Redhawks win, arrange showdown

~ Southeast soccer defeats Jacksonville State, will play for OVC title.

If Southeast Missouri State was looking past Jacksonville State, the Redhawks didn't show it.

Southeast set up a huge regular-season finale by dominating the Gamecocks for a 1-0 victory in Friday's senior night game at Houck Stadium.

Even though the final score was close, the game wasn't. The Redhawks outshot JSU 31-3 as the Gamecocks never put a shot on goal.

"We didn't overlook them," Southeast senior Molli Beard said. "We wanted to have a good showing."

The Redhawks, unbeaten in their last nine games -- eight wins and a tie -- improved to 10-2-2 overall and 7-0-1 in Ohio Valley Conference play.

With 22 points (three points for a win and one point for a tie in league games), the Redhawks trail first-place Samford (13-3, 8-0, 24 points) by two points.

Samford visits Houck Stadium at 2 p.m. Sunday. A win by the Redhawks gives them their first OVC regular-season title since 2002 and also allows them to host the OVC tournament semifinals and finals Nov. 9 and 11.

Either a win or a tie by Samford gives the Bulldogs their fifth straight OVC regular-season crown and means they will host the conference tournament.

"We have a chance to win a championship on our home field," Southeast coach Heather Nelson said. "That doesn't happen very often in many players' careers.

"A big home crowd is always so important. Hopefully a lot of people will come out and support us."

The Redhawks set up Sunday's clash by dominating Friday's game from start to finish, but they were only able to score once.

"We played well. We moved the ball really well," Nelson said. "We were so close to finishing."

Perhaps fittingly, Beard scored the only goal 20 minutes into the first half. She one-timed a hard shot from about 18 yards out after taking a nice pass from senior Alaina Lacopo.

Beard led Southeast in scoring during her freshman and sophomore seasons, in 2003 and 2004, but she has been hampered by a variety of injuries since then.

Beard, who was redshirted last year due to an injury, had not scored a goal since 2005. She made just her second start of the season Friday because of injuries.

"It's been a frustrating past couple of years," Beard said. "It's nice to finally be pretty healthy again."

Lacopo's assist was her team-high seventh of the season. She is the program's career assists record-holder.

Senior keeper Lindsay Pickering, the OVC's career record-holder in shutouts, did not have to make a save as she recorded her OVC-leading sixth shutout of the season.

Now the Redhawks will turn their attention to Sunday's game for the title.

"We're pumped," Lacopo said.

Volleyball wins again

The Southeast volleyball team continued to roll Friday night, beating host Eastern Kentucky 29-31, 30-27, 30-24, 30-21.

Southeast, which won its eighth straight match, improved to 16-10 overall and 11-4 in OVC play. The Redhawks remained in third place, one game out of first.

Karleigh DeLong led the Redhawks with 22 kills and Aubrey Dondlinger added 19. Molly Davis led in digs with 21, while Sarah Barth recorded 58 assists.

The Redhawks play at second-place Morehead State today.