FRIDAY'S SCORES
@Murray State 3, Eastern Illinois 0 (25-16, 25-15, 25-21)
Tennessee Tech 3, @SIUE 0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-20)
@Belmont 3, UT Martin 1 (25-17, 25-23, 25-27, 25-19)
Southeast Missouri 3, @Tennessee State 0 (20-25, 25-17, 25-11, 23-25, 15-10)
@Austin Peay 3, Morehead State 2 (25-19, 25-23, 21-25, 25-27, 25-8)
MURRAY STATE 3, EASTERN ILLINOIS 0
MURRAY, Ky. - Eastern Illinois drops its first Ohio Valley Conference match Friday evening against the Racers of Murray State, 0-3. EIU lost 16-25, 15-25, and 21-25. They drop to 7-4 on the season and 0-1 in the conference.
The Panthers dropped set one of the match by a score of 16-25. EIU had nine kills on 30 attacks and a hitting percentage of .067. Emily Wilcox led the way in the first set with two kills while Summerlyn Smith had five assists. The Racers were led by Brooke Watts with six kills and Alexa Harris with five. Murray State posted a .391 hitting percentage in the first.
EIU would go on to lose the second set by a score of 15-25. Panthers' Ireland Hieb collected four kills in the set on eight attempts. Annika Black, Ella Collins, and Kylie Michael all had two kills, but the Panthers would eventually go on to lose the second. Murray State was led by Watts with six more kills and Bailey DeMeir with nine assists.
Eastern put up a fight in the final set having its best one of the day, but fell short losing 21-25. Hieb collected three more kills for the Panthers while Kameryn Sillmon added three more to her total. The Panthers cut the lead to 21-23 late in the set, but Kolby McClelland had two points for the Racers to end the match.
Eastern was led by Hieb with nine kills on 20 attempts, Smith with 16 assists, Bailey Chandler with 13 assists, and Christina Martinez Mundo with eight digs.
The Racers were led by Watts with 13 kills, Harris with 10 kills, and DeMeir with 30 assists. Murray State improves its record to 7-4.
The Panthers return to action tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 25 at 2 p.m. for a rematch with Murray State.
TENNESSEE TECH 3, SIUE 0
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - SIUE volleyball dropped their Ohio Valley Conference opener on Friday night, falling in a 3-0 decision to the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles.
The Cougars held the Golden Eagles to a .171 hitting percentage in the opening set, forcing TTU into eight attacking errors; however, SIUE could not overcome their own offensive woes, hitting a match-low .000 in the opening set and dropping the set, 25-21. The second frame saw the Cougars fall behind early, with TTU opening the set on a 8-0 run. Following a timeout, SIUE would storm back, recording a team-best 11 kills. The opening scoring run from the Golden Eagles would prove too much, as the Cougars fell 25-18 in the second. The third set was a back-and-forth affair throughout, with neither squad gaining the edge. Superb efforts from freshmen Gabi Andrade and Ainsley Ranstead kept the Cougars in the match, but their efforts would not be enough to overcome the Golden Eagles' front line and SIUE would narrowly drop the third set, 25-20.
As a team, SIUE notched a trio of service aces and nine total blocks. The Cougars also recorded 39 digs, narrowly edged by TTU's 43. Individually, SIUE was led by Savannah Christian, who registered a team-high seven kills and hit at a .222 clip. Annie Ellis and Julia Treichel both recorded six kills, while Alyse Drifka once again led the Red & White with 19 assists.
Madolyn Isringhausen led Tennessee Tech with eight kills while Morgan Gish and Madeline Furtado each had seven kills. MeKenna Young paced Tech with 16 digs.
The Cougars will return to action tomorrow afternoon, hosting the series finale against Tennessee Tech. First serve is scheduled for 2 p.m. at First Community Arena, and the match will be streamed live on ESPN
BELMONT 3, UT MARTIN 1
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Four Bruins finished with double-digit kills, and Belmont University Volleyball earned a 3-1 win over visiting UT Martin on Friday night inside the Curb Event Center.
Belmont won 25-17, 25-23, 25-27, and 25-19 to improve to 2-0 in OVC play. The 2-0 start to conference action is the best for the Bruins since the 2017 season, when they started 3-0.
A balanced offensive attack highlighted the Belmont effort, with four different Bruins eclipsing ten kills. Laura Shoopman led the way with 17 kills on a .368 hitting mark with 14 digs, Taylor Floyd added 15 kills and four blocks, Mary Catherine Ball chipped in a season-high 13 kills with a career-high five blocks, and Lauren Walsh contributed 12 important kills as well.
Facilitating it all was Izzy Schauer, who dished out a career-high 53 assists with seven digs, helping Belmont hit a remarkable .244, their highest percentage of the season.
The Bruins started things off the right way, blitzing the Skyhawks with a 15-3 lead to start off Game 1. Kills from Floyd and Shoopman started the avalanche, with Skyhawk attack and service errors contributing to the lopsided score. UT Martin battled back to make the margin more respectable, but Belmont had built up too much of a cushion and took the opening set, 25-17.
In the second set, the action started to tighten up. After an Addy Vaughn kill for the visitors, UT Martin had secured a 14-9 lead. The Bruins buckled in, however, and broke off a 7-2 run to tie it at 16-16. With both teams trading blows, UT Martin took a 23-22 lead, in position to tie up the match at 1-1. Instead, Ball had other ideas, getting back-to-back kills before a Skyhawk setting error gave the Bruins a 25-23 win.
Their backs against the wall, UT Martin continued to claw and kept the third set ultra-close. Neither team led by more than two points the entire way, with a loud Curb Event Center crowd roaring after Floyd recorded another kill to tie things at 23-23. UT Martin had four set point opportunities in all, but Belmont had a response every time the Skyhawks seemed on the verge of extending the match. Eventually, two costly service errors hampered the Bruins' efforts, and UT Martin held on for a 27-25 win.
The Bruins recaptured momentum directly out of the gate to begin Game 4, leading 17-9 before rolling to a 25-19 win to clinch their second conference win in a row.
Belmont recorded ten total team blocks in the win with only one block error, and added six service aces from the line to secure the victory.
UT Martin's Karen Scanlon led the team with 11 kills while Logan Wallick added 10. Haeleigh Paulino recorded a team-high 12 digs.
The Bruins get a rematch with UT Martin tomorrow at the Curb Event Center to wrap up the season series with the Skyhawks. First serve is scheduled for 2 p.m and will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 3, TENNESSEE STATE 2
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Recap coming soon.
AUSTIN PEAY 3, MOREHEAD STATE 2
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Despite a gutsy comeback attempt, Morehead State volleyball dropped its Ohio Valley Conference opener 3-2 at Austin Peay Friday night.
MSU slipped to 4-8 overall on the season, while APSU halted a three-match losing skid to the Eagles and moved to 7-6. The Eagles saw the home team's net defense turned back 13 attempts, including four in the final set.
The Eagles faltered to a 2-0 deficit as the Govs won 25-19 and 25-23, but MSU rallied with 25-21 and 27-25 victories to take it to a deciding set. MSU had 20 kills alone and hit .304 in the fourth frame. The Govs pulled away to win 15-8 in the finale.
Graduate student Olivia Lohmeier set a career-high for attempts with 74 while slamming down a match-high 24 kills, her fourth 20+ kill output of 2021. Lohmeier moved to within 61 kills of edging into second place in career spikes at Morehead State.
Of MSU's 66 total terminations, sophomore Abby Hulsman added 13 while junior Mia Swearingen boomed a season-best 11 while hitting at a team-best .304 clip.
MSU also had more digs than the Govs, 78-71. Junior Allison Whitten had 28 scoop-ups from the back row while junior Olivia Montelisciani had 12. The match also marked the return of setter Bridget Bessler after a four-match injury hiatus. She returned with her fourth double-double of the fall (34 assists, 11 digs).
Morehead State had its second highest total attempts of the season with 174, hitting .213 as a unit.
Austin Peay had four players reach double-digits in kills with Mikayla Powell leading the way with 15. Brooke Moore had 14 kills and 20 digs while Jaida Clark added 13 kills. Maggie Keenan recorded 10 digs. Erin Eisenhard led the team with 21 digs.
The teams will face off again Saturday at 2 p.m. CT