SATURDAY'S SCORES
@Southeast Missouri 3, SIUE 1 (28-26, 23-25, 25-19, 25-13)
Tennessee State 3, @Southern Indiana 2 (22-25, 18-25, 25-22, 26-24, 15-7)
Lindenwood 3, @Little Rock 2 (25-12, 15-25, 25-21, 17-25, 15-12)
Tennessee Tech 3, @Eastern Illinois 2 (20-25, 25-18, 25-21, 20-25, 16-14)
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 3, SIUE 1
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri women's volleyball (14-14, 9-7 OVC) dropped SIUE (11-16, 6-10 OVC) in four sets (28-26, 23-25, 25-19, 25-13) Saturday on Senior Day at Houck Field House to secure the regular-season sweep of the Cougars.
With the victory, SEMO extended its win streak to three matches and moved into a tie for fourth in the 2022 Ohio Valley Conference standings with Morehead State.
Zoey Beasley paced the Redhawks for the third-straight match, finishing with 17 kills on a .310 hitting percentage. Kayla Closset added a double-double of 15 kills and 10 digs on a .324 with four assists and three blocks.
Graduate student Colby Greene, who was honored prior to the match for her career as a Redhawk, tallied 14 kills with six digs and three blocks.
Beasley led the Redhawks with an outstanding nine kills on a .667 rate in the opening frame Saturday.
SEMO utilized a 3-0 run to take a 9-5 edge in the set before reeling of a 5-1 run to take a 15-8 lead into the media stoppage.
Ramiri Gardner then registered a kill before posting a solo block followed by an Addy McAleer service ace to make the lead 21-13.
The Cougars responded with six unanswered points to tie the set at 23-23. Beasley would then connect on a pair of winners for one-point leads of 25-24 and 26-25.
She added another kill before a SIUE error to take the period, 28-26.
The Redhawks hit .283 in the first set before the Cougars knotted the match at 1-1 with a 25-23 second frame.
Closset added six kills in the opening set Saturday.
SEMO then jumped out to a 7-2 lead in set #2 that grew to 10-6. The Cougars would chip away at the advantage and tie the set at 10-10 before taking a 15-13 lead at the media timeout.
Kills from Beasley and Avery Torrey followed by a Beasley service ace made the score 21-20 in favor of the Redhawks.
Torrey and Closset then combined for consecutive rally stoppers to make the SEMO edge 23-21.
The Cougars then evened the match at 1-1 with four-straight points down the stretch, 25-23. SIUE hit a match-best .311 during the set.
SEMO then commenced the third stanza with a 6-2 lead courtesy of a 4-0 run.
The Redhawks then widened the gap to 17-10 after another 4-0 rally. Closset and Beasley opened the sequence with consecutive kills before a Mackenzie Meehan and Greene block and a Cougars attacking error.
Greene and Beasley would each add two more winners to increase the lead to 21-14 before securing the frame 25-19.
SEMO then opened the fourth and final set with a 5-2 lead that the Redhawks extended to 10-6 which prompted a Cougars timeout.
A 6-0 Redhawk run would push the lead to 13-6 before a SIUE error doubled the lead at 18-9.
Closset chipped in a kill before teaming up with Meehan for a block followed by a Torrey winner along with a Meehan solo block, making the scoreboard read 23-11.
The Cougars came as close as 23-13 before Closset capture the victory with a pair of kills.
Closset (.571) and Greene (.375) each had four kills in the fourth set.
SEMO hit a match-high .353 in the final set Saturday and finished with a percentage of .253. SIUE in comparison hit .178 over the match.
Torrey added a career-best seven kills with two digs and two assists. Gardner finished with six kills, an ace, and a block.
Meehan totaled seven blocks with four kills and three digs.
Izzy Lukens dished out 25 assists with 14 digs to go with a kill. Jenny Shook, a freshman setter from Plainfield, Illinois, notched her first career double-double with a personal-best 19 assists and 17 digs.
Tara Beilsmith scooped up 32 digs for her fifth 30-plus dig match of the season. She also added seven assists and ace. Beilsmith, a senior from Weldon Spring, Missouri, has now registered her third career 600-plus dig season (648).
McAleer finished Saturday with three digs, three assists and an ace.
Sydney Hummert led SIUE with 14 kills and 13 digs followed by Savannah Christian (13 kills). Caroline Waite had 23 assists and 14 digs while Alyse Drifka chipped in 21 assists and eight digs. Nicole Kijowski paced the Cougars defense with 22 digs and six assists.
SEMO led SIUE in aces, 5-2, while blocks were tied at 9-9.
The Redhawks will next travel to Morehead, Kentucky, to take on Morehead State, Nov. 11-12 in their final 2022 regular-season OVC series. Match times are set for 6 p.m., CT and 2 p.m., CT, respectively in the Friday-Saturday series at Johnson Arena.
Following next weekend's OVC regular-season finale, the Redhawks will await their seed for the 2022 OVC Championship Tournament held on the campus of the regular-season champion and top seed.
TENNESSEE STATE 3, SOUTHERN INDIANA 2
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Tennessee State volleyball team fought back from a 2-0 hole to record a come-from-behind five-set victory (22-25, 18-25, 25-22, 26-24, 15-7) over the Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles Saturday on the road at Screaming Eagles Arena. The win boosted the Tigers' record to 14-15 overall and 8-8 in OVC action.
The Tigers attack was paced by Johanna Alcantara, who finished with her season-high 28 kills on the day, and by Kennedy Davis, who had 10 while hitting .476. Sofia Garcia-Guerrios dished out 40 assists which is her season high while Login Williams had 18 helpers. Defensively, TSU had three players reach double figures in digs, including Gina Rivera-Ortiz's 33, 15 from Carla Boudal, and 15 more from Garcia-Guerrios to give her a second straight double-double. From the front row, Aleksandra Rojecka contributed eight blocks and Davis added seven rejections.
SET 1 | The Tigers couldn't hang on in a back-and-forth first set, losing 25-22 in a game that featured five lead changes and was tied eight times. Neither team led by more than four points in the match.
SET 2 | TSU then dropped the second set 25-18 to fall behind in the match two sets to none. The Tigers fell behind on the first point and fought from behind the rest of the way before dropping the set.
SET 3 | After losing sets one and two, TSU fought back to take set three and make it a 2-1 match. The Tigers led from the opening point on in the set to secure a 25-22 victory. TSU opened up as much as a six point lead at 13-7 before finishing off the set.
SET 4 | Tennessee State continued their comeback, winning the fourth set 26-24 to bring the match level at two sets apiece. The Tigers came out on top of a close battle, winning in a stanza that was tied nine times and had three lead changes. Tennessee State got a solid defensive performance from a front row that blocked six Southern Indiana attacks in the stanza.
SET 5 | TSU came out smoking with an 8-1 start, culminating in a 15-7 fifth-set victory. Tennessee State opened up as much as an eight point lead at 10-2 before finishing off the set. Alcantara had seven of her team's 10 kills in the set.
LINDENWOOD 3, LITTLE ROCK 2
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The Lindenwood women's volleyball team defeated Little Rock 3-2 on Saturday afternoon in Arkansas.
After defeating the Trojans in four sets yesterday, the Lions knew exactly what they had to do in order to get another victory. This was evident in the first set, which Lindenwood ran away with in a swift 25-12 victory.
Little Rock wouldn't go down without a fight, however, cleaning up their game in the second set to beat the Lions 15-25, to which Lindenwood then responded with a third set victory, beating the Trojans 25-21 to push on into the fourth set.
The Lions weren't able to end things there, however, and Little Rock took the fourth set 17-25, forcing the match into a fifth set.
Things were back and forth in the final set, and things were all tied up at 13 after Nyah Wilson got one of her 23 kills of the night. Madilyn Dement served next, and another kill from Wilson forced the Trojans to take a timeout with the Lions up 14-13. The dynamic duo of Dement on the service and Wilson on the kill wrapped things up for Lindenwood, who came out on top in a dramatic 15-13 finish.
Wilson was the standout of the night for Lindenwood, tallying a season-high 23 kills on 51 total attacks. The sophomore outside hitter ended the match with a .353 hitting percentage, which was the top hitting percentage of the night for Lindenwood. Wilson also accumulated the most points out of anyone from either team, sitting atop the leaderboard with 24.5 total points.
Other strong performances came from Mackenzi Sifuentes, who had quite the block party with her team-leading six total blocks against the Trojans. Abby VanBuskirk was both the assists and the digs leader for both teams, recording 49 total assists and 20 total digs.
TENNESSEE TECH 3, EASTERN ILLINOIS 2
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Eastern Illinois (14-14, 8-7 OVC) drops a heart breaker in Lantz Arena on senior day against Tennessee Tech (16-12, 13-3 OVC) in five sets. Seniors, Ireland Hieb, Annika Black and Summerlyn Smith were all honored prior to the match. The final set scores were: 25-20, 18-25, 21-25, 25-20, 14-16.
The service line was the decider in this five set battle between the Panthers and the Golden Eagles. EIU, despite having seven aces, lost that battle as Tennessee Tech posted 11. Eastern Illinois also had 13 service errors compared to TTU's 11. Christina Martinez Mundo, Smith and Catalina Rochaix all had two service aces.
Giovana Larregui Lopez took over for Eastern against the Golden Eagles as she posted 26 kills and was third on the team in hitting percentage with a .238. Her 26 kills was a career high and marked her fourth 20 kill match this season.
Lilli Amettis stepped up at the net for Eastern with 11 kills of her own while Hieb added eight more kills. Kaitlyn Flynn and Kate Dean also had six kills each. The Panther offense had 61 kills compared to TTU's 53 and also had a higher hitting percentage at .233.
Rochaix and Smith racked up over 20 kills each at the setter position for the Panthers. Rochaix led the way with 24 after posting a career high last night. Smith also added 20 on senior day. Martinez Mundo was also able to capture eight. EIU had 54 assists on 61 kills.
The Panthers clawed their way back in the second and third set, while tying both sets at 17 all. Both times Tennessee Tech called a timeout to slow the Panthers down and eventually went on to win those sets. EIU was also up 14-11 in the fifth set when the Golden Eagles rattled off five straight points.
Martinez Mundo led a defense that racked up 47 digs and six blocks. Mundo had a match high 13 digs with Smith contributing seven. Ten different Panthers collected at least one dig on defense. Hieb and Black were busy at the net with two block assists each while Ella Collins added two block solos.
Tennessee Tech was led by four different attackers with at least 10 plus kills. Madolyn Isringhausen led the way with 14 kills and five aces. Skylar Boom had 11 kills and four total blocks. Jordan Karlen was the leading setter in the match with 42 assists.