OTAHKIANS BREEZE BY LADY GOVS

Much to the delight of coach Cindy Gannon, Southeast Missouri State University's volleyball team made short work of Ohio Valley Conference contender Austin Peay Tuesday night.

The Otahkians recorded a three-game win over the Lady Governors, rolling 15-12, 15-11, 15-7.

Southeast, which has won the past four regular-season OVC championships, improved to 18-6 overall and 8-1 in league play, good for a first-place tie with Tennessee Tech.

Austin Peay fell to 12-6 overall and 6-3 in the OVC as the Lady Govs fell out of a third-place tie.

"Austin Peay has a great team and they play hard," said Gannon. "I'm very pleased. It seems like I say the same things every time, but we're young and when you're young, you'll have ups and downs.

"Tonight was definitely up. To win in three (games) is great."

Tuba Meto continued her sensational season with yet another triple-double of 50 assists, 12 kills and 12 digs. It was her seventh triple-double of the season, which is tops nationally.

Meto was named the Southwestern Bell Wireless Player of the Game.

Jackie Derwort, who leads the Otahkians in kills and digs this season, also led the way in those categories Tuesday with 19 kills and 13 digs.

Also contributing offensively to the balanced attack were Angie Aschoff with 13 kills, Krista Haukap with 12 and Kim Aggertt with 10.

Aggertt also had five block assists and two service aces. Nicole Gonzalez also had two service aces while Aschoff added 12 digs.

Kim Smith paced Austin Peay with 16 kills. Annie Glieber had 47 assists.

The first two games were extremely tight, with Austin Peay leading at various points in both before the Otahkians rallied.

It was all Southeast in the third and final game as the Otahkians finished strong, much to the delight of the nearly 200 fans on hand.

"We really hustled for a lot of balls tonight," Gannon said.

Southeast will have the rest of the week off. The Otahkians return to action next Tuesday night at Murray State. The Lady Racers are the only OVC team to beat Southeast this year.