OTAHKS SWEEP UP IN OVC TOURNEY

CHARLESTON, Ill. - Southeast Missouri State University's volleyball team may have fallen short of its sixth straight OVC title, but the Otahkians proved capable of winning nine straight games.

Sweeping regular season champion Eastern Illinois Saturday, Southeast completed a bullheaded march to the OVC Tournament championship.

Southeast, which had dropped both matches to the Lady Panthers during the regular season, won 15-8, 15-13, 15-4.

It completed a perfect sweep of its three OVC opponents -- Morhead State and Tennessee Tech were swept on Friday -- and gave the third-seeded Otahkians the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

A seeding draw will be held next Sunday and tournament play will begin the first week of December.

Southeast improved to 24-11 while top-seeded Eastern's season ended at 24-7.

"This team has a big heart and has great kids to work with," said Southeast coach Cindy Gannon. "They told me they would win this tournament and they did it. I haven't had a team that deserved to win a title like this one."

Jackie Derwort celebrated her birthday Saturday be being named the tournament MVP. She was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Amy Henken and Krista Haukap.

"The team wanted to win the tournament so bad and today we proved we're still on top of the OVC," said Derwort.

The first game was tied 3-3 when Southeast went on a 9-0 run for a commanding 12-3 lead.

With the scored tied 10-10 in the second game, Southeast rolled off four straight points. They served seven times for the win as Eastern inched back to 14-13. The Otahkians finally put Eastern away on its eighth game point.

Southeast took the momentum into the third game, jumping out to a 6-2 lead and never looking back.