SATURDAY'S SCORES
Southeast Missouri 3, @UT Martin 0 (26-24, 25-19, 25-21)
@SIUE 3, Morehead State 0 (25-17, 25-22, 25-20)
Lindenwood 3, @Southern Indiana 2 (26-24, 21-25, 25-20, 22-25, 15-6)
@Eastern Illinois 3, Little Rock 0 (25-18, 25-19, 25-18)
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 3, UT MARTIN 0
MARTIN, Tenn. - Southeast Missouri women's volleyball (8-8, 3-1 OVC) wrapped its first Ohio Valley Conference road series of the season with a 3-0 (26-24, 25-19, 25-21) sweep of UT Martin (10-8, 4-1 OVC) Saturday at the Skyhawk Fieldhouse.
With the victory, SEMO split the regular-season series with UTM and handed the Skyhawks their first loss in league matches.
Zoey Beasley led the offense with 13 kills on a .375 rate. Kayla Closset added 12 kills and eight digs.
The Skyhawks opened the match with a 4-1 lead that grew to 6-2.
SEMO cut the margin to 8-6 after a kill from Colby Greene.
A kill from Ramiri Gardner coupled with a Skyhawk attack error provided a slight 16-15 edge.
Beasley then registered a rally stopper followed by a UTM miscue to keep the lead in favor of SEMO, 20-18.
Gardner and Greene combined for a block assist to bring on set point at 24-22.
The Skyhawks fended off set point twice before the Redhawks utilized extra innings to take a 1-0 lead in the match. Closset and Kaelyn O'Brien registered consecutive kills to claim the frame.
Closset paced the Redhawks in the opening set with four kills on a clip of .333. O'Brien and Greene each added three in the period.
SEMO hit a match-high .268 in the first set and completed the match with .248. UTM in comparison posted a .159 and finished with .138 Saturday.
The Skyhawks then took the first three points in the second stanza before increasing their edge to 6-2.
A 4-0 Redhawks rally then evened the set at 7-7.
Consecutive kills from Gardner and Mackenzie Meehan made the SEMO lead 15-13.
Closset and Greene combined for back-to-back kills after a block assist by Meehan and Greene to extend the advantage to 19-15.
SEMO then closed the set (25-19) on a 6-2 run to increase the Redhawks lead in the match to 2-0. O'Brien compiled consecutive winners after a Greene kill to make the score 23-18. Izzy Lukens then registered a setter kill from libero Tara Beilsmith followed by a Beasley rally stopper to wrap the stanza.
Beasley paced the Redhawks in set #2 with four kills on a .273 rate while Closset added three. SEMO as a team had a hitting percentage of .267 during the second set.
Closset continued the intensity and tallied back-to-back kills before a UTM error for a slight 9-6 lead in the third set.
Consecutive rally stoppers from Beasley and Closset pushed the lead to 16-13 and prompted a Skyhawks timeout.
UTM used a 5-1 swing to take a 20-19 edge.
The Redhawks then secured the match on a 6-1 run, 25-21. Beasley slammed a pair of kills after a UTM error to capture the victory.
Gardner posted six kills with five blocks and three digs (PR) on a .267 Saturday. Greene added five kills and four blocks, hitting .294.
Meehan finished with four kills (.375) and four blocks.
Lukens dished out 21 assists with six digs and a kill.
O'Brien compiled her sixth double-double of the season with 14 assists, 11 digs, six kills and four blocks.
Beilsmith grabbed 25 digs with four assists and an ace.
SEMO out blocked the Skyhawks, 10-6, and led every statistical category besides aces Saturday.
Karen Scanlon paced UTM with 10 kills and 11 digs. Angel Baylark finished with eight kills.
Haeleigh Paulino totaled 17 assists and six digs. Dylan Mott led the Skyhawk defense with 15 digs and five assists.
SIUE 3, MOREHEAD STATE 0
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.. - SIUE volleyball improved to 2-1 in Ohio Valley Conference play with a sweep of Morehead State for the second straight day, winning 25-17, 25-22, 25-20 Saturday at First Community Arena.
The Cougars have won three straight matches and improved to 8-7 overall. Morehead State fell to 6-9 and 1-2 in the OVC.
Three Cougars finished with double-digit kills led by Ainsley Ranstead who finished with 12. She hit .290. Savannah Christian finished with 11 in 19 attacks to hit .579 for the match. Julia Treichel finished with 10 kills and hit .304.
SIUE hit .298 for the match while limiting Morehead State to just .167. The Cougars held the Eagles to a .000 hitting percentage in the set one win.
Defensively, SIUE finished with 12 blocks led by Monica LaFleur who had four. Nicole Kijowski had 23 digs and six assists. Alyse Drifka finished with 16 assists.
SIUE remains home for the next three matches, hosting two of the OVC's newest members. The Cougars play host to Lindenwood Tuesday before welcoming Little Rock for a weekend series Friday and Saturday.
LINDENWOOD 3, SOUTHERN INDIANA 2
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Lindenwood women's volleyball team defeated the USI Screaming Eagles in five sets to record their first OVC win in school history on Saturday afternoon in Indiana.
The Lions avenged yesterday's loss right out of the gate, winning the first set 26-24 in a thrilling overtime victory. USI answered back by winning the second set 21-25, tying things up with Lindenwood at 1-1. The third set went to the Lions in a big 25-20 win, swinging the momentum right back in their favor, but USI edged them out in the fourth set, beating the Lions 22-25 to take things to a fifth set. Lindenwood answered back with a huge 15-6 win in the fifth set, putting the pressure on offensively and playing clean defense to see the match through.
Mackenzi Sifuentes had a stellar day, leading the way with a team-leading 14 kills and .481 hitting percentage, while Madilyn Dement was right behind her with 13 kills, Nyah Wilson with 12, and Taylor Gentemann rounding out the Lions' leaderboard with 11 total kills. Abby VanBuskirk kept the strong Lindenwood offense moving with an impressive 44 set assists and the second best hitting percentage of the day at .222.
Dement and Rebecca Janke were the Lions' best blockers today, each tallying four total blocks to lead the way. Jessie Seidel had an impressive match as well, recording a season-high 29 digs, rounding out her weekend with 39 total digs between her two matches against the Screaming Eagles. Wilson and VanBuskirk were right there to help her out, however, tallying 20 and 19 digs respectively.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 3, LITTLE ROCK 0
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Eastern Illinois (10-8, 4-1 OVC) takes care of business at home against Little Rock (3-14, 0-4 OVC) sweeping them for the second straight day in three sets. Panthers hit .323 in the match while posting 46 kills on 99 attempts. The set scores were: 25-18, 25-19, 25-18.
The Panthers moved into a tie for first place in the Ohio Valley Conference standings after their win against the Trojans on Saturday afternoon. Eastern held the Trojans offense to a .194 hitting percentage with only 33 kills and a total of 15 errors.
Kaitlyn Flynn extended her streak to six matches in a row that she has recorded at least 12 kills. Flynn collected 14 more kills against the Trojans which led all players. She was third on the team in hitting percentage with a .370. Her defense also helped EIU get the sweep as she added two blocks and nine digs to her afternoon.
Four other Panthers recorded at least six kills in the match including Giovana Larregui Lopez with eight and Lilli Amettis with seven. Ireland Hieb and Emily Wilcox also were able to collected six kills. Hieb also added three blocks. She leads the team in blocks with 47 on the season.
Wilcox had a nice match from behind the line with four service aces to lead the team and sets her new career high. She was also one of three Panthers to record at least two blocks against the Trojans. Little Rock did total six blocks compared to Eastern's five.
Christina Martinez Mundo led all players with 12 digs, but EIU put together an all-around defensive effort to stop the Trojans. Eight different Panthers recorded a dig, with five of them recording at least four. EIU added 41 digs to their season total, and only allowed Little Rock to have 27.
Eastern had another solid performance from their setters with Catalina Rochaix picking up 22 and Summerlyn Smith added 14. In total, EIU recorded 43 assists on 46 kills. The Panthers were perfect on receptions by not allowing any aces from the Trojans.
Little Rock was led by Zanobia Willis and Laure Jansen with eight kills each. Willis also had three blocks while Jansen added two of her own. Gabrielle Spankus added a match high 32 assists. Jansen had a team high seven digs on defense while Spankus added six to her afternoon.