FRIDAY'S SCORES
Morehead State 3, @Belmont 0 (25-18, 25-21, 27-25)
@Southeast Missouri 3, Eastern Illinois 2 (25-22, 25-19, 22-25, 24-26, 15-7)
@UT Martin 3, SIUE 1 (25-23, 25-18, 23-25, 25-19)
@Jacksonville State 3, Austin Peay 2 (19-25, 25-23, 25-8, 24-26, 15-13)
Eastern Kentucky @Tennessee State 0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-20)
Murray State 3, @Tennessee Tech 2 (25-23, 19-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-11)
EASTERN KENTUCKY 3, TENNESSEE STATE 0
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Eastern Kentucky University’s volleyball team started Ohio Valley Conference play with a 3-0 win at Tennessee State on Friday. The Colonels ran their winning streak to three straight matches.
Eastern (7-8, 1-0 OVC) won by scores of 25-22, 25-21 and 25-20.
Ashley Edmond led EKU with 10 kills. The senior also had 11 digs, three aces and three blocks. Rachel Vick had five blocks.
As a team, Eastern Kentucky had five fewer kills than Tennessee State (3-7, 0-1 OVC), but the Colonels had seven more aces. Naomi Wells had 17 kills to lead the Tigers.
In the first set, Eastern led by seven, 20-13, after a kill by Johanna Boyer, but TSU didn’t fold. Back-to-back aces by Taylor Patterson and an EKU error made it a two-point margin, 24-22. However, Edmond’s kill ended the set before the Tigers got any closer.
Tennessee State led 18-17 in the second set before the Colonels scored five straight to take control. Vick’s kill capped the run and put the visitors on top 22-18. A TSU error ended the set and gave Eastern a 2-0 lead.
An 8-1 run by Eastern Kentucky in the third set turned a 15-15 tie into a 23-16 lead. A kill by Boyer ended the set and the match.
MOREHEAD STATE 3, BELMONT 0
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Junior middle blocker Laura McDermott connected on a team-high 13 kills and hit .435 to help the Morehead State volleyball team to a 3-0 (25-18, 25-21, 27-25) sweep of Belmont in both team's Ohio Valley Conference opener Friday night at the Curb Event Center.
MSU (10-5) won its 23rd consecutive regular season conference match and ran its OVC road winning streak to 24 matches. Belmont, which had defeated the Eagles in the 2012 OVC Tournament championship match, fell to 7-10.
Morehead State also got a 10-kill, .368-hitting percentage effort from sophomore middle blocker Hannah Sigala. McDermott has now compiled 38 kills in the last three contests.
The Eagles compiled a season-best .276 hitting percentage. MSU also tallied more kills (48-35) and digs (56-45) than the host Bruins.
Morehead State fell behind 8-3 in the second set and trailed 18-15 before putting together a 9-1 run to grab momentum late. The Eagles staked themselves to a 10-3 advantage in the third frame before Belmont rallied. The Bruins had set point chances at 24-23 and 25-24, but kills by Sigala, sophomore outside hitter Courtney Smith and junior right-side hitter Alex Fitzmorris guided MSU to close it out in three sets.
Defensively, senior libero Leslie Schellhaas posted her eighth 20+ dig total of the year with a match-best 22. Junior setter Colbey Cameron handed out 38 assists and posted a .429 attack efficiency.
Scarlet Gable paced the hosts with 10 kills and 11 digs. Belmont hit .182.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 2, EASTERN ILLINOIS 2
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - The Southeast Missouri (8-7, 1-0 OVC) volleyball team defeated Eastern Illinois (6-8, 0-1 OVC) in five sets Friday (25-22, 25-19, 22-25, 24-26, 15-7) in the Ohio Valley Conference opener.
The Redhawks took an early lead in the match with 25-22 win in the first set. It was all Southeast as the Redhawks led the whole set. Andrea Baylin laid down seven kills in the opening set.
The second set proved to be another walk in the park for Southeast as they cruised to a 25-19 set win and a 2-0 lead in the match. Colleen Yarber turned on her offense with six kills in the set.
The EIU offense came alive in the third set as the Panthers got ahead and were able to hold off the Redhawks for a 25-22 win. Southeast was able to tie the set numerous times but could not pull ahead. Stephanie Arnold posted her third five-kill set of the night.
The Panthers and Redhawks went round and round again in the fourth set as the score was tied 11 times. EIU prevailed with a 26-24 set win to tie up the match and force a decisive fifth set.
The fifth and final set was all Southeast as they clinched the match with a 15-7 win. Southeast laid down 10 kills to EIU's four in the set.
Baylin tied a season-high 15 kills while Taylor Masterson posted a season-high 12, one short of tying a career-high. The league leaders in blocking added 13 total team blocks with Emily Coon adding six and Baylin and Masterson posting five each.
Four different Panthers nailed double-digit kill totals in the defeat, with sophomore Chelse Lee's 19 put-downs pacing all players on the court as she also hit .359 for the match.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 3, AUSTIN PEAY 2
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - The Jacksonville State volleyball team opened up Ohio Valley Conference play with a 3-2 victory over Austin Peay on Friday night at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
Junior Nicole Merget led three players in double-digits with 17 kills and added seven blocks to help the Gamecocks improve to 8-8 on the season and get off to a perfect 1-0 start in OVC play with the 3-2 (25-19, 23-25, 25-8, 24-26, 15-13) victory. Jada Stotts recorded a double-double with 21 kills and 18 digs for the Lady Govs, who fall to 3-13 overall and 0-1 in conference play.
Freshman Kacy Clinkenbeard finished with 13 kills while sophomore Emily Rutherford posted a double-double with 13 kills and 13 digs. Senior Abbey Heredia also added a double-double with 42 assists and 13 digs to help the Gamecocks pull off the victory.
Defensively, freshman Samantha Bohne led the way with 16 digs while junior Alina Agamy and senior Kelly Cole each finished with 11 digs.
Liz Landon added 14 kills while Sammie Ebright and Lauren Henderson each finished with 10 kills apiece to round out the Lady Govs offensive attack. Setter Cami Field added a double-double with 54 assists and 15 digs while April Adams led the defensive effort with 23 digs.
APSU opened the first set with a 25-19 victory after limiting the Gamecocks to just a .044 attack percentage. Clinkenbeard, Merget and Rutherford each finished with three kills in the set but it was not enough to help JSU fight back from the early deficit.
The Gamecocks fell behind 14-10 in the second set before rallying to tie the match at 17-17 behind three kills from Merget. With the set tied 23-23, the Gamecocks used a service error by the Lady Govs and Merget followed with her seventh kill of the game to pull off the 25-23 victory to tie the match at one game apiece.
The Gamecocks came out rolling in the third set, posting a .375 attack percentage while holding the Lady Govs to a -.188 attack percentage to race out to a 13-3 lead. JSU forced 11 errors by the Lady Govs in the set to pull of the 25-8 victory.
With the fourth set tied 17-17, APSU used a 4-1 run to take a 21-18 lead and spark a JSU timeout. Coming out of the timeout, two errors by APSU and two kills from Clinkenbeard allowed JSU to tie the set at 22-22. JSU would take a 24-23 lead after an error by the Lady Govs before APSU responded with kills by Landon and Henderson to take a 25-24 lead. The Lady Govs would then tie the match at two games apiece after a JSU attack error gave APSU the 26-24 fourth-set victory.
The two teams kept the fifth and final game close throughout but JSU managed to post a .280 attack percentage while holding the Lady Govs offense to a .148 attack percentage to pull of the 15-13 match-clinching victory. Leading 13-12, Rutherford gave the Gamecocks a 14-12 lead and JSU then used an error from the Lady Govs to wrap up its first win in conference play.
Austin Peay saw junior Jada Stotts return to action for the first time since Sept. 6 and she recorded a match-best 21 kills in her return. However, the effects of her injury continued to linger as she also posted an uncharacteristic 18 attack errors.
UT MARTIN 3, SIUE 1
MARTIN, Tenn. - UT Martin defeated visiting SIUE 25-23, 25-18, 23-25, 25-19 to open up league play on Friday night.
The Skyhawks finished with 53 kills for the match, including 15 from Emily Keaton. Whimpey and Shelby Hoskins added 13 and 11 kills, respectively.
SIUE kept much of its hopes alive on defense with 63 digs. Chelsea Colclasure, the OVC Defensive Player of the Week, led all players with 18 digs. Harris finished with 14 digs
SIUE's Cori Harris recorded five of her team-leading 13 kills in the fourth set.
The Cougars were down 9-2 early in the set only to pull within two points at 20-18 on a kill by freshman Alicia Streetar. UT Martin, however, converted five of the next six points to take the match.
SIUE found itself playing from behind early. UT Martin won five straight points in the opening set after SIUE started with a 3-2 lead. SIUE pulled back into a tie at 8-8 with a kill from Streetar and two from Kristen Torre, who led SIUE with four blocks.
The two teams went back and forth in set one before Allie Whimpey got the kills for the set winner.
The Skyhawks improved to 7-10 overall and 1-0 in the OVC. SIUE dropped to 4-10 and 0-1 in the OVC.
MURRAY STATE 3, TENNESSEE TECH 2
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Murray State picked up a five-set win at Tennessee Tech on Friday night. It was the league-opener for both teams. The Racers improve to 11-4 overall and 1-0 in OVC play while the Golden Eagles fall to 4-7 overall and 0-1 in conference action.
Full recap coming soon.