'Hawks' winning streak snuffed at five

~ SIU prevailed in a five-game match at Houck Field House.

Southeast Missouri State's longest winning streak in volleyball since 2003 came to a halt at the hands of the university's biggest nonconference rival.

Southern Illinois had been struggling, but the Salukis looked solid Tuesday night in handing the host Redhawks a five-game loss.

The Salukis prevailed 23-30, 30-28, 30-22, 19-30, 15-12 at Houck Field House as they improved to 8-13.

Southeast, which had won five straight matches, fell to 11-13. The Redhawks fell just short of their first six-match winning streak since 2003.

"The records really don't mean much when Southeast and SIU play each other," Redhawks coach Renata Nowacki said. "We didn't even look at their record. We know the rivalry.

"I was disappointed for some mental errors we made tonight. We've been really mentally tough the last four, five matches. Tonight our mental game let us down. But we played hard. I can't fault our effort."

For SIU coach Brenda Winkeler, the victory was perhaps a bit more special than simply beating one of the Salukis' rivals.

Winkeler spent the past several seasons as the coach at Eastern Illinois, which competes against Southeast in the Ohio Valley Conference.

"I was a lot more emotional tonight. The kids didn't know why," said Winkeler, who led Eastern Illinois to an OVC regular-season co-championship last year before taking the SIU job. "I've had some great matches with SEMO here."

The Salukis, 4-7 and in seventh place in the Missouri Valley Conference, looked like they might be easy pickings for Southeast when they dropped the first game 30-23.

But SIU bounced back with 30-28 and 30-22 wins in games two and three, before Southeast rolled 30-19 in game four.

The fifth and deciding game, to 15 points, saw SIU grab a quick 2-0 lead on a service error by Southeast and a service ace by the Salukis.

SIU went ahead 5-1 and never let Southeast get closer than two points the rest of the way. It was 14-12 when another Southeast service error -- one of 14 in the match for the Redhawks -- ended things.

"It's a very good win for us," Winkeler said.

Jessica Koeper, the reigning OVC offensive player of the week, led the Redhawks in kills with 20.

Jill Miller had 16 kills and 13 digs, Jamie Baumstark had 11 kills and 52 assists, Lauren Scannell recorded 24 digs, Brenna Schlader added 13 kills and Sirma Ozenir contributed 10 digs.

Marissa Washington paced the Salukis with 19 kills. Kristy Elswick led in digs with 23.

Despite the loss, Southeast has still posted four straight OVC victories to get in the thick of the chase for the regular-season title.

The Redhawks, 7-3 in conference play, are in fifth place among 11 teams, but they are only two games out of first in the tight race.

"That's what I told them, this won't ruin our chances in the OVC," Nowacki said.

Southeast has a crucial OVC match Friday night, playing at co-leader Tennessee State, which is 9-1 in league play.

"That's a huge match," Nowacki said.

EIU to host tourney

Eastern Illinois won a coin flip on Monday for the right to host the OVC Tournament on Nov. 18-20.

Because ESPNU will televise the tournament's title match, the tourney host had to be determined approximately one month prior.

Eastern Illinois and Tennessee State are tied for first place at 9-1 and the teams have not yet played each other, so the coin flip was necessary.