Redhawks must wait on tournament fate

The Southeast Missouri State volleyball team ended the regular season Friday night with a five-set loss at Eastern Illinois and lost control of their fate for the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

Southeast could have locked up a berth in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament by finishing no worse than sixth place in the OVC, but the Redhawks suffered a damaging loss, falling 19-25, 25-21, 24-26, 25-14, 13-15.

The loss opened the door for Eastern Kentucky to block out the Redhawks with a makeup victory today against Eastern Illinois. A victory by the Colonels would tie Eastern Kentucky for sixth place with Southeast, but the Colonels own the tie-breaker over the Redhawks.

Eastern Kentucky won a four-set match Saturday against Tennessee Tech to require the makeup match against Eastern Illinois, which was originally scheduled for Nov. 6 in Charleston, Ill. Today's match will be played at 3 p.m. at the University of Evansville in Evansville, Ind.

The six-team OVC tournament begins Thursday at regular-season champion Jacksonville State.

In Friday's match, Southeast won two of the first three sets. With the score tied 13-13 in the fifth game, Eastern Illinois (11-18, 4-12) scored the final two points.

Southeast (13-17, 8-10 OVC) was led in kills by Emily Maher, who finished with 17. She also tied a career high with eight blocks. Emily Hughes added 15 kills.

Southeast senior Amanda Rickhoff notched her third straight double-double with 10 kills and a career-best 29 digs.

Molly Davis added 18 digs, while Kelly Benacka and Claire Keaton had 13 and 12, respectively.

Sarah Barth led Southeast with 48 assists.