SATURDAY'S SCORES
Eastern Illinois 3, @Little Rock 0
Lindenwood 3, @Tennessee State 1
Tennessee Tech 3, @Southern Indiana 1
@Southeast Missouri 3, Western Illinois 1
EASTERN ILLINOIS 3, LITTLE ROCK 0
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Eastern Illinois closed out its road trip hitting .441 in the final set as the Panthers improved to 22-3 on the season, 12-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference with a three-set win at Little Rock.
EIU won 25-16, 25-12, 25-15, finishing the match hitting .356.
A night after hitting .600 with 20 kills on 30 swings Giovana Larregui López was one of two players to reach double figures finishing with ten kills.
Natalie Mitchem was also in double figures with ten kills hitting .562. Freshman Layne Witherspoon just missed double figure kills finishing with nine on a .500 hitting night.
Little Rock held the lead just one time during the match, that lead coming early in the opening set. The Panthers led wire-to-wire in the second and third sets.
Catalina Rochaix had 41 of EIU's 45 assists in the match.
Little Rock falls to 7-18 overall, 4-10 in the OVC as the Trojans were led by Bella Cherry with six kills.
LINDENWOOD 3, TENNESSEE STATE 1
NASHVILLE - Lindenwood women's volleyball (13-12, 9-5 OVC) took down the Tigers of Tennessee State (2-22, 2-12 OVC) in four sets securing their first weekend sweep of the Ohio Valley Conference season. The Lions have also set a new Division I record in wins (13) and OVC wins (9).
Rebecca Janke led the group that posted 58 kills and a .302 hitting percentage. Janke had a team-high 14 kills (most in eight matches) and hit .423 on 26 attempts while adding five service aces. She also led the way on defense with four blocks. Nyah Wilson was one kill shy of her 12th double-double, notching nine kills and 10 digs.
Lindenwood controlled the first set picking up a 25-18 victory. The Lions offense was in effect early picking up 14 kills as a squad on a .303 hitting percentage. Five Lions had multiple kills in the first set including four from Janke.
The Lions defense did exactly what it has been doing over the weekend forcing Tennessee State into a .036 hitting percentage and only nine kills. LU also had three blocks and two aces in the first set.
Tennessee State took home their only set of the weekend in the second after defeating Lindenwood 23-25. The Lions still hit well registering 14 kills on a .222 hitting percentage. The Tigers' defense was able to stop our attackers picking up four blocks in the second to take the set point.
Lindenwood bounced back in the third taking a 2-1 advantage with a 25-15 set win. Early on in the third was a back and forth set with five tie scores but the Lions took control and won by double digits. Janke added another four to her total while VanBuskirk added six assists. Otten also added four assists and four digs in the third.
The Lions would come out victorious this weekend with a 3-1 win on Saturday and a fourth set score of 25-20. Lindenwood put up an astounding 18 kills on an efficient .361 hitting percentage. Freshman Anna Kramer and Wilson both put up four kills each in the fourth. Seven different Lions put down a kill in the score sheet during the fourth.
Kramer ended the match with 10 kills giving her back-to-back double digit outings. Jade Roth and Addy McAleer also added nine kills each. Otten ended the afternoon with 24 assists while VanBuskirk added another 23. Libero Jessie Seidel added 13 digs.
TENNESSEE TECH 3, SOUTHERN INDIANA 1
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The run of brilliant offensive play extended to a fourth consecutive match for the Tennessee Tech volleyball team, as the Golden Eagles bested Ohio Valley Conference foe Southern Indiana in Evansville, Ind. Saturday afternoon, 3-1.
Coming as little surprise, Tech (10-16, 6-9) secured its fourth straight victory in the process thanks to more dazzling displays from a number of Golden Eagles on both the offensive and defensive end. For the second match in a row, the purple and gold crushed 70 kills to get the job done, doing so with a .293 efficiency.
It marked the first time a Tech squad recorded 70 or more terminations in back-to-back tilts since registering 79 on Nov. 2, 2007 against Tennessee State and 83 on Nov. 3, 2007 against Austin Peay.
To open the day, the two sides fought pretty evenly up to a 16-16 tie. The Screaming Eagles took the lead with a kill, looking to set the tone early, but the visitors from Cookeville had other ideas. Using a 5-0 run, the purple and gold took command and never let the home squad get back to within two in a 25-22 victory. Tech hit .318 in the set, racking up 17 kills and four blocks.
In set two, the Golden Eagles looked well on their way to another win, taking a five-point lead at 17-12. USI responded to tie the game as the two sides waged war down the stretch. It was the home squad coming out on top, squeaking by TTU 26-24 to even the match.
The purple and gold exploded out of the gates in the third set, leaping into a nine-point lead at 17-8. The Screaming Eagles fought back, pulling within a pair before the Golden Eagles finished things off for a 25-21 decision. Tech racked up 18 kills while hitting a robust .325 in the set.
Set four required a little bit of a rally for the Golden Eagles, but once they took over, it was smooth sailing the rest of the way. Down by three early, Tech rolled off seven of the next eight points to take its own three-point lead.
That advantage ballooned to eight for the Cookeville crew at its peak, leading to a 25-19 victory and clinching the match. The purple and gold tallied a ridiculous 20 kills in the final set, hitting .250 while tallying three more rejections.
A number of remarkable performances paved the way for the Golden Eagles, starting with setter Jordan Karlen. The sophomore locked down a career-high in assists for the third time in the last four matches, firing off a whopping 58 on the day. Adding 14 digs, not to mention three blocks, she posted her 11th double-double of the season. She averaged 14.50 helpers per set.
Also performing at an all-time level was rookie Ava Schubert, topping her best showing of the year from the previous night with a match-high-tying 21 kills. She smashed a spectacular .432 while chipping in three blocks.
Outside hitter Madolyn Isringhausen also turned in 21 terminations while hitting .340, contributing her 12th double-double of the season with 16 digs. Libero McKenna Young piled up a match-high 18 digs, tacking on six assists and a team-high two service aces.
Skylar Boom dominated from her middle blocker position, delivering her first career double-double behind 11 kills and a season-high 11 total blocks. Outside hitter Bella Powell added 10 kills to the mix, just missing out on her own double-double with nine digs.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 3, WESTERN ILLINOIS 1
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri volleyball (20-5, 12-2 OVC) completed the weekend going 2-0 by downing Western Illinois (7-18, 6-8 OVC) 3-1 on Saturday night at Houck Field House in front of a crowd of 281.
Libero Tara Beilsmith continued to break records as during Saturday's match she became fourth all-time in NCAA Volleyball history in career digs, surpassing the previous fourth place 2,791 record.
Tara now has 2,832 digs for her career after finishing Saturday's match with 48 digs and a .944 reception-percentage, committing just one error on 17 attempts.
SEMO won the match 25-22, 20-25, 25-22, and 25-14 to improve to 12-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference with just four matches left in the regular season.
Saturday's match marked senior day for nine Redhawks seniors as Talia Gouard, Tara Beilsmith, Mackenzie Meehan, Rachel Eddy, Izzy Lukens, Marisa Guisti, Zoey & Taylor Beasley, and Lexie Smith were all honored in a pre-match ceremony.
Freshman Lucy Arndt finished with a double-double. The standout, Freeport, Ill.-native finished with 19 kills and 15 digs from her outside hitter position. She finished the match with 20.0 points on Saturay.
Izzy Lukens finished with another stellar performance, dishing out 56 assists on 140 attempts (.400). The senior from Omaha, Neb. Finished the weekend with a total of 125 assists over nine sets. SEMO, as a team, hit .238.
Seniors Zoey Beasley and Marisa Guisti each finished in double-digits for kills with 14 and 13, respectively.
Beasley had her 14 kills on 43 attempt for a .163 hitting-percentage (seven errors) as Guisti finished with her 13 kills on 25 attempts for a staggering .520 hitting clip.
Third in the Ohio Valley Conference in service aces coming into the weekend, freshman Nina Schuberth finished the match with a pair of aces to lead the Redhawks in the category.
Senior Lexie Smith entered the match in the fourth set recording two kills, including the decisive one as SEMO dominated the fourth set to win the match. Smith finished with two kills on three attempts on senior day.