Redhawks runners host meet Saturday

~ The invitational at Capaha Park is the only home event on the schedule for Southeast's cross country team.

Southeast Missouri State cross country runners will get the rare opportunity to compete in front of a home crowd Saturday.

The annual Southeast Invitational at Capaha Park will begin at 11 a.m. with a 3.1-mile women's race. The 3.1-mile men's race will follow at 11:45 a.m. The meet is Southeast's only home competition each season.

Joining Southeast in the four-team meet will be Murray State, Memphis, Bethel (Tenn.) and the St. Louis College of Pharmacy.

"We always look forward to running at home," Southeast coach Eric Heins said. "Our team is primarily made up of a bunch of kids from southern Illinois and Missouri, so it's a chance for parents to come out and meet each other, and to watch their kids run.

"It's also a good chance for the friends and fellow students of our runners to come out and support our teams."

Races start and finish behind the Capaha Park baseball outfield, with several laps around the lagoon.

"Fans will be able to see most of the race pretty well," Heins said.

Both Southeast squads have won the meet each of the past two years and should be solid favorites again, said Heins.

"We want to keep that string going," he said.

Saturday's meet will be Southeast's final performance before the Ohio Valley Conference Championships, set for Oct. 29 in Charleston, Ill.

"We didn't race last weekend, and we don't want to go into the conference race without racing for two straight weekends," Heins said. "We're not putting a whole lot of pressure on this meet.

"It should be a good tuneup for the OVC."

Soccer has key matches

The Southeast women's soccer squad closes out its OVC schedule this weekend with two road matches --3 p.m. Friday at Murray State and 2 p.m. Sunday against Tennessee-Martin.

The Redhawks (9-4-1, 4-2-1 OVC) are in fifth place in the 10-team conference with 13 points. Murray State (6-8-1, 5-2) is in a three-way tie for second place with 15 points, while Tennessee-Martin (7-9, 2-5) is tied for eighth with six points.

Eastern Illinois leads the league with 16 points. In conference play, teams receive three points for a win and one point for a tie.

Southeast still has an outside chance of capturing the OVC regular-season title, although the Redhawks would need to sweep this weekend's matches and hope some of the squads ahead of them falter.

More realistically, the Redhawks are shooting for a home game in the first-round of the OVC tournament.

The top six finishers in the 10-team league qualify, with the top two receiving a first-round bye. The squads finishing third and fourth host opening-round contests.

The Redhawks have two nonleague home games remaining, against Arkansas-Little Rock on Oct. 26 and South Dakota State on Oct. 28, before the OVC Tournament begins on Nov. 1.

Volleyball in action

The Southeast volleyball team will begin the second half of its 16-match OVC schedule this weekend with a road trip to Alabama.

The Redhawks (9-12, 5-3) play Jacksonville State (9-9, 6-2) at 5 p.m Friday and Samford (7-15, 3-5) at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Southeast, which has won two straight conference matches and three straight matches overall, is in fifth place in the 11-team league, just one game behind fourth-place Jacksonville State.

Eastern Illinois leads the OVC at 8-0, followed by Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee State, who are both 7-1.