FIRST STRIDE TOWARD FIVE; OTAHKS OPEN OVC TITALE DEFENSE WITH VICTORY

Southeast Missouri State University's volleyball team was admittedly not nearly at its best Thursday night.

But it takes a lot more than a sub-par night by the Otahkians for another Ohio Valley Conference team to knock them off.

Playing at home for the first time this season -- and also playing their first OVC match -- the Otahkians continued their domination of league foes by beating Middle Tennessee State 15-2, 15-12, 15-13 in front of 575 fans at Houck Field House.

The Otahkians, winners of four straight OVC regular-season championships, extended their regular-season conference winning streak to 29 matches.

"We played bad but we won," said a smiling Tuba Meto, Southeast's standout setter who is the lone senior starter for the Otahkians this season.

Southeast coach Cindy Gannon realizes her youthful squad has a long way to go if it wants to win a fifth consecutive OVC championship. But she has been pleased with the way the Otahkians have performed so far.

"We're coming along, but I think tonight was a good indication of a young team. We were nervous," she said. "We're young and we showed it. But that will get better with time.

"We have a lot of work to do, but that's what the early-season matches are for."

The Otahkians, who raised their overall record to 9-4, were shooting to draw 1,300 fans and break the OVC's all-time attendance record for volleyball.

Thursday's crowd fell way short of that, but it was still an impressive and loud gathering that rocked Houck.

"I would love to thank all the fans who came out," Gannon said. "We had a great crowd. It was loud in here. That does a lot for the morale of the team."

Said sophomore Angie Aschoff, "The crowd was awesome. It was great to be at home. It seemed like all we'd done is practice here. We were nervous tonight, but this team has a lot of potential. When we put it together, we'll be really tough."

Freshman Krista Haukap and sophomore Jackie Derwort led the Otahkians' offensive attack with 17 and 15 kills, respectively.

Meto distributed 38 assists while Aschoff had 16 digs and Haukap added 10 digs.

Southeast actually trailed in all three games and the Otahkians faced decisive deficits in the final two games, falling behind 9-1 in game two and 9-2 in game three. But Southeast was able to rally each time.

"That's a real positive for us," said Gannon. "For us not to get down even though we were trailing is great."

The Otahkians will have another home match Sunday when Tennessee Tech comes to Houck for a 2 p.m. start.