Ohio Valley Conference

MOREHEAD, Ky. - It took extra points in all three sets, but Morehead State volleyball completed its second consecutive 3-0 sweep over Lindenwood Friday in front of nearly 1,000 local elementary-age children, their teachers and school staffs.

The Eagles outlasted the Lions 29-27, 27-25, 27-25 to improve to 11-12 overall and 7-5 in the OVC race. The Lions lost for the second straight day after reeling off a seven-match success streak. They now sit at 16-9 overall and 10-3 in the conference.

Unlike Thursday's match where the Eagles led wire to wire, today's battle featured 20 total ties and five total lead changes.

The Eagles had to fight to complete the sweep. In the second set, MSU once trailed 20-12 and was down 24-20 before rattling off five straight points. Senior right-side hitter Maycie Welborn finally finished off the set with a kill.

The first set featured a late tie at 21 before the squads jousted back and forth for the next 12 rallies. MSU finally closed out the triumph with kills by junior outside M.E. Hargan and sophomore setter Sydney Sennett. 

Set three went in favor of the Eagles as they built a 19-14 lead and then had to hold off a Lion rally. Lindenwood stormed back with a 5-0 run to actually take a 22-21 lead. The teams jockeyed again until Welborn squashed the visitors' hopes of at least another set with two kills to end the match.

Welborn was nearly indefensible, with 15 kills and just one error for a team and single-match career-best .483 attack percentage. Hargan picked up her sixth double-double in the last seven matches with a team-best 16 kills and 11 digs. She hit .351.

Sennett nearly had a double-double too with 21 assists and nine digs. Senior libero Peighton Isley scooped up 24 Lion attempts. At the net, junior middle Sydney Wyman led the defense with five total blocks. 

Lindenwood's Nyah Wilson tied Hargan for match honors with 16 kills, while setter Allie Otten produced a double-double with 36 assists and 12 digs.

TENNESSEE STATE 3, UT MARTIN 0
NASHVILLE - The Tennessee State volleyball team totaled 12 blocks on the way to a three-set win (26-24, 25-18, 25-19) against the UT Martin Skyhawks Friday at home at Kean Hall.

The conference win improved Tennessee State's record to 6-18 overall and 2-9 in OVC action.

Jayla Holcombe finished with 11 kills on the day to lead the Tigers attack while finishing with a hitting percentage of .391. got 14 digs from Hadley Pride along with six blocks from Storm White to lead them defensively.

The Tigers came out on top of a tight first set, winning 26-24 in a stanza that was tied 10 times and had four lead changes. got a solid defensive performance from a front row that blocked six UT Martin attacks in the stanza.

Tennessee State took set two 25-18 to quickly grab a 2-0 lead. The Tigers grabbed the set powered by a solid performance on the attacking side. Tennessee State put together a .310 attack percentage with 15 kills in the set win. The Lady Tigers ended on a strong note, stretching their lead to its largest point in the set to finish out the stanza.

Tennessee State finished off the match in a 3-0 sweep after grabbing the third set. The Tigers grabbed the set 25-19. Tennessee State took the lead for good at 18-17 in a set that featured 13 ties and six lead changes.

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 3, TENNESSEE TECH 2
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri Volleyball (13-10, 10-1 OVC) outlasted Tennessee Tech (16-7, 5-6 OVC) in a five-set thriller inside Houck Field House on Friday night by a final score of 3-2. 
 
The Redhawks downed TTU by scores of 25-22, 17-25, 21-25, 25-21, and 15-9 to win their ninth Ohio Valley Conference match in a row. 
 
Offensively, Lucy Arndt paced the way once again for SEMO turning in a team-high 14 kills on 45 total attacks for an overall hitting-percentage of .222 (4 errors). Arndt recorded 16 digs, finishing with her 11th double-double of the season. 
 
Freshman Marin Johnson recorded double-digit kills in the match with 11 on 36 total attacks. Johnson finished with a .184 hitting-percentage.
 
Eight different Redhawks recorded a kill in the match. 
 
SEMO started out on fire in the first frame, hitting .323 as a team with a .452 kill percentage. The Redhawks led by as many as eight (18-10) midway through the opening frame. 
 
TTU would pushback, tying the set at 20-20 and eventually taking a 21-20 lead as SEMO was forced into a timeout. The Redhawks, trailing 22-21, closed the set with four-straight points capped off by a TTU setting error. 
 
Sets two and three went the way of the visitors as the Golden Eagles outhit SEMO .394 to .206 in set two, and .220 to .175 in the third. 
 
Trailing 2-1, SEMO would fight back in the fourth after falling behind 3-0 early in the frame. At the fourth set media timeout, TTU led 15-13. 
 
An Arndt kill out of the media break cut the deficit to just one as Tech & SEMO traded points back-and-forth eventually landing on a 17-17 tied game after a kill from Abby Johnson. 
 
The score was deadlocked at 21-21 after a TTU timeout and a kill from TTU's Madolyn Isringhausen. 
 
Rightside hitter Avery Torrey recorded a big kill to give SEMO a one point advantage at 22-21 sparking a 4-0 run to close the fourth set, 25-21. 
 
The fifth set was all Redhawks as SEMO jumped out to a 6-1 lead and never looked back. SEMO outhit TTU by a .375 to .250 advantage in the final frame and took the set, 15-9. 
 
Setters Kennedey Johnson and Megan Holder finished in double figures with 15 and 11 assists, respectively. Holder finished with 11 digs as well for a double-double.

SIUE 3, SOUTHERN INDIANA 1
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - The Cougars (9-13, 4-7 OVC) showed a strong performance against Southern Indiana (8-15, 3-8 OVC) in a four-set game. SIUE recorded a season high of 23 blocks and 10 service aces against USI. The set scores were 25-22,23-22,25-18,25-22.
 
Leading the charge was Freshman Taya Nordmann who contributed six block assists, one service ace and seven kills. Following Nordmann was Nicole Medlin who had five block assists and 10 kills hitting at a .368 clip.
 
First Community Arena saw a standout performance from Sydney Hummert who contributed one solo block, three block assists, one service ace, and 11 kills hitting at .182 percentage.
 
Gabi Andrade contributed three service aces along with 16 digs. While Corinna Jones had two service aces, and 19 assists and Alyse Drifka had one service ace with 22 assists along with two kills and 10 digs.

LITTLE ROCK 3, WESTERN ILLINOIS 2
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - For the second time in four days, Little Rock was pushed to five sets after taking a commanding lead. This time, the Trojans closed the deal, thwarting Western Illinois' attempt at a reverse sweep by winning the fifth and final set Friday night at the Jack Stephens Center. The win was crucial for Little Rock (15-11 overall, 10-3 OVC) in more ways than one, as the Trojans not only increased their lead over WIU to 1.5 games, but pulled into a tie for second-place with Lindenwood.
 
Little Rock got its first-ever win over Western Illinois (14-9, 8-4) and reached 15 wins for the first time since 2018 while also hitting double-digit conference victories for the first time since the same 2018 campaign. The Trojans stormed out to wins of 25-8 and 25-22 in the first two sets, fell flat in 13-25 and 18-25 losses to force a fifth set, then took care of business in the fifth, 15-11.
 
Bella Cherry led Little Rock with 17 kills while hitting .300 for the game, while Kaila Harris notched her fifth double-double with 15 kills and 19 assists. Jeila Fullerton (15 kills, 15 digs) recorded her team-high 15th double-double, Andrea Roman tied a career-high with 32 digs, and Dariana Valencia posted her 13th double-double with 28 assists and 20 digs. Kaylee Smith also added 25 digs.
 
Little Rock scored the first six points of the game, stretched that lead to 14-4 and eventually went ahead by a 21-6 count before Harris closed out the set with a kill. Fullerton had five kills in the set while Little Rock outhit the Leathernecks 17-5 in the opening set. WIU would hit in the negative until the third set.
 
The second set was much closer, tied at 5-5 and again at 10-10 before WIU ripped off five straight points for a 15-10 lead. After a timeout, Little Rock responded with a six-point run to go in front 16-15, a lead it would never surrender in the set. Fullerton finished with six kills in the frame.
 
The third set was close early at 5-5, but the Leathernecks opened up leads of 14-8, 22-10 and won 25-13 behind .444 hitting. It was much of the same in the fourth as Little Rock hit just .043 in the set. In the fifth set, the Trojans opened a 9-4 lead, increasing it to 12-4 before the Leathernecks took a timeout. Out of the break, WIU closed the gap to 14-11 but Cherry shut the door with her 17th and final kill.