Redhawks suffer home sweep to Eagles

~ First-place Morehead State improved to 5-0 in OVC play.

There wasn't that much separating Southeast Missouri State and Morehead State on Friday night.

But the Eagles came up big in the most important situations to sweep the Redhawks and remain atop the Ohio Valley Conference standings.

The Eagles won 30-27, 30-26, 30-24 at Houck Field House as they improved to 11-5 overall and 5-0 in OVC play. Southeast is 7-9 and 3-3.

"Coming to Cape Girardeau, in my opinion, is one of the toughest places to play in the conference," Morehead coach Jaime Gordon said. "To come out with a win, I couldn't be happier."

Although they were swept, the Redhawks certainly had their chances, particularly in the first and third games.

In a back-and-forth opening game, Southeast held a 27-26 lead before three straight hitting errors by the Redhawks turned the tide in Morehead's favor.

After the Eagles led virtually the entire way in game two, Southeast again held a relatively late lead (20-18) in the third game.

But from a 22-22 tie, the Eagles scored four straight points to grab control.

"One of the things we knew coming in here is we would have to earn all our points," Gordon said.

From Southeast coach Renata Nowacki's perspective, the Redhawks didn't make the Eagles earn their points nearly enough.

Southeast's inconsistent play frustrated Nowacki. Coming off an impressive nonconference victory over regionally ranked Memphis on Wednesday, Nowacki expected her team to build on that performance.

But that didn't happen. The Redhawks had an attack percentage of just .127, with only 33 kills compared to 18 errors.

Morehead had 57 kills and 30 errors for a .182 attack percentage.

"We were so bad today," Nowacki said. "We're trying to figure out what makes this team tick and what will get them on the same page together.

"We have to figure out what will make us a consistent team. Nothing carried over from Wednesday's match."

Karleigh DeLong led the Redhawks with 11 kills. No other Southeast player had more than four kills.

Alyssa Aston had a double-double for the Redhawks with 24 assists and 11 digs. Molly Davis paced Southeast in digs with 17.

Ashley Doscher led Morehead with 20 kills and she had a double-double with 12 digs. Erin Peak added 12 kills for the Eagles.

Southeast closes out a five-match homestand at 2 p.m. today against Eastern Kentucky.