COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL: OTAHKS BREEZE TO 16-0

This was a tale of two teams at opposite ends of the spectrum.

The Southeast Missouri State Otahkians are the Ohio Valley Conference champions, undefeated in the conference, and the Tennessee State Lady Tigers are the league doormats, winless in the conference.

Southeast closed out the regular season at 20-8 overall, 16-0 in the conference.

The scores reflected the contrast as the Otahkians defeated the Lady Tigers in straight sets, 15-0, 15-1, 15-7, with reserves playing the entire third set.

In limited playing time, Rachelle Knapp and Lea Beckemeyer led the team in kills with eight and six respectively. Krista Haukap had seven digs while Suzanne Gundlach chipped in with five. Brenna Harper recorded 16 assists with Emily Scannell had eight.

Knapp said winning the conference championship was the highlight of the season.

"Going undefeated wasn't really a goal of ours, but it was kind of like icing on the cake," said Knapp.

Dominating conference foes all year, 13 of the 16 victories were accomplished in straight sets. No opponent won more than one game.

An undefeated conference season looked unlikely early on as the Otahkians dropped six of their first seven matches of the season.

Southeast coach Cindy Gannon thinks her team came together during a West Coast swing in September.

"Our trip to California kind of woke us up," said Gannon. "We dropped two games to teams that, really, we should have competed well against, one nationally ranked. We had a meeting that night and said, Hey, we've got to turn this thing around.' We won our next game, then we came home, turned it up and started playing well."

The Otahkians took an 8-0 conference record into a tough 11-day span which featured victories over Eastern Illinois, Murray State and Tennessee-Martin.

"Once we got past Eastern Illinois, Murray State, and Tennessee-Martin twice, we started thinking about it, but we didn't want to say anything," Beckemeyer said. "This is a real shock to us, especially after the start we had."

Describing what it took to win the conference championship in such dominating style, Haukap said, "It was a lot of togetherness, the team really pulled together, because our preseason record was awful. We were just hoping to be conference champions. It (going undefeated) just happened."

Beckemeyer, Haukap and Knapp were honored prior to the match as Southeast saluted its only three seniors on Senior Day.

The Otahkians now look forward to hosting the OVC tournament, Nov. 17-18, where they will try to keep a 30-game win streak alive at Houck Fieldhouse.