FRIDAY'S SCORES
Eastern Illinois 3, @Eastern Kentucky 1 (25-21, 22-25, 25-21, 25-23)
Belmont 3, @Jacksonville State 0 (25-21, 26-24, 25-19)
@Murray State 3, UT Martin 1 (25-19, 22-25, 25-19, 25-16)
SIUE 3, @Morehead State 1 (25-20, 18-25, 25-23, 25-20)
Tennessee State 3, Tennessee Tech 2 (21-25, 25-21, 23-25, 25-19, 15-13)
@Austin Peay 3, Southeast Missouri 2 (26-24, 26-24, 9-25, 11-25, 23-21)
EASTERN ILLINOIS 3, EASTERN KENTUCKY 1
RICHMOND, Ky. -Beginning their last two road matches for the regular season, the Eastern Illinois volleyball team started the road trip on a high note following a four-set victory at Eastern Kentucky (25-21, 22-25, 25-21, 25-23). With the win the Panthers improve to 10-3 in the OVC.
Eastern Kentucky started out the first-set with an early advantage, as they lead by as many as four points. Josie Winner and Abby Saalfrank teamed up on a block to tie the set at 12-12. Maria Brown found a hole in the Eastern Kentucky defense with a kill to put the Panthers ahead, 14-13 as the Panthers began to control the set. EKU would rally late, but an Allie Hueston service ace sealed the first-set victory 25-21 in favor of EIU.
Neither team could pull away from one another to begin the second-set, until three EKU errors put the Panthers in front, 13-10. Back-to-back kills from Hueston and Saalfrank increased the Panther lead to four, but EKU would pull to within two. EIU would again extend their lead to four points, but EKU would find their way back into the set at a 22-22 tie. Eastern Kentucky would score the next three points to take the second-set victory 25-22.
With the third-set tied at 8-8, EIU would score the next three points to take an 11-8 lead highlighted by kills from Chelsea Lee and Hueston. EKU would find a way to take the lead away from the Panthers at 16-15.
The EKU lead what short lived however as the Panthers would go on to score the next three points. The quick string of points gave the Panthers the boost they needed as they would find themselves with another three point rally to finish off the third-set at 25-21.
EIU started out the fourth-set earning three out of the first four points with the help of a kill from
Hueston and Brown. Taylor Smith would extend the Panther lead to six points at 18-12 with a block. EKU would cut the Panther lead to a single point late in the set, but an Eastern Kentucky error gave the EIU the fourth-set victory 25-23.
Lee led the Panther attacking game with 15 kills, while Brown added 12, and Hueston 10. Stephanie Wallace led the Panthers on the defensive end of the court with 11 digs.
BELMONT 3, JACKSONVILLE STATE 0
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - Belmont volleyball (14-11, 11-2 OVC) took down Jacksonville State (13-19, 3-10 OVC) in three sets Friday evening. The victory gave Belmont five straight conference victories and four straight wins in three sets.
Sophomore Brie Lewis (Stillwell, Kan.) led the offensive effort firing at an average of .409 with 12 kills and only three errors. Sophomore Arianna Person (Lenexa, Kan.) recorded 12 kills as well. Redshirt freshman Alexa Nichols (Walton, Ky.) finished the night with eight kills, senior Jocelyn Youngdahl (Stillwater, Minn.) had seven and freshman Tori Simmons (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) rounded out the offense with four. Redshirt sophomore Emma Price recorded 42 assists on the night and led the offense to an average of .300. Sophomore Emily Richards (Penfield, N.Y.) led the defense with 11 digs.
Set one would be made of runs from both teams. Belmont would take the first two points but Jacksonville State took five of the next six points to take the 5-3 lead. Both teams would rally off a few runs until the Bruins went on a five to one run and took a 19-16 advantage. Both teams would go point-for-point until a kill from Lewis gave Belmont set one 25-21.
Set two started off with the Gamecocks taking a 4-1 lead. The Bruins responded with a five to one run to take a 6-5 lead. Jacksonville then retaliated with a six to one run and retook the lead at 11-7. The two teams would fight for points until Belmont strung together a seven to one run taking a 17-14 lead. Despite a fight from Jacksonville State, who would take the 24-23 advantage, the Bruins took three straight and closed out set two 26-24.
The Bruins came out of the locker room on fire in set three and started off with an 8-2 lead. The Bruins and the Gamecocks played tug-of-war with points until a four point run by Belmont with Price at the service line put the Bruins up 17-8. The two teams would trade off points, and despite a four point run from Jacksonville State, Belmont closed out set three and the match 25-19
MURRAY STATE 3, UT MARTIN 1
MURRAY, Ky. - Scottie Ingram recorded a team-high 22 kills, hit .304 and became the 11th member of the 1,000-kill club in Murray State program history as the Racers defeated UT Martin Friday night inside Racer Arena in four sets, 25-19, 22-25, 25-19 and 25-16.
Ingram recorded her 12th double-double of the season as well Friday as she had 12 digs defensively. Ingram is now just four digs shy of becoming the 18th member of the 1,000-digs club at MSU and will become the 11th member of the 1,000-1,000 club when she reaches that milestone. Joining Ingram with a team-best attack percentage of .304 on the night was Alyssa Lelm as she had 11 kills in the victory. Taylor Olden added 16 kills, 12 digs and a solo block on the night. Ingram and Olivia Chatman recorded a team-best two block assists in the match as well.
Ellie Lorenz led the team with 17 digs from her libero position, while Sam Bedard recorded 54 assists, 11 digs and five kills on the evening. Bedard, Ingram and Audrey Lewis each had a service ace on the night while Olden had two. UTM (8-22, 4-9 OVC) had just one service ace in the match and had seven service errors. MSU also out-hit the Skyhawks .226-.183 while UT Martin had an 11-4 edge in total blocks.
SIUE 3, MOREHEAD STATE 1
MOREHEAD, Ky. - SIUE volleyball won for the first time in program history at Morehead State, defeating the Eagles at Wetherby Gym 25-20, 18-25, 25-23, 25-20.
SIUE, 7-16 overall and 5-8 in the Ohio Valley Conference, has now won the last two meetings against Morehead State after losing the first seven the series.
SIUE won the first set of an OVC match this season for only the second time this season. The Cougars won the first three points of the match behind the serve of sophomore libero Katie Shashack.
The serve and pass game proved to be the difference in the match. Six different Cougars recorded a service ace, including a team-leading three from setter Mallory Mangun.
Kristen Torre and Ashley Witt, who led the Cougars with 13 and 12 kills, respectively.
Morehead was fronting both Torre and Witt with two blockers for most of the match and recorded 10 blocks, but a persistent Cougars team kept the ball in play.
Morehead State, 9-18 overall and 6-7 in the OVC, was led by 19 kills from Meredith Jewell and 11 from Sydney Schuler.
TENNESSEE STATE 3, TENNESSEE TECH 2
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Contributions came from several players on both sides of the net as Tennessee Tech and Tennessee State battled through five close sets before the visiting Tigers emerged with a narrow, 3-2 Ohio Valley Conference volleyball victory Friday night in Eblen Center, capturing the fifth set by a 15-13 margin.
The Tigers (13-12, 8-5 OVC) used the win to hold onto fourth place in the conference race, getting double-digit kills from four different players led by Haley Hampton with 16 on the strength of a .444 hitting performance. Chloe Watson added 15 kills, Zahria Graham had 14 and Ayanna Chase killed 10.
Madison Halterman paced a strong effort on the back line with 32 of her team's 78 digs, with Watson and Taylor Patterson getting 15 digs each. Watson and Chase had six blocks apiece, while Samantha Beltran had 53 assists for TSU.
Tech (6-20, 4-9 OVC), which is fighting for a post-season tournament opportunity, ended the night in eighth place in the OVC race. The Golden Eagles also got offense from a variety of hitters, led by Kellie Williams with 18 kills. Cody Dodd added 15 kills and K'Vonna Johnson had 10 kills. Freshman Shaneice James didn't have a hitting error, getting eight kills in 11 attempts for a .727 hitting mark.
Allison Morrett had 15 digs, one of three Golden Eagles to reach double digits on the way to 67 total digs. Dodd added 13 and Kennedy Wade had 11. Sharon Anderson directed the attack, counting out 42 assists.
Tech won the first and third sets, while TSU claimed the even sets before clinching the night in the fifth.
The opening set went to the Golden Eagles, who survived sloppy play on both sides of the net. Down 6-4 early in the set, the Golden Eagles mounted a 10-5 run to build a 14-11 lead, highlighted by two kills and a block from Dodd, plus emphatic kills by James and Williams. Tech took advantage of four TSU errors in the run.
A few points later, Dodd and James keyed a run of five straight points for the Golden Eagles, moving from a tight, two-point edge to a seven-point bulge, 22-15, the largest difference in the set. Tennessee State was able to scratch back to within three at 24-21, before a ball hit long by the Tigers clinched the mark for the home team, 25-21.
The Golden Eagles stayed within a couple of points throughout the second set, fell behind by six, then staged a furious late-set rally, but the Tigers closed the deal with defense down the stretch. TSU played an extremely clean second set, making far less hitting errors than in the first contest and evened the affair with a 25-21 win. Halterman dug 10 balls in the set.
Williams and Johnson led the way for Tech to take a 2-1 lead with a 25-23 win in the third set. Williams put down eight kills and Johnson had five, to counter the six kills from Graham. The set came down to a clinching kill by Johnson.
The Tigers raced out to a 7-1 lead in the fourth set and never relinquished control. Tennessee State was up by as many as nine points, including a 20-11 advantage, before closing it out with a 25-19 decision to force a fifth set. Halterman was a key to the win with nine digs in the set, while Watson and Hampton had five kills apiece.
The match went to the decisive fifth set, and it was tight all the way to the finish line. Up 8-7, Tennessee State won the race to double digits on a pair of Tech errors for a 10-7 margin. Tech managed the next three to knot things at 10-10. It was tied again at 12-12 on kills from Dodd and James, before Patterson earned a kill and a Tech attack was blocked for a 14-12 TSU lead.
Dodd put down one final kill to make it a one-point contest, before Graham's attack found the floor for the final point.
AUSTIN PEAY 3, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 2
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Ashley Slay’s kill on an eighth-match point opportunity gave Austin Peay State University’s volleyball team a five-set Ohio Valley Conference victory (26-24, 26-24, 9-25, 11-25, 23-21) against Southeast Missouri, Friday night, at the Dunn Center.
Fans that left the Dunn Center early missed the longest – and arguably most exciting – fifth set in Austin Peay history. The tiebreaking set featured 14 ties and six lead changes. Austin Peay had two match point chances in regulation, but could not convert. Instead the two teams battled through a combined 10 match-point opportunities, the Lady Govs converting on their eighth chance.
After two ties in the first eight points, Austin Peay (8-21, 2-11 OVC) used an early 4-1 run to build an 8-5 lead at the changeover. Southeast Missouri battled back to tie the set, 9-9, with a 4-1 run of its own. A fifth tie, at 11-11, was followed by three straight Lady Govs points, capped by a Slay kill, for a match-point at 14-11.
Southeast Missouri (10-16, 6-7 OVC) fended off three match points thanks to kills by Madalyn Werths and Marie Less plus a Haley Roberts service ace, tying the frame at 14-14. Austin Peay would get another pair of match points at 15-14 and 16-15, but could not convert. Instead the Redhawks scored back-to-back points to set up their first chance to end the match at 17-16.
The Lady Govs responded with a block and a Kelly Ferguson kill to get match point back in its hands at 18-17, 19-18 and 20-19 but again failed to connect. The Redhawks countered with consecutive points for their second match point chance, 21-20, but were denied by an attack error.
Austin Peay regained the momentum with a Peyton Walker kill for a match point at 22-21. This time the Lady Govs converted thanks to a Slay kill for the 23-21 victory.
The fifth set resembled the first two sets, which required overtime before Austin Peay secured consecutive 26-24 victories. Southeast Missouri posted dominating wire-to-wire efforts in the third and fourth sets to tie the match and force the decisive fifth sets.
Ferguson led Austin Peay with a 15-kill performance that saw her record a .303 attack percentage. Samantha
Strother added an 11-kill, 13-dig double-double while Walker chipped in 10 kills. Slay, who saw limited action, recorded five kills in the fifth set and finished with six kills.
Nzingha Clarke and Krissa Gearring each had 17 kills to pace Southeast Missouri. Weths added 16 kills and Less chipped in 10 kills