OTAHKIANS' OVC STREAK ENDURES EIU CHALLENGE

Eastern Illinois University's Lady Panthers gave it their best shot -- but Southeast Missouri State University's lengthy conference volleyball winning streak lives on.

The Lady Panthers, after losing the first game Tuesday night, won the next two and appeared poised to pull off a big victory at Houck Field House.

But the Otahkians rallied to win in five games for their 34th consecutive regular-season Ohio Valley Conference victory.

Southeast prevailed 15-12, 8-15, 14-16, 15-11, 15-11 to improve to 14-4 overall and 6-0 in OVC play. EIU fell to 9-8 overall, 2-3 in the league.

"I anticipated this to be a huge match," said Southeast coach Cindy Gannon after the contest that lasted nearly 2 hours 30 minutes. "Eastern Illinois has a lot of experience and a good team."

Even though Southeast has won the past four OVC regular-season championships, EIU was picked in the preseason poll of league coaches to win the conference in a narrow vote over the Otahkians.

And even though the Otahkians lost four standout seniors from last season, not being picked as the league favorite didn't sit well with them.

"Them being picked No. 1 ahead of us, that fired us up," said sophomore outside hitter Jackie Derwort. "We wanted to show them we're the better team."

Derwort had a monster match with 27 kills and a school-record 38 digs.

"I was pretty surprised," said a smiling Derwort after being informed that she had broken the Southeast single-game dig record of 32 set by Janet Buchheit in 1991. "It was a long match so I had a lot of opportunities."

Senior setter Tuba Meto was her usual brilliant self with another triple-double as she recorded 11 kills, 73 assists and 26 digs.

Said Gannon, "Jackie played a really good match. When she plays well, we seem to play well. And once again Tuba was outstanding. She keeps it all together for us out there."

Angie Aschoff added 16 kills and 21 digs. Also in double figures in kills were Krista Haukap (13) and Rachelle Knapp (11) while Cathy Prichard (25) and Mandy Edgington (17) reached double digits in digs.

After winning the first game, the Otahkians lost leads in the next two games as EIU took control of the match.

But the Otahkians broke away late in game four. Then in game five, Southeast took control early and never relinquished the lead.

"We expected a tough match," said Derwort. "But we want to keep our winning streak going. We don't want to lose."

The Otahkians will try to make it 35 in a row in the OVC when Murray State visits Houck Thursday for a 7 p.m. match.