FIRST ROUND SCORES
#3 Morehead State 3, #6 Southeast Missouri 0 (25-23, 25-10, 25-19)
#2 Murray State 3, #7 UT Martin 0 (25-20, 25-21, 25-19)
#4 Jacksovnille State 3, #5 SIUE 0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-22)
#1 Austin Peay 3, #8 Tennessee State 0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-14)
MOREHEAD STATE 3, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 0
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Morehead State defeated Southeast Missouri in three sets (25-23, 25-10, 25-19) to advance to the semfinals of the 2018 OVC Volleyball Championships. The Eagles will face the winner of the No. 2 Murray State/No 7 UT Martin match.
Olivia Lohmeier led the Eagles with a match-high 18 kills while Jessie Wacthman added 14. Allison Whitten led all players with 17 digs while Olivia Montelisciani had 13 and Taylor Hodges added 11. Chandler Clark dished out 36 assists.
Annie Wehrheim led Southeast Missouri with seven kills. Claire Ochs notched a double-double with 18 assist and 12 kills. Ally Dion paced the Redhawks with 13 digs while Madeline Grimm had 11.
MURRAY STATE 3, UT MARTIN 0
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Murray State defeated UT Martin (25-20, 25-21, 25-19) to advance to the semifinals and extend its winning streak to 14 straight matches. . The Racers will play No. 3 Morehead State tomorrow at 2:30 pm. CT.
Murray State's Rachel Giustino recorded a double-double with a match-high 19 kills and 11 digs. She had one error on 34 swings for a .529 hitting percentage. Dacia Brown also reached double-digits in kills with 13. Ashley McBee dished out 37 assist and helped the Racers hit .286 as a team. Becca Fernandez notched a team-high 14 digs.
Megan Fair led UT Martin with 15 kills while Brooke Gyori recorded a match-high 22 digs. Kenzie Hinshaw had 35 assists in the match.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 3, SIUE 0
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Jacksonville State defeated SIUE (25-19, 25-22, 25-22) to advance to the semfinals. The Gamecocks will face the winner of the No. 1 Ausitn Peay/No. 8 Tennessee State match tomorrow at 5 p.m. CT.
JSU's Kaylie Milton recorded a team-high 14 kills to go with seven digs. Lena Kindermann finished the match with eight kills and four blocks. Lexie Libs dished out a match-high 34 assists while Dani Steele led the team with eight digs.
SIUE's Rachel McDonald registered a team-best 14 kills and a .407 hitting percentage. Sami Knight led the Cougars with 16 assists while Mallory Nicholson had 14. Jordyn Klein paced the team with 11 digs.
AUSTIN PEAY 3, TENNESSEE STATE 0
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Senior Kaylee Taff had 11 kills and four blocks, leading Austin Peay State University’s volleyball team to a three-set sweep (25-15, 25-18, 25-14) against Tennessee State in the opening round of the 2018 Ohio Valley Conference Volleyball Championship, Thursday night at the Winfield Dunn Center.
Austin Peay (26-4) advances to the tournament’s semifinal round where it will face No. 4 seed Jacksonville State in a 5 p.m., Friday contest. The Gamecocks dispatched No. 5 seed SIUE in three sets earlier Thursday.
Tennessee State (9-19) enjoyed the match’s early momentum, running off four straight points to build a 6-3 lead in the opening set. However, the Governors responded with 13 or the next 15 points to take control at 16-8 and eased to a 25-15 win. Taff set the tone for the match with a kill on each of her five attempts in the set.
The Tigers dialed up another early run to start the second and led 5-3 early on. Tennessee State would be more difficult to turn aside in the second, staying close until 9-9 in the frame. Austin Peay then scored six of the next eight points to edge out to a 14-10 lead before scoring five straight later in the frame as it again eased to the win.
Austin Peay did not give Tennessee State an opportunity to take the lead in the third, scoring seven of the first nine points and never looking back. A later 6-0 run would end any doubt as to the outcome as the Govs won wire-to-wire.
Taff’s 11-kill outing saw her commit just one attack error to post a .625 attack percentage. Brooke Moore added 10 kills in an errorless night on attack, posting a .370 attack percentage. Austin Peay needed just 40 kills in the win thanks to seven service aces and nine blocks.
Julia Pierson led Tennessee State with 15 kills and a .316 attack percentage. However, she was the bulk of the TSU offense which mustered just 32 kills and a .080 team attack percentage in the loss.
TOURNAMENT NOTE: The opening day of the 2018 OVC Volleyball Championship went according to seed with each of the four top seeds winning in three sets. It is the first time since the tournament was expanded to eight teams in 2012 that the first round went without an upset. In addition, it is the first time that all four of the opening day matches were won with sweeps.