Home meet is Southeast's final stop before league championships

Southeast Missouri State University's cross country program will have its only opportunity to strut its stuff in front of a home crowd Saturday.

The annual Southeast Invitational at Capaha Park will begin at 11 a.m. with the 3.1-mile women's race. The 3.1-mile men's race will follow at 11:45 a.m.

Murray State, Tennessee-Martin and Arkansas State will join Southeast in the four-team meet.

"We always look forward to this meet," Southeast senior standout Kaci Pilcher said. "It's nice to run at home. Everyone's parents get to come down. Last year we had a pretty good turnout, and hopefully we will this year, too."

Southeast coach Eric Heins said the meet will be fan-friendly -- races start and finish behind the Capaha Park baseball outfield, with several laps around the lagoon.

"It's our only home meet and everybody is excited," Heins said. "Fans who want to come out and support the runners will be able to see a lot of the race pretty well."

The meet will be Southeast's final performance before the Ohio Valley Conference Championships Nov. 1 in Puryear, Tenn., with Murray State serving as host.

Heins thinks his teams are peaking at the right time as they gear up for the OVC meet.

"We've really been coming on strong lately," he said.

Southeast's women, who were considered a strong contender for the OVC title, have been plagued with injuries. Lindsay Zeiler, the defending conference champion, is redshirting because of a leg injury. Another top runner, Colleen Burke, is also out with a stress fracture.

"I think we're doing real well, considering we don't have Lindsay and we lost Colleen," said Pilcher, the Otahkians' top runner in every meet this season.

Southeast is coming off strong performances at last weekend's OVC Preview Meet in Puryear, where the teams ran the course that will host the conference championships.

The Otahkians finished first, led by Pilcher's winning performance. Junior Kris Woolf was second, freshman Missy Moody seventh, sophomore Brooke Woodruff 10th and senior Jen Burke 13th.

The Indians were second, led by a second-place finish from sophomore Gabe Lutes. Junior Brian Whitehead was fourth, senior Chad Sierman 10th, freshman Brad DeMattei 11th and freshman Kirk Nesbit 14th.

Volleyball beats TSU

Southeast's volleyball team continued Tennessee State's misery and moved above the .500 mark in OVC play with a 30-26, 30-26, 30-26 victory Thursday night in Nashville, Tenn.

The Otahkians improved to 5-15 overall and 4-3 in the OVC. The Tigers fell to 4-16 and 0-8.

Freshman Jessie Koeper from Jackson High School led the Otahkians in kills with 11. She also had three aces. Suzanne Gundlach added 10 kills and Sarah Frost had nine.

Jill Miller led the Otahkians with 15 digs, followed by Gundlach with 14. Emily Scannell had 36 assists and 10 digs.

Southeast returns to action at 7 p.m. tonight, visiting Jacksonville (Ala.) State.

Soccer on the road

Southeast's women's soccer team has a pair of key OVC road matches this weekend, facing Tennessee-Martin at 4 p.m. today and Murray State at 1 p.m. Sunday.

The Otahkians are 7-3-4 overall and 2-1-1 in OVC play, which has them third in the nine-team league. Tennessee-Martin (6-5-2, 1-1-1) is in sixth place and Murray State (3-8-3, 0-3) is tied for last place.