SUNDAY'S SCORES
@Eastern Kentucky 3, Belmont 0 (25-15, 25-18, 27-25)
@Austin Peay 3, Jacksonville State 1 (26-23, 25-20, 19-25, 25-19)
@Eastern Illinois 3, UT Martin 0 (25-18, 25-21, 25-21)
@SIUE 3, Southeast Missouri 2 (25-17, 22-25, 23-25, 25-18, 15-12)
@Morehead State 3, Tennessee State 1 (25-14, 26-28, 25-22, 25-19)
@Murray State 3, Tennessee Tech 0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-11)
EASTERN KENTUCKY 3, BELMONT 0
RICHMOND, Ky. - With four conference matches remaining in the 2014 season, Eastern Kentucky moved into a second place tie after beating Belmont 3-0 on Saturday at McBrayer Arena.
The Colonels (19-11, 9-3 OVC) entered the match one game behind the second place Bruins (13-13, 9-3 OVC). The teams are now tied for second but Eastern Kentucky holds the season tie breaker by virtue of its sweep over Belmont.
Set scores were 25-15, 25-18 and 27-25.
Eastern jumped out to a 14-5 lead in the opening set and never looked back on its way to a 10-point win. The Colonels led by only one, 17-16, in the second set after a kill by Alex Martin. However, the home team scored five of the next six to build a five-point cushion. A kill by Rachel Vick ended the run and put EKU on top 22-17. A kill by Alexis Plagens and a service ace from Vick ended the set, 25-18.
The third set was tied 16 times. Eastern Kentucky led 24-22 after a kill by Abbey Cvelbar but the Bruins scored the next two to tie. Belmont tied it again, 25-25, after a Colonel attack error. A Belmont service error gave the Colonels their final match-point. Plagens served up an ace on the next series to end the set, 27-25, and the match.
Plagens had a match-best 18 kills for EKU. Vick finished with 10 kills and four blocks. Cvelbar had 30 assists, seven kills, only one error and 10 digs. Dena Ott led all players with 15 digs.
Martin contributed at team-best 10 kills for the Bruins.
Eastern had six more kills (44-38) and six fewer errors. The Colonels hit .267 for the match compared to .154 for Belmont. Both teams had four service aces but the Bruins committed 10 service errors compared to only two for Eastern Kentucky.
AUSTIN PEAY 3, JACKSONVILLE STATE 1
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Austin Peay State University's volleyball team closed the home portion of its 2014 schedule with a four-set (26-24, 25-20, 19-25, 25-19) victory against Jacksonville State, Saturday, at the Dunn Center.
Austin Peay (13-16, 7-5) moved into a tie for fourth place with the win. Freshman Ashley Slay and seniors Jada Stotts and Hillary Plybon each had 13 kills to pace the APSU attack.
Four Gamecocks had double-digit kills, led by freshman Charis Ludtke with 16. She was followed by junior Emily Rutherford with 13 and senior Nicole Merget and freshman Allyson Zuhlke with 10 apiece. Rutherford's 13 kills came in a double-double performance which included 13 digs. Defensively, JSU was led by junior libero Samantha Bohne's 23 digs. Freshman setter Jennifer Hart dished 46 of the team's 51 assists.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 3, UT MARTIN 0
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Eastern Illinois volleyball earned the regular-season sweep of Ohio Valley Conference rival UT Martin as the Panthers hit past the visiting Skyhawks in three straight sets (25-18, 25-21, 25-21) on Saturday (Nov. 1) afternoon at Lantz Arena.
The victory ups the Panther mark to 11-14 overall and 5-7 in league play, the while Skyhawks drop to 10-16 and 3-9, respectively. EIU has now won four straight over UTM and up their all-time series lead over the Skyhawks to 25-15.
EIU middle Allie Hueston paced all players on the court as the freshman drilled a personal high 15 kills while hitting .500 in the match. She also roofed three UTM attacks to lead the Eastern net defense, while tallying 16.5 total points in the win.
Junior Abby Saalfrank added nine kills of her, while classmate Chelsea Lee and redshirt-freshman Josie Winner each registered eight put-downs of their own. Winner also hit .500 for the contest.
Junior setter Marah Bradbury dished out 41 assists to help Eastern out-hit the visitors, .264-to-.160. Senior Dakota Springer tied her career-high ace total as she fired off three unreturnable serves.
In additional defensive stats, junior libero Stephanie Wallace's 19 digs led all players. Senior defensive specialist Kelsey Brooke, meanwhile, also upped 12 Skyhawk attacks, after being named the newest recipient of the EIU Volleyball Alumni Scholarship prior to the start of the match.
UTM was led by senior Emily Keaton's 14 kills and .414 attack clip, while also adding two solo blocks and the lone Skyhawk ace. Junior libero Chelsea Bowles finished with 13 digs to lead her team's back row defense, while senior Allie Whimpey held the net defense off four blocks.
Eastern held the stat advantage over UTM in nearly every stat category, including kills, attacks, attack %, assists, aces, digs, and points. UTM did finish with four more blocks than the Panthers.
The match featured just 11 ties and five lead changes, with most coming via the second set as the Panthers led from start-to-finish to open the contest as they cruised to a 25-18 first set win while out-hitting UTM, .368-to-.265.
The second set was a back-and-forth affair until the Panthers used a late run to take the 2-0 advantage thanks to the 25-21 win. EIU again out-hit the Skyhawks, .250-to.242 in that frame.
Only one tie came about in the final stanza as EIU limited the OVC rivals to a zero hitting mark en route to the 25-21 win and sweep.
MOREHEAD STATE 3, TENNESSEE STATE 1
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Senior middle blocker Laura McDermott registered a career-best nine blocks and senior right-side hitter Alex Fitzmorris tied her Morehead State high with 19 kills in a 25-14, 26-28, 25-22, 25-19 victory over Tennessee State on Saturday afternoon at Wetherby Gym.
The Eagles improve to 2-24 overall, 2-10 in the Ohio Valley Conference and 1-12 at home. The Tigers fall to 9-18 overall, 3-9 in league action and 3-9 on the road. The teams split the regular-season series and Morehead State moves to 48-9 all-time against Tennessee State.
McDermott, who also collected seven kills, was playing in her 126th match at Morehead State. Fitzmorris, a second-year Eagle after transferring, was playing in her 61st. Fitzmorris committed just two errors in 36 swings to finish with a .472 hitting percentage. She also had three blocks.
Morehead State posted advantages of 54-46 in kills, 52-44 in assists, 67-56 in digs and 14-8 in team blocks. The Eagles hit .204 for the afternoon, including .238 in the opening set and .394 in the final stanza. Junior middle blocker Hannah Sigala added 13 kills and five rejections for MSU.
Freshman outside hitter Alli Evans paced the Morehead State defense with a season-high-tying 16 digs, while sophomore libero Hope Rillema stopped 15 TSU attacks. MSU senior setter Colbey Cameron contributed a career-best five blocks, match-high 46 assists and 14 digs.
The Eagles raced out to leads of 5-0 and 10-2 in the opening set. The final three sets featured all 36 ties and all 14 lead changes. Morehead State's 9-2 surge late in the fourth period sealed the set and match.
Junior middle hitter Haley Hampton, freshman setter Samantha Beltran and senior libero Ileanushka Maldonado led Tennessee State. Hampton collected 14 kills, while Beltran handed out 41 assists and Maldonado posted 15 digs. The Tigers were limited to a .123 offensive clip in the tilt.
SIUE 3, SOUTEHAST MISSOURI 2
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - For the second straight match at the Vadalabene Center, SIUE volleyball won in five sets with a 25-17, 22-25, 23-25, 25-18, 15-12 victory over visiting Southeast Missouri.
SIUE improved to 12-15 overall and 4-8 in the Ohio Valley Conference. With the loss, Southeast Missouri slipped to 10-16 overall and 6-6 in the OVC.
Kristen Torre turned in an impressive 19 kills and a career-high seven service aces to lift the Cougars to their third consecutive victory. The Cougars finished with a season-best 14 service aces as a team.
Taylor Held turned in a double-double for SIUE with 12 kills and 11 digs. Taylor Joens added a career-high 11 kills.
SIUE turned in impressive numbers against the No. 1 blocking team in the OVC. The Cougars recorded more kills 67-55 and held the edge in blocks 8-5.
SIUE raced out to an early lead against the Redhawks with a 13-4 edge early in the first set. Torre went a five-point scoring run off her serve in the opening set as the Redhawks hit -.059.
Southeast Missouri came back in the second set. Taylor Mastersen , who had 17 kills and five blocks, led the Redhawks.
Andrea Baylin and Madalyn Werths added 14 and 12 kills, respectively.
Southeast went up by a set by playing side-out volleyball after grabbing an early 4-0 lead.
SIUE regained the momentum in the fourth set with its best offensive output of 16 kills and three errors.
The Redhawks held a 6-4 lead in the fifth set before Torre struck again from the service line. Her serve put SIUE ahead 8-6, and the Cougars didn't look back. Torre finished off the match with a kill on match point.
It also was the third time this season SIUE has collected more than 80 digs. Chelsea Colclasure closed out a big weekend with 25 digs after recording 30 Friday against UT Martin.
MURRAY STATE 3, TENNESSEE TECH 0
MURRAY, Ky. - The Murray State volleyball team increased its winning streak to nine straight games against Tennessee Tech Saturday night at Racer Arena. The Racers got their 12th sweep of the season in their win over the Golden Eagles 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-11).
Murray State (20-4, 11-1 OVC) took a quick 8-3 lead in the first set. MSU continued to battle and hold their advantage over TTU (11-7, 6-6 OVC). The Racers took the first set off a kill from Emily Schmahl 25-16.
The Golden Eagles fought hard in the beginning of the second set keeping the score 10-10. Both teams would continue to battle back and forth for the advantage over the other. The score was tied 20-20 before Murray State took the lead. MSU took the next five points off of two kills from Taylor Olden, a kill from Scottie Ingram and two errors by Tennessee Tech. Murray State took the second set 25-20.
The Racers came out strong in the third set. They started with a 10-3 advantage. MSU went on a 15-8 run to hold the Golden Eagles to only 11 points in the third set. Murray State took the third set and the match with the 25-11 finish.
Four Racers had double-kill performances. Scottie Ingram had a match-high 15 kills to go along with 11 digs. Taylor Olden turned in 12 kills. Kristen Besselsen recorded 10 kills and 10 digs. Alyssa Lelm also turned in 10 kills along with a .750 hitting percentage. Sam Bedard dished out 45 assists