Otahkians roll past Morehead

The Houck Field House mystique, 35 straight wins, is alive and well for the Southeast Missouri State University volleyball team.

Defending Ohio Valley Conference champion Southeast bounced back from a first-set loss to sweep three straight in a 16-30, 30-22, 30-10, 30-16 win over conference foe Morehead State Saturday.

On her team's inability to get untracked early, Southeast coach Cindy Gannon said, "We came back after the first game, but, as a young team, we've got to figure out how we can establish our tempo and our game plan and not wait to see what the tempo of the other team is. I felt like that is what we did today."

The victory over Morehead State, which had two impressive conference wins early over Tennessee-Martin and Murray State, improved Southeast's record to 5-4 overall and 3-0 in the OVC. Morehead fell to 7-4 and 2-2 in the conference.

"Naturally, this was disappointing for us, because after starting out the first weekend 2-0 we really thought we would be able to play well at Eastern and here," said Morehead coach Mike Swan.

The Lady Eagles lost to Eastern Illinois on Friday.

Morehead looked nearly unstoppable in its first-set win.

"We came out and played awesome the first game, probably as good as we can play, but for that to drop off so dramatically was certainly disappointing," Swan said.

But in the second game, the Otahkians rushed out to a 10-3 lead and never looked back. Improved net play, particularly by junior outside hitter Bobbi Carlile down the stretch, and solid defense clinched the victory.

Carlile had a big day with 16 kills and 15 digs.

Said Carlile, "I've been working hard for two years and I learned a lot from Krista (Haukap) last year."

Haukap, a stellar outside hitter and OVC player of the year in 2000, has since graduated.

Junior hitter Jessica Houpt was huge in the third-set win. She tied Carlile for the match-high lead in kills with 16 and led the Otahkians with six blocks.

Southeast sophomore setter Emily Scannell continued her outstanding play as she posted 38 assists and 15 digs.

Morehead's Amy Almond also recorded 15 kills and 13 defensive digs, while teammate Tiffany Peters had 11 kills.

Said Gannon, on her maturing team, "I'm going to be patient with them and I'm going to pamper them through this process and hopefully we'll become a really good volleyball team."