OTAHKS HAMMER EIU, NAIL DOWN AT LEAST A SHARE OF OVC CROWN

For the three seniors on Southeast Missouri State University's volleyball team, it doesn't get much better than Tuesday night.

It was Senior Night at Houck Field House as a festive, season-high crowd of 726 showed up for the Otahkians' anticipated Ohio Valley Conference showdown with Eastern Illinois.

But the Otahkians turned the showdown into a rout as they rolled past the Panthers 15-7, 15-4, 15-1.

The Otahkians thus clinched at least a tie for their seventh OVC regular-season championship since they joined the league in 1991. And, by virtue of sweeping the season series against second-place EIU, Southeast has earned the right to host the OVC Tournament Nov. 19-20.

Southeast, now 24-5 overall and 15-1 in OVC play, pushed its match winning streak to 17, the fourth longest in the nation. EIU fell to 19-9 overall and 13-3 in the league."Last year they (EIU) beat us in three games on our home court and they ended up winning the (regular-season) title. We reminded ourselves of that," said senior middle blocker Angie Aschoff, who leads the OVC in hitting percentage. "I was surprised we won so easily, but we played great. It's an awesome feeling."Said senior setter Amy Henken, who leads the OVC in assists and is second behind Aschoff in hitting percentage, "We wanted to win this for ourselves (the seniors), and for the team. It's a great feeling. And it's great we're going to have the (conference) tournament at home. We want to keep playing here."For the Otahkians' third senior, outside hitter Jackie Derwort, winning another OVC title will definitely help make up for the knee injury she suffered during the earlier match against EIU, on Oct. 12.

Derwort has recently returned to action, but she has been limited to back-row duties."This is the best feeling," she said. "When I got hurt, I didn't think I'd be able to come back at all. I'm just glad I can help the team."It's great knowing we're going to play the tournament at home. We play so well here, and our fans really support us. The crowd was great tonight."All three seniors have been vital components of the Southeast program, Aschoff and Derwort for four years and Henken for two years after transferring from Indiana State."They have meant so much to our program," said Southeast coach Cindy Gannon. "We dedicated tonight's win to our seniors, whose character helps mold our younger players."We cannot replace Angie, Jackie and Amy, but hopefully our underclassmen will rise up and contribute to the team next season."Southeast still needs to win one of its final two matches this weekend (at Tennessee Tech Saturday and Middle Tennessee Sunday) to clinch the outright OVC title, but that appears to be just a formality."After not winning the (regular-season) title last year, that was one of our major goals this year," said Gannon, whose squad captured the league tourney championship in 1998 to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. "We know the tournament will be at home and we can start planning for that, but we still have to win one more match to secure the regular-season title."Aschoff was nearly perfect offensively Tuesday, getting nine kills in 11 attempts. Junior Lea Beckemeyer led the way with 11 kills while juniors Krista Haukap and Rachelle Knapp added eight apiece.

Haukap, who continues to climb up the career kills chart at Southeast, leads the OVC in kills and is third in hitting percentage.

Henken dished out 33 assists while Haukap had 11 digs and Knapp had six total blocks."The team was very focused tonight and we were hitting on all cylinders. Everybody rose to the occasion," Gannon said. "But Eastern Illinois is a good team and they'll be tough for the tournament."As a team, Southeast was third in the nation in kills with 17.51 per game prior to Tuesday's match. The Otahkians ranked sixth in hitting percentage (.297) and 17th in team assists (15.32 per game). Individually, Aschoff was 16th nationally in hitting percentage (.377) while Henken was 16th in assists (13.39 per game)."It's just been a tremendous season so far and we want to keep it going," said Gannon.