Gamecocks sweep Redhawks

Southeast Missouri State volleyball coach Renata Nowacki appeared to be trying to express major disappointment with her team following Thursday night's match.

But Nowacki really couldn't bring herself to do it after witnessing a dominating show by visiting Jacksonville State.

"It definitely wasn't our best performance," Nowacki said. "But sometimes you just have to really give the other team credit."

In a surprisingly lopsided affair, the Gamecocks rolled past the Redhawks 30-20, 30-27, 30-25 at Houck Field House.

"They played awesome, and we were two steps behind them all night," Nowacki said. "We didn't have a chance to play our game, we were so busy trying to figure out how to stop them."

Southeast (14-15, 10-5 Ohio Valley Conference) had its three-match winning streak stopped. The Redhawks remained in fifth place in the 11-team OVC with one regular-season match remaining.

JSU (15-10, 12-3) pulled into sole possession of third place by posting its sixth consecutive victory.

"I thought we played real solid," JSU coach Rick Nold said. "Every team is going to have one of those days where you play really well against a very quality opponent. That happened to us."

The Redhawks beat the Gamecocks in four games on Oct. 21 in Jacksonville, Ala. -- but it didn't take long for the visitors to establish control in the rematch.

After JSU rolled in the opening game, the next two games were competitive, but the Gamecocks led most of the way in each as the Redhawks never really threatened.

Abbey Breit led the Gamecocks with 18 kills and 11 digs. Shari Weyer and Suzi Terrell added 12 and 11 kills, respectively, as JSU had an attack percentage of .276.

Junior Jessica Koeper from Jackson High School, Southeast's kills leader for the second straight year, had her 17th double-double of the season with 12 kills and 19 digs. The Redhawks hit just .144 as a team.

Senior Lauren Scannell, who recently broke Southeast's Division I record for digs in a season, had 11 digs for her 33rd straight match with 10 or more. She has 552 digs this year.

Senior Jill Miller and sophomore Brenna Schlader each had nine kills, while Miller added 12 digs. Sophomore Sirma Ozenir had 10 digs, and junior setter Jamie Baumstark recorded 28 assists.

Earlier in the week, Baumstark received a major honor when she was named the Sports Imports/American Volleyball Coaches Association Division I National Player of the Week.

Baumstark, the first Southeast player to ever receive that honor, is also only the third player this season not on a top-25 team to be honored.

"That was huge, for a player for a mid-major program to beat out all the players from the ranked teams for that award," Nowacki said. "It says a lot for her and her teammates, and it's great for our program."

Southeast, which is still having its best season since 2002 under first-year coach Nowacki, ends the regular season tonight when Samford visits for a 7 p.m. match.

"We really want to give our two seniors [Scannell and Miller] a win in their last home match, and we want to win our last match before the [OVC] tournament," Nowacki said. "But Samford is going to be tough, and we know it won't be easy."