OTAHKS SET SIGHTS ON OVC TOURNEY

Southeast Missouri State University was not able to win a sixth straight Ohio Valley Conference regular-season championship this year.

But the Otahkians are still in the running for perhaps an even bigger prize -- the OVC Tournament title and an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.

The Otahkians enter the six-team conference tourney, to be played today and Saturday in Charleston, Ill., as the No. 3 seed.

Southeast will take on No. 6 Morehead State at noon today in a first-round match. A win puts the Otahkians into tonight's 8 o'clock semifinal against No. 2 Tennessee Tech.

Host Eastern Illinois is the No. 1 seed. The Lady Panthers will play a semifinal at 6 tonight against the winner of a 10 a.m. match between No. 4 Austin Peay and No. 5 Murray State.

The championship match is set for 2 p.m. Saturday.

Southeast has had a solid season, going 21-11. But the Otahkians uncharacteristically lost five OVC matches -- again 13 wins -- which put them third in the final conference standings.

Still, Otahkian coach Cindy Gannon knows her team cannot be counted out in the tournament.

"I thought we finished up the season playing pretty well and this is the time of the year you want to be playing your best anyway," she said.

Eastern Illinois has had a fantastic year, winning its first-ever OVC regular-season title with a 17-1 record. The Lady Panthers, 23-6 overall, rattled off a school-record string of 11 consecutive league victories during the season.

Tennessee Tech joins Southeast as the likely top challengers to Eastern Illinois. The Golden Eaglettes are 21-6 overall and they were second in the OVC at 14-4.

Rounding out the field are Austin Peay (19-11, 12-6), Morehead State (15-17, 9-9) and Murray State (12-17, 9-9).