OTAHKS PICKED TO FALL OFF TOP OF OVC

If the Ohio Valley Conference's volleyball coaches are accurate, then Southeast Missouri State University's Otahkians won't make it five straight league championships this season.

The Otahkians have been picked to finish second in the OVC in a vote of the league's head coaches. The vote was extremely tight as Southeast was edged out by Eastern Illinois by one first-place vote and one total point.

Eastern Illinois received four first-place votes and 69 points while Southeast had three first-place votes and 68 points.

Murray State finished a close third in the balloting, with two first-place votes and 64 points. Morehead State received the other first-place vote.

Rounding out the predicted order of finish in the 10-team league are Middle Tennessee State, Austin Peay, Tennessee Tech, Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee State and Tennessee-Martin.

Two Otahkians were selected to the preseason all-OVC teams. Senior setter Tuba Meto, the 1996 OVC Player of the Year, was named to the first team while sophomore middle blocker Angie Aschoff made the second team.

Meto is coming off a junior season that saw her record 1,555 assists, the second-most in school history. She ranks third in the OVC in career assists and holds the third and fourth spots on the OVC season assists record list with 1,555 and 1,524, respectively.

Aschoff was named to the OVC All-Newcomer team in 1996 after recording 196 kills and 277 digs.

The Otahkians marched through the OVC last season as they went 18-0 and 28-8 overall, winning both the regular-season and conference tournament titles and advancing to the NCAA Tournament.

Southeast has won four conference titles in a row and five of the last six OVC championships.

The Otahkians will begin the 1997 season Aug. 29-30 at the Southwest Missouri State Invitational in Springfield.