cori Harris put her tip inbounds on the final point as SIUE volleyball earned a 26-24, 18-25, 25-17, 25-16 victory over Jacksonville State at the Vadalabene Center.
Harris finished with nine kills and the second most digs with 17.
Augustine led all players with 16 kills and was in on all three SIUE blocks. Johnson said Jacksonville State had no choice but to track Augustine as she had nine of her kills in the final two sets. "She literally put pressure on them every point."
SIUE's middle hitters both had a strong match. Sophomore Kristen Torre added 15 kills, including seven in set four, and completed the match with a team-leading .424 hitting percentage.
Liza Pfugradt and Emily Rutherford led the Gamecocks, now 11-18 overall and 4-10 in the OVC, with 10 kills each.
SIUE, which has recorded more kills than its opponent in five out of its last six matches, put together 60 kills against the Gamecocks. Freshman Alicia Streetar started slow but ended up with 11 kills for the Cougars, now 11-16 overall and 7-7 in the OVC.
The Cougars hit .179 as a team with 29 errors. SIUE also won the digs battle 93-77. Chelsea Colclasure led the Cougars with 23
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 3, AUSTIN PEAY 0
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - The Southeast Missouri volleyball team (15-15, 7-7 OVC) celebrated four seniors Saturday evening with a sweep of the Lady Govs of Austin Peay (11-20, 8-6 OVC).
The Redhawks dominated the first set 25-15. Southeast opened an early lead and continued to build on that lead all the way to an opening stanza victory. Emily Coon and Colleen Yarber each tallied three kills on the set. Coon hit .750 (3-of-4) in the set.
Set two proved to be the closest set of the match. The score was tied six times and the lead changed five. Tied at 17, Southeast used a couple bad sets by the Lady Govs to pull ahead at the opportune time. Southeast used a 7-1 run to pull ahead and wrap up the 25-20 set two win. Andrea Baylin led with five kills in the set. As a team, Southeast hit .500 in the second set.
With a sweep in their sights, Southeast once again took control of the third set and took the match with a 25-18 set three win. Coon was on fire in the final set as she hit 10-of-12 (.833) to bring home the match.
Yankus added, "Coon was on fire again tonight. Every ball we passed her she swung away and was aggressive and Austin Peay couldn't stop her. Luckily we were in system tonight to get her the ball and when we are in system, we are successful and are able to run all of our options."
Coon finished the match with 17 kills, hitting a career-best .810. Yarber inched closer to the 1,000-kill club with 11 kills of her own. Yarber now only needs 11 more kills to reach 1,000 in her career. Baylin contributed eight total kills and nine digs while Taylor Masterson added seven kills and a team-best three blocks. Senior Julie Shives tallied 39 assists while fellow senior Berkley Idel recorded 19 digs.
Yankus concluded, "All of our seniors really had a great night. It was a truly great way to honor them and their terrific careers. Yarber did a great job offensively again tonight by swinging away and going after it. Berkley executed steady ball control with perfect passing. Julie ran the offense very well, allowing us to run all of our options. In all, every senior did very well for us this evening.
MOREHEAD STATE 3, BELMONT 2
MOREHEAD, Ky. - The Morehead State volleyball team won its fourth consecutive Ohio Valley Conference regular-season championship Saturday night with a 3-2 triumph over the visiting Belmont Bruins.
The Eagles (23-6/14-0 OVC) also secured the right to host the OVC Tournament for the fourth straight season. The event will take place in Wetherby Gym on Nov. 21-23.
Morehead State extended the nation's longest conference regular-season winning streak to 36 matches. The Eagles can tie the OVC record held by Southeast Missouri with their next league win. Belmont, which had won nine straight matches entering the night, fell to 17-13 overall and 10-4 in the league.
After taking a 2-1 lead, the Eagles saw the Bruins hit .333 to win by nine in the fourth and force a deciding set. In that set, MSU smacked 10 kills and committed only one error. The host squad fell behind 5-3 in the frame but doubled-up the visitors 12-6 down the stretch to seal the victory.
Sophomore outside hitter Courtney Smith led the offense with 19 kills and a .326 attack efficiency. Senior libero Leslie Schellhaas piled up a match-best 26 digs and moved into second place on MSU's career dig list.
MSU also got 14 kills from senior outside hitter Aryn Bohannon and 12 winners via a .409 hitting percentage from junior middle blocker Laura McDermott. Bohannon had a double-double, her 11th of the season, with 14 digs. Smith produced a double-double too with 10 digs, and junior setter Colbey Cameron recorded 49 assists and 11 digs. Sophomore middle blocker Hannah Sigala and McDermott tied for the team lead with four blocks apiece.
Belmont middle blocker Allison McCoy tallied a team-best 15 kills and hit .357. Alex Martin recorded a match-best .550 hitting total to go along with 12 kills. Scarlet Gable came up with 15 digs.
MSU held advantages in kills (62-54) and digs (70-54), while both teams notched seven blocks.
Belmont claimed the opening set by using a 7-3 run late. Trailing 20-18, the visitors forced four Eagle hitting errors and outscored their foe by four to win by two.
The Eagles had 15 kills in the second set and added 17 in the third to win by identical scores. The second set featured a 7-2 MSU run to end the frame. The Eagles fashioned a 7-3 scoring flurry to finish off the third set. The teams were tied at five in the fourth, but the Bruins scored the next seven and never trailed again.
Morehead State hit .216 for the night and held Belmont to .176. The Bruins served up nine aces.