OTAHKS LIKE THEIR SHOT AT MAKING VOLLEYBALL HISTORY

For the first time, Southeast Missouri State University volleyball coach Cindy Gannon believes her Otahkians have a legitimate chance of winning an NCAA Tournament match.

Tonight, Gannon will find out if the Otahkians can indeed make school and Ohio Valley Conference history when they play Loyola Marymount in Santa Barbara, Calif., in the first round of the NCAA Pacific Regional. The match will start at 7:30 local time.

Tonight's other first-round match will pit host California-Santa Barbara against Oral Roberts. The first-round winners will meet at 9:30 p.m. Friday in the second round, with that winner moving on to next week's regional semifinals at Stanford."I really believe we can beat Loyola Marymount, and so do our players," said Gannon.

The Otahkians, who will be making their third NCAA Division I Tournament appearance, last year became the first OVC team to ever win a game in the NCAA meet when they fell to powerhouse Stanford in four games."Now we want to be the first OVC school to ever win a match (in the NCAA Tournament)," Gannon said. "That's been our goal."The primary reason Gannon believes the Otahkians can pull off the feat is the fact they have received an extremely respectable seeding for the first time.

During Southeast's first NCAA Division I tourney appearance, in 1996, the Otahkians were seeded 16th in their regional and lost to top-seeded Southern Cal.

Last season, in their second tournament appearance, the Otahkians were a No. 15 seed and fell to No. 2 seed Stanford.

This time, the Otahkians are a No. 10 seed and will go up against a No. 7 seed."When you're a 15th or 16th seed, you have to play one of the top teams in the nation and it's just so tough to have a chance," said Gannon. "Now we're a 10th seed and that makes our chances pretty legitimate. I think that seed is good for us and very deserving."Gannon began to put the wheels in motion for a possible higher seed following last year's NCAA loss to Stanford."When we left the (NCAA) tournament last year, I called some people and asked what we needed to do to help get a better seed," she said.

Gannon learned that strength of schedule would be very important, and the Otahkians definitely faced a beefed-up schedule this year. They played three highly-touted teams in the early-season Colorado State Tournament and later upset nationally-ranked Arkansas at home."We really improved our strength of schedule," Gannon said. "We went to the Colorado State Tournament and brought a nationally-ranked team to Cape Girardeau."I think there were several factors involved in us getting a much higher seed. Beating Arkansas was big and so was winning our conference so convincingly."Southeast, which rolled to OVC regular-season and tournament titles, is 28-5, with a 21-match winning streak. The Otahkians last tasted defeat Sept. 24 when they lost their OVC opener at Austin Peay. Southeast has won 28 of 29 matches since starting the season 0-4.

One of Southeast's early-season losses came at the hands of today's foe as Loyola Marymount rolled to a 15-8, 15-5, 15-10 win Sept. 3 in the Colorado State Tournament, where the Otahkians dropped three matches.

But Gannon is confident that Loyola Marymount will be facing a totally different Southeast team today."That was our second match of the season. We were still getting our lineup set," said Gannon. "We're a much different team now, from a confidence standpoint and everything."Not that Gannon believes getting revenge on the 19-10 Lady Lions will be automatic because they are strong, led by 6-foot-6 outside hitter Sarah McFarland, who has a whopping 743 kills. No other Loyola Marymount player has more than 220 kills."She is an outstanding player," Gannon said. "They go to her all the time and we weren't really prepared for that last time. We need to do a good job against her, because she really is their team. I feel like we're a lot more balanced than they are."Southeast has seven players with at least 100 kills, led by Krista Haukap with 531 and Lea Beckemeyer with 414. Also in triple figures are Angie Aschoff (296), Amy Henken (186), Rachelle Knapp (179), Jackie Derwort (177) and freshman Emily Johnson (100).Henken, the OVC Player of the Year, runs the offense with 1,457 assists from her setter position."This team is really focused on getting the job done," said Gannon. "I feel confident we'll make a good showing."In tonight's other first-round match, host California-Santa Barbara will put its 26-5 record on the line against 23-12 Oral Roberts.