WEDNESDAY'S SCORES
@Eastern Illinois 3, Tennessee State 1
Lindenwood, @Little Rock
@Southeast Missouri 3, SIUE 0
Morehead State 3, @Southern Indiana 0
Tennessee Tech 3, @UT Martin 0
EASTERN ILLINOIS 3, TENNESSEE STATE 1
CHARLESTON, Ill. - The Eastern Illinois volleyball team (9-19, 5-13 OVC) closed out their season on a high note with an emphatic 3-1 victory over Tennessee State (10-21, 6-12 OVC) on Wednesday. Each of the four members of EIU's graduating class put together strong showings. The final set scores were 25-23, 25-21, 21-25, and 25-15.
The opening set was tight to start off, with Eastern gaining a 16-15 advantage midway through the frame. However, Tennessee State scored seven straight points to take a firm 22-16 lead late. The Panthers were unfazed though, and outscored the Tigers 9-1 down the stretch to steal the set and take a 1-0 match lead. Kaitlyn Flynn led the way with four kills in the set while the Panthers combined for 5.0 team blocks, with Flynn and Julia Stanev posting three rejections apiece.
EIU fell behind early in set two, but after going ahead 8-7, they never lost their advantage as they staved off any TSU attempts at a rally to go up two sets to none in the match. Kaitlyn Flynn kept things going with six more kills and another block in the set.r
Tennessee State rebounded in the third set and erased a four-point Panthers lead to make the score 2-1. However, the Panthers refused to let TSU gain any more momentum and left no room for doubt in the fourth set as they pounced out to an early lead, which they extended to as many as 11 points on their way to securing the match.
Kaitlyn Flynn finished off her senior season with an outstanding performance, posting a double-double with a team-high 13 kills and 11 digs while adding six blocks.
She was followed by Lilli Amettis with nine kills and Matilda Dahlström and Julia Stanev with eight terminations. Dahlström and Stanev also matched Flynn with six blocks apiece.
Ireland Hieb led the Panthers with eight blocks in the final match of her EIU career as Eastern out-blocked TSU 15.0-7.0.
Catalina Rochaix led the Panthers with 23 assists, with graduate student Paige Gardella following closely with 21 assists as EIU hit .216 as a team.
Meanwhile, senior Laura Paniagua led the team with 13 digs.
LINDENWOOD 3, LITTLE ROCK 0
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Lindenwood women's volleyball (20-10, 14-4 OVC) earned their 20th win of the season, most since 2017, with a 3-0 sweep at Little Rock (16-15, 11-7 OVC) to end the regular season. The Lions will be the #2 seed heading into the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament next Sunday, Nov. 24th.
Three Lions had 11 kills on Wednesday in a dominate win. Rebecca Janke was one of those Lions with 11 kills while hitting a team-high .346 (min. 20 attacks). Autumn Bax also had 11 kills while setting the Lindenwood Freshman Kills Record with her 291st of the season. She also becomes the second Lion to go over 300 kills this season.
Addy McAleer had her ninth match of the season with double-digit kills with 11. Nyah Wilson posted nine as well on 29 swings while Ashley Geluck added six. Allie Otten had her most assists in a three set match with 43 while helping LU hit .257, Otten added five kills and 13 digs.
Jessie Seidel led the way defensively with 26 digs while Lindenwood had a total of 80 for the night which was also the most in a three-set match. McAleer and Otten chipped in 14 and 13 digs respectively while Dana Grib off the bench added 10.
In the most competitive set of the night, Lindenwood and Little Rock posted 10 ties and six lead changes in the first. LU would take control late in the set to win 26-24. Little Rock was down three points 24-21 before tying the set. The Lions scored two straight to take the set. Janke had five kills while Seidel added 13 digs.
Lindenwood's most dominate set came in the second when the Lions hit .317 in a 25-18 win. McAleer led the offense with four kills in a set which saw six different Lions record a kill. The Lions also had 22 digs defensively while holding Little Rock to a .053 hitting percentage with six attack errors.
Lindenwood's regular season came to a close after winning set three by a final score of 25-21. McAleer and Janke both had five kills in the third while LU hit .289 as a team. The Lions had 19 kills as a team with Otten recording 16 assists.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 3, SIUE 0
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri Volleyball (18-12, 15-3 OVC) claimed the 2024 Ohio Valley Conference regular season title with a 3-0 victory over SIUE (12-17, 7-11 OVC) on Wednesday night from Houck Field House.
For the Redhawks, the regular season title is the 11th in program history and the second under head coach Julie Yankus. With the win, SEMO wrapped up the 2024 OVC Tournament's #1 overall seed and will host the tournament beginning on Sunday, November 24. SEMO Volleyball is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the program in 2024, and holds the most titles of any volleyball program, former or current, in Ohio Valley Conference history.
In Wednesday's match, the Redhawks were led by Abby Johnson and Lucy Arndt who each finished with 12 kills. Johnson finished with a .300 hitting-percentage. Arndt recorded 12 kills and tallied 10 digs for her 16thdouble-double of the season.
Sophomore libero Nina Schuberth continued her dominance on the backline as she recorded 20 digs in the match marking her 20th game in a row with double-digit kills. She dished out two assists as well on 13 total attempts.
The win was the Redhawks' eight victory inside Houck Field House, finishing the regular season with an 8-1 record in Cape Girardeau. The sweep of SIUE marks the sixth series sweep of the season for SEMO after sweeping Tennessee State, Little Rock, Morehead State, Eastern Illinois, and UT Martin.
SEMO outhit SIUE by a .250 to .157 hitting advantage including 47 kills as a team compared to just 34 from the Cougars.
Setters Megan Holder and Kennedey Johnson played a major role in the team's hitting-percentage as the duo dished 22 and 16 assists, respectively, to lead SEMO.
The Redhawks totaled seven blocks in the game. Graduate middle blocker Lexi Morse chipped in a team-high three block assists and one solo. Offensively, Morse added six kills on 13 total attacks (two errors) and finished the night with a .308 hitting-percentage.
MOREHEAD STATE 3, SOUTHERN INDIANA 0
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Morehead State Volleyball never relinquished a lead in the final two sets and had another solid defensive day as the Eagles handed a second straight 3-0 sweep to the Screaming Eagles of Southern Indiana.
Set scores were 25-17, 25-19, 25-22.
MSU finished the 2024 regular season at 16-13 overall and 12-6 in the OVC.
Sophomore middle blocker Amelia Nott nearly had a perfect day on offense, landing a team-high 11 kills with just one error (on her final swing) for a .556 hitting percentage. Junior M.E. Hargan nearly collected another double-double with nine kills and 10 digs. Senior Maycie Welborn and sophomore Hollan Everett each totaled eight kills.
Defensively, MSU had eight team blocks, including four each from Hargan, Nott and junior Sydney Wyman.
Senior Peighton Isley and sophomore Courtney Fitzgerald each scooped up a team-best 11 digs.
MSU managed to hit .280 for the match with 43 kills and just 10 mistakes while holding USI to just .118.
The visitors trailed 3-2 in the first set, but back to back attack errors by USI gave the Eagles a 4-3 lead they never gave up the entire match. MSU eventually led 14-5 in the opener before the home team crept back to within 14-10. MSU traded USI 2-for-1 on scoring for the remainder of the set.
Morehead State opened the second frame on a 7-1 run. USI had it close later on, but Welborn, Everett and Nott smacked in kills to help end the set on a 4-0 run. The final set was closer with MSU's largest lead just four. USI tied it 18-18 late but four straight attack errors turned the tide in favor of MSU.
TENNESSEE TECH 3, UT MARTIN 0
MARTIN, Tenn. - Two brilliant senior performances by the most veteran members of the Tennessee Tech volleyball team proved plenty to keep the Golden Eagles as the hottest team in the Ohio Valley Conference Wednesday evening.
The purple and gold (23-7, 12-6) delivered its seventh consecutive victory and fourth straight sweep, topping UT Martin (5-22, 3-15) at Skyhawk Fieldhouse to officially wrap up the 2024 regular season. The team's 23rd win of the year represented the most by a Golden Eagle squad since the 1997 team finished 23-10.
With the win, as well as Lindenwood's victory over Little Rock, Tech officially clinched the No. 3 seed in next week's OVC Tournament. The three-day event, held in Cape Girardeau, Mo. this season on the campus of No. 1 seed Southeast Missouri, will run from Sunday, Nov. 24 through Tuesday, Nov. 26. The Golden Eagles will square off with No. 6 seeded Little Rock Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. CT.
Ensuring Tech's placing in the top half of the OVC Tournament seeding were veteran outside hitter Madolyn Isringhausen and libero McKenna Young, each contributing monster showings on the court.
One night after setting a new rally-scoring era program record with eight service aces, Isringhausen had a field day across the board on Wednesday, piling up a whopping 18 kills while hitting .432 overall. The Edwardsville, Ill. native added five more aces, two blocks, and 15 digs to the effort as well, tallying her 10th double-double of the season.
With her performance, Isringhausen set a new, single-season record for service aces in the rally-scoring era, now sporting 58 on the year. She also climbed to second on Tech's career charts for points with 1,973.0 and aces with 168. Additionally, the senior moved up to 10th on the OVC's career rankings for kills.
Young saved one of the best matches of her career for her final regular season tilt, scooping up a match-high 23 digs, averaging 7.7 per set. She also dished out five assists in the match.
Helping the seniors shine during the night, junior setter Jordan Karlen turned in 31 assists and nine digs, mixing in a pair of kills and an ace. Fellow senior outside hitter Bella Powell contributed 10 terminations and three block assists to the effort.
Racking up seven digs and two aces was senior defensive specialist Aleeya Jones, while senior middle blocker Elena Wallace accounted for four kills and three blocks. Senior middle Emma Pabon tacked on a pair of kills and a block and senior outside Brooke Amann tallied a kill and a dig.