Redhawks face OVC nemesis on road

~ The Southeast soccer team takes a perfect conference record to Eastern Illinois.

It's still early in the Ohio Valley Conference soccer season, but Southeast Missouri State coach Heather Nelson won't try to diminish the importance of today's 3 p.m. match at Eastern Illinois.

The Redhawks have not fared well against the Panthers over the years, but a win today would allow Southeast to solidify its hold on first place in the OVC.

Southeast, 5-4 overall, is 2-0 in OVC play and alone at the top with six points (teams are awarded three points for a win and one point for a tie in conference play).

EIU, 3-5-2 overall, is 1-0-1 in the league. The Panthers are tied for second with defending champion Samford and Austin Peay at four points.

"It's a big one for us," Nelson said.

The Redhawks are just 2-8-1 all-time against the Panthers, including a 1-0 loss in last year's OVC tournament semifinals.

Southeast lost to EIU in the 2001 and 2002 OVC tournament finals played in Cape Girardeau. That was part of four consecutive OVC tournament titles won by the Panthers, who had the string snapped by Samford last year.

"Eastern has really been one of our big rivals over the years," Nelson said. "We always seem to match up well with them and it is always a very emotional game."

The Redhawks appear to be playing some of their best soccer of the season. They have won two straight games, both OVC home contests, 2-0 over Murray State Tuesday night and 1-0 over Tennessee-Martin Sunday afternoon.

This will be the first conference road match for the Redhawks as they face an EIU team that beat Tennessee-Martin 1-0 and tied Murray State 1-1 in its first two league tests.

Volleyball on the road

The Southeast volleyball squad, after Saturday's disappointing home loss to Murray State, will play its first OVC road matches of the season this weekend with a trip to Kentucky.

Southeast takes on Eastern Kentucky at 6 p.m. tonight and Morehead State at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The Redhawks (7-8, 1-1) opened conference play with a sweep of Tennessee-Martin last Friday, but they fell in four games to Murray State the following day.

Eastern Kentucky, last year's OVC co-champion and this year's preseason favorite, has already dropped a conference match. The Colonels are 8-8 overall and 1-1 in the league.

Morehead State, 12-6 overall, is off to a 2-0 OVC start.

Cross country in action

The Southeast cross country teams will return to action Saturday at the Greater Louisville Classic in Louisville, Ky., with the men's 8K race at 9:30 a.m. and the women's 5K race at 10:15 a.m.

More than 1,200 athletes are expected to compete, with competition in two divisions for both men and women. Each division will feature more than 30 teams, including several nationally ranked squads.

Southeast has not competed since the Eastern Illinois Invitational on Sept. 15.

"The GLC meet is a little larger than regionals and will feature a lot of quality Division I schools," Southeast coach Miles Krieger said.