Ohio Valley Conference

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - It was an instant classic in the Hooper Eblen Center Friday afternoon, as the Tennessee Tech volleyball team claimed an impressive, 3-2 victory over Western Illinois in a battle between two of the Ohio Valley Conference's top offenses.

Moving to a perfect 4-0 to start OVC play, the Golden Eagles (15-1, 4-0) continued to extend the best start in program history after delivering historic numbers across the board. It took an eye-popping 74 kills to get the job done on Friday, the most by a Tech unit since smashing 75 in a 3-2 win over Murray State in the OVC Tournament Championship match on Nov. 22, 2008.

The effort to take down the Leathernecks for the second straight also required 69 assists, the most by the Cookeville crew since doling out 69 in a 3-2 win at UT Martin on Nov. 13, 2015, and 89 digs, the highest total by the Golden Eagles since scooping 105 in four sets against UT Martin on Nov. 11, 2022.

The opening two sets of the day were an absolute war, with each side claiming 26-24 victories. In the first set, Tech dominated on the attack, piling up a ridiculous 20 kills while hitting .368. Western Illinois (8-8, 2-3) couldn't match the pace, chalking up 14. Set two saw the Leathernecks flip the script, earning their own 26-24 win after just edging the Golden Eagles in the termination department, 17-14.

There wasn't much drama in set three, as the home purple and gold sprinted out to an 11-4 lead and eventually held a 10-point advantage on its way to a 25-18 triumph. The Tech defense showed off this time around, racking up five blocks and holding WIU to just eight kills and an .023 attack. The offense chipped in 17 kills to finish things off.

Flipping the court again, Western Illinois made some adjustments and rebounded nicely for a 25-21 win in the fourth set, hitting .326 with 17 spikes. The Leathernecks also limited Tech to 15 with seven errors.

Supremely dissatisfied with moving on to a fifth set, the Golden Eagles never allowed it to be competitive, taking out their frustration to the tune of a 15-7 win. In decisive fashion, Tech tallied eight kills and two aces while allowing just two kills total across the entire fifth set.

Leading the way on the attack with a pair of brilliant performances were outside hitters Madolyn Isringhausen and Alayna Pierce, becoming the first Golden Eagle teammates to post at least 20 kills in the same match since Isringhausen and Ava Schubert each produced 21 in a four-set win at Southern Indiana on Nov. 4 of last season.

Isringhausen tied her career-high of 25 terminations while hitting an impressive .309. Her season-best 15 digs provided her fifth double-double of the season. The senior continued to etch her name in the program's record books, climbing past Amanda Lindgren (2006-09) for third on the career kills list and jumping over Maggie Stern (1999-02) for third on the career points list.

Pierce established a new career-high on the day, peppering 21 terminations onto the stat sheet while also scooping 15 digs for her third double-double of the year. The rookie also delivered three solo blocks in the match on three consecutive plays.

Junior setter Jordan Karlen directed the incredible offensive display at hand, compiling a new career standard of 63 assists across the five sets. The mark tied for the fourth most helpers in a five-set match during the rally-scoring era in program history. It also represented the most by a Golden Eagles since Melanie Culp totaled 63 at Murray State on Oct. 29, 2004.

Karlen's 13 digs were enough for her ninth double-double of the season. She also chipped in three blocks and landed a career-high five service aces for the Tech effort as well.

Defensively, senior libero McKenna Young was all over the place for the purple and gold, covering the floor for a season-high 26 digs. She tacked on three helpers as well while moving into fifth on Tech's career charts for sets played.

Senior outside Bella Powell joined in on the offensive fun, registering 11 kills to go along with a team-high-tying six total blocks. Matching her effort in the blocks department was senior middle blocker Emma Pabon, who collected five kills as well.

Freshman middle Mallory Jenkins enjoyed a new career-high mark in the kills department as well, tallying 12 on the power of a .423 attack with three blocks. Mixing in 13 digs and two aces for good measure was senior defensive specialist Aleeya Jones.

SOUTHERN INDIANA 3, EASTERN ILLINOIS 0
CHARLESTON, Ill. - University of Southern Indiana Volleyball (8-9, 3-2 OVC) brought the energy on Friday afternoon completing the two-game sweep of Eastern Illinois University (4-10, 0-4 OVC) in three sets (25-23, 25-20, 25-16). USI finished with a season high .310 attacking percentage with 12 service aces as ten different Eagles contributed points on only 14 errors.
 
Graduate senior Jasmine Green, senior Carly Sobieralski, junior Bianca Anderson, and sophomore Leah Coleman all tallied kills giving the Eagles an early 7-5 lead. More Eagles got involved as senior Abby Weber, junior Keira Moore, sophomore Ashby Willis, freshman Kerigan Fehr manufactured five service aces as USI led 20-18. Coleman finished her third kill to extend the lead to 23-20 and Willis finished the job with an emphatic cross court kill to clinch the set. USI used their depth once again to tame the Panthers in set one as eight different Eagles earned points.
 
The Eagles forced EIU into calling two early timeouts leading 10-5. Green added another kill giving the Eagles a six-point lead after Moore recorded a highlight reel dig. Willis fired home her sixth kill hitting .500 along with another service ace to make it 21-16. Willis helped clinch the set as she continued her outstanding weekend leaving the Panthers with no answer leading the Eagles with nine kills.

USI's energy was electric on Friday as Anderson fired a kill through the middle as the Eagles continued to beat the Panthers to the net at 5-2. Willis converted her ninth kill from only 19 attempts expanding the Eagles lead to 12-8. Coleman was also extremely efficient swatting a cross court kill for her ninth kill and a three-point USI lead. Anderson was determined to finish this match in three sets with two straight kills making it 22-16. USI was relentless finishing the Panthers on a five-point run to clinch the weekend sweep.
 
The win marks the fifth Ohio Valley Conference sweep for the Eagles in the past two years and the first against the Panthers. The Eagles are now back in the thick of things in the OVC regular season race at 3-2. 

Willis finished with a signature weekend as a Screaming Eagle leading both nights as she finished with 11 kills on Saturday. Sobieralski set up 34 Eagles finishing the three-game week with 134 assists. Moore led in digs all week as well with 15 on Friday afternoon. Weber finished a season high four service aces, while Green and Anderson both swatted three blocks.

As a team, USI finished with 45 kills, 41 assists, 35 digs, 12 aces, five blocks, and a .310 attacking percentage. The Panthers earned 35 kills, 31 assists, 34 digs, three aces, seven blocks, and a .261 hitting percentage.

LITTLE ROCK 3, MOREHEAD STATE 2
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Buried beneath the weight of a two-set deficit, Little Rock started digging … and digging … and didn't quit until they had completed a reverse sweep victory over Morehead State for a 3-2 road conference victory Friday night at Johnson Arena. The Trojans will go for a series sweep when the teams meet again Saturday afternoon at 1 pm CST.
 
Kaila Harris and Bella Cherry each had a game-high 15 kills and Vivian Lucumi finished with a career-best eight blocks to spark the Trojans to a thrilling come-from-behind conference victory.  Little Rock (8-9 overall, 3-1 OVC) certainly looked like a team coming off a long bus ride, hitting just .052 over the first two sets, which the Trojans would lose by scores of 25-15 and 25-17. But with their backs against the wall, the Trojans awoke to the tune of .400 attacking in the third set, needing extra points to win 28-26.
 
Little Rock went on to win the fourth set 25-19, forcing a fifth set won by the Trojans, 15-11. Little Rock closed out the third set with a pair of kills by Kaila Harris, who finished with a game-high 15 kills. In the fourth set, the Trojans got out to leads of 6-1 and 9-3 early, then led by as much as 22-13 before closing out the set with a kill from Crismeyli Rodriguez.
 
The final frame was tied at 10-10 but the Trojans closed it on a 5-1 run that included a pair of kills from Harris and a pair of Morehead errors. In all, the match had 23 ties and eight lead changes. Little Rock finished with a light advantage in attacking, .175 to .174.
 
Dariana Valencia recorded a double-double with 24 assists and 12 digs, Andrea Roman led the defense with 23 digs and Kaylee Smith had 15 assists. In addition to her work on the offensive side, Harris also had eight digs and four blocks. A'lanae Margaritha and Jaycee Kennedy also had four blocks each. Little Rock posted a season-high 14 blocks against the Eagles.
 
Little Rock's 3-1 start in conference play is the best for the program since joining the Ohio Valley Conference in 2022.

SIUE 3, LINDENWOOD 1
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - The Cougars defeated Lindenwood in a 3-1 victory (25-23, 27-25, 25-18, 25-22). SIUE won the first two sets, before faltering in the third. The crowd in the arena brought the energy to support the Cougars in the fourth and final set.
 
Middle Nicole Medlin hit a new single-game high and became the first player to record a hitting percentage above .600 since the 2021 season. Medlin delivered a standout performance with 15 kills out of 23 attempts, hitting at a .609 clip.
 
This game featured a total of 22 runs between both teams. In the first set, the Cougars had the longest run, where SIUE had a run of seven consecutive points.
 
Kyndia Smith and Ainsley Ranstead contributed 11 kills over the four sets, while Sydney Hummert tallied13 kills and 14 digs.
 
Both setters saw action, with Corinna Jones contributing 25 assists and Alyse Drifka adding 26. On defense, Gabi Andrade had a stellar performance with 14 digs.

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 3, TENNESSEE STATE 0
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri Volleyball (6-9, 3-1 OVC) dominated Tennessee State (4-12, 0-3 OVC) on Friday night by winning the match, 3-0, inside Houck Field House. The sweep was the second of the season and the first since September 7. 
 
Outside hitter Lucy Arndt extended her streak of consecutive matches with double-digit kills to seven, leading the way with 14 kills on Friday night. The sophomore recorded 14 kills on 36 total attacks, with just four errors, for a .278 hitting-percentage. 
 
Abby johnson was the other Redhawk to finish in double figures as she recorded 10 kills on 21 total attacks for a .286 hitting mark (four errors). 
 
As a team, the Redhawks dominated the Tigers offensively to the tune of a .276 to .090 hitting advantage. Setters Kennedey Johnson and Megan Holder paced the offense dishing out 19 and 16 assists, respectively, for 35-of-SEMO's-40 assists. 
 
In the third and final set, trailing 9-7, the Redhawks went on a 14-0 run as SEMO's Ramiri Gardner served the entire time to give SEMO a 21-9 lead despite two TSU timeouts. 
 
A huge block from Alaina Lester and Lucy Arndt made the score 22-10 late in the final set before Lucy Arndt recorded her 14th and final kill to put SEMO two points away from victory. 
 
An Abby Johnson kill and an attack error from TSU gave the Redhawks the 25-14 set three and match victory on Friday night. 
 
The Redhawks outhit the Tigers in each set by a staggering advantage, including a game-best .444 to .069 in the second set. In the final frame, SEMO hit for a .250 clip as TSU failed to record a hitting-percentage (.000, 8 kills & 8 errors). 
 
Coming into the match, TSU was the OVC's best in blocks, but the Redhawks held the blocking advantage in the match. SEMO recorded seven total blocks compared to six from TSU. 
 
Alaina Lester was dominant at the net once again recording five block assists to lead the SEMO defense. Arndt chipped in a solo block and a pair of assists herself to halt TSU's offense. 
 
Libero Nina Schuberth was all over the backline with 11 digs as she was the lone Redhawk in double figures in the category.