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The 2024 Ohio Valley Conference Volleyball Championship continued with semifinal action on Monday.
The event is being hosted on the campus of Southeast Missouri State, the 2024 OVC regular season champions. It is the first time the Redhawks have hosted the event since 2021.
Tickets are $10 per day at the door, or $8 when bought via advance purchase online.
Lindenwood, who is reclassifying to Division I, is eligible to win the OVC Tournament Championship. Should the Lions win the tournament title, the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament shall be awarded to the tournament runner-up.
Fans can watch the entire OVC Volleyball Championship on ESPN+.
#2 Lindenwood 3, #3 Tennessee Tech 2
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#4 Morehead State 3, #1 Southeast Missouri 1
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#2 LINDENWOOD 3, #3 TENNESSEE TECH 2
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - #2 Lindenwood women's volleyball (22-10, 14-4 OVC) defeated #3 Tennessee Tech (24-8, 12-6 OVC) in the Ohio Valley Conference semifinals to advance to the OVC Championship match on Tuesday. It marked the third straight season the Lions have defeated TTU in the OVC Tournament.
The Lions had four players reach double-digit kills in the win including All-OVC First Team selection Nyah Wilson who had a team-high 15 kills on 39 attempts (.236 HP%). Middle hitter Ashley Geluck was right behind her with a team-high 16.5 points in the match with 14 kills and five block assists. LU recorded 10 blocks in the match on their way to victory.
Rebecca Janke (11) and Autumn Bax (10) also recorded over 10 kills each in the win. Bax had a career-high seven total blocks with six block assists while Janke added four while hitting .286. Lindenwood had 57 total kills led by setter Allie Otten who had 49 assists and helped LU hit .198 over five sets. Otten recorded another double-double with 13 digs.
Serve-receive was a big part of the match with the Lions recording seven aces. Otten and Jessie Seidel both had two aces each while the Golden Eagles hit 14 service errors. Seidel also led the defense in digs with 28 while Addy McAleer added 12 and defensive specialist Dana Grib added eight.
Set one went into extra points as the Lions prevailed by a score of 31-29. There were a total of 13 tie scores and three lead changes. Early in the set, the Lions trailed by as many as three points but battled back. Geluck had the final two kills to put the Lions up 1-0. Wilson and Geluck both had five kills in the set while Seidel added eight digs.
Tennessee Tech did not go away as they took the second set by a score of 25-16. Lindenwood registered only seven kills with five errors in the set and hit a match-low .071. Wilson led the group with four kills as the Golden Eagles hit .273 with 15 kills.
Lindenwood responded in the third set with a 25-20 win as the Lions regained a 2-1 lead. The Lions led 18-10 before TTU battled back to close the gap to four points, but a service error by the Golden Eagles ended the set. Geluck added another four kills while Otten added 12 assists to power the Lions.
The fourth set went Tennessee Tech's way by the score of 18-25. After the Lions were down 11-12, TTU went on a 5-1 run to stretch the lead. Lindenwood hit .140 in the fourth as TTU was able to capture 18 kills to tie the match.
Heading into the fifth set, Lindenwood and TTU were neck and neck with the scoring being 9-8. The Lions rallied to make it 12-8 before Lindenwood closed the match winning 15-10 on a kill by Janke. LU had 10 kills in the final set with just one attack error. The middle duo of Geluck and Janke combined for six kills.
#4 MOREHEAD STATE 3, #1 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 1
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - The Morehead State volleyball team prevailed over top-seeded and host Southeast Missouri 3-1 Monday night in the semi-finals of the Ohio Valley Conference volleyball tournament. After dropping the first set to SEMO 25-23, the Eagles ran off three straight sets; 25-22, 25-20, and 27-25. The Morehead State attack was relentless; the Eagles hit .298 for the match and dominated at the net with 12 blocks to six for Southeast Missouri.
With the win, Morehead State advances to the OVC tournament finals tomorrow evening. The Eagles will take on the tournament's two seed, Lindenwood, which advanced in the first semi-final with a five-set win over the third seed Tennessee Tech. The tournament final match can be seen on ESPN+. The match is scheduled for 6:00 ET. A quirk in the NCAA rules means that Morehead State is guaranteed a berth in the NCAA tournament, due to Lindenwood's status as still transitioning from Division II to Division I athletics.
The Eagles got a lot of production from the right side of the court. Graduate student Irene Wogenstahl slammed a career-high-tying 21 kills, hitting a season-high .462 attack percentage. Senior Macy Welborn piled on a season-high 20 kills, just missing tying her career high, hitting .413.
Morehead State (18-13/ 12-6 OVC) also got 11 kills and 12 digs from junior M.E. Hargan, the 19th double/double of her career. Senior Peighton Isley led the Eagles with 23 digs; sophomore Courtney Fitzgerald added 17 digs, tying her career high.
Setters Brenna Bommer and Sydney Sennett also recorded double/doubles. Bommer was credited with 24 assists and 12 digs for her 15th career double/double. Sennett posted 25 assists and 10 digs for her 10th career double/double. Sophomore Amelia Nott had another big match, leading all players with seven blocks and added two service aces.
Southeast Missouri (19-13/15-3 OVC) was led by sophomore Lucy Arndt with 19 kills and 17 digs. Last year's freshman of the year also had a match-high four service aces. Abby Johnson added 13 kills for the Redhawks.
The first set was tightly contested. SEMO took a 15-13 to the media break, then rode a 4-2 run to take a 19-15 lead, then extended the advantage to 23-19. The Eagles then ran off four straight, using two kills by Maycie Welborn and a block up front. A service ace broke the string, giving SEMO a set point. The Eagles out-hit the Redhawks .231 to .195. They tallied five blocks to three for SEMO in the opening frame.
Set two was controlled by Morehead State early in the set. The Eagles took a 15-10 lead into the media break. SEMO responded with a 6-2 run to get to within a point of MSU at 17-16. The Eagles got a three-point run to make it 20-17 punctuated by a Hargan service ace. Morehead State closed the set out with Wogenstahl's 12th kill of the match and an attack error by SEMO, to square the match. MSU out-hit SEMO .311 to .146 in the frame and tallied four blocks in the frame.
The third set opened with Morehead State able to get an early 5-4 lead. SEMO ran off a five-point run, finally ended by Welborn's 10th kill of the match. The Eagles then went on a 3-0 run punctuated by Sydney Wyman's 28th ace of the season. SEMO outscored the Eagles 6-2 to go to the set break up 15-10.
After the break, MSU outscored SEMO 8-4 to get within a point of the Redhawks at 19-18. After losing a point, the Eagles ran off seven straight points to take the set with Wogenstahl's 15th kill of the night on set point giving the Eagles the set win to up 2-1 in the match.
In set four, the Redhawks took an early 4-2 advantage. MSU responded with a 7-1 run to make it 9-5 and led to a SEMO timeout. The teams traded points for a stretch and Wyman's fourth kill of the match made it 19-14 Morehead State.
SEMO responded with a 3-0 run, which was snapped by Wogenstahl's 20th kill of the match to make it 20-17. The Redhawks again responded with another three-point run highlighted by Lucy Arndt's fourth service ace of the match. SEMO's run was ended with Wogenstahl's 21st kill of the night. The teams traded points and side outs from that point, with ties at every digit from 20 to 25. On Morehead State's third match point at 26-25, M.E. Hargan secured the victory with her 11th kill of the match.