OTAHKS SPIKE THREE-SET LOSS ON MTSU

Southeast Missouri State University's volleyball team began an important homestand by barely working up a sweat Friday night.

The Otahkians needed only an hour to rout Ohio Valley Conference foe Middle Tennessee State 15-4, 15-3, 15-5 in front of about 300 fans at Houck Field House.

Southeast, by winning its ninth straight match, improved to 16-5 overall and a first-place 8-1 in the OVC. MTSU is 11-12 overall, 6-6 in league play.

"They are a huge blocking team and I thought we had to out-transition them to beat them," said Southeast coach Cindy Gannon of the Lady Raiders. "We did that and overall did a very good job.

"We've got a huge homestand and this is a good way to get it started. But we'll have some very tough matches coming up."

The Otahkians host Tennessee Tech at 7 tonight and then entertain Austin Peay at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Those two squads entered Friday's play tied for second in the OVC at 8-2. Austin Peay handed Southeast its lone OVC setback to date.

"Tech and Austin Peay are both very good," Gannon said. "So we'll enjoy this one tonight and then get ready for some really big matches."

Angie Aschoff paced the Otahkians offensively Friday night with 10 kills. Krista Haukap, Lea Beckemeyer and Emily Johnson all had nine kills while Rachelle Knapp contributed seven.

Haukap and Amy Henken led the way defensively with eight digs apiece. Lori Lange added six. Henken also dished out 37 assists.

Southeast trailed only briefly all night. MTSU scored the first point of the opening game before the Otahkians used a 12-1 run to pull away. Southeast led all the way in game two and trailed 2-0 in game three before turning it on.

"It's nice to come out and dominate a match like this," said Gannon.

In addition to the big OVC matches tonight and Tuesday, Southeast will have an interesting non-conference home contest Wednesday night when nationally ranked Arkansas comes to Houck Field House.

Arkansas, rated 21st, will be the highest-ranked Division I team to ever play the Otahkians in Cape Girardeau.

"Their coach is a friend of mine and he's real big on helping teams out by trying to increase their attendance," said Gannon. "It should be an exciting night and we're hoping to get a big crowd.

"We're also hoping to get really big crowds for our next two matches. The girls really enjoy playing at home and having the fan support helps a lot."