SE volleyball season ends in OVC semis

The Southeast Missouri State volleyball team saw its impressive season end Friday with a five-game loss in the semifinals of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

Third-seeded Belmont knocked off second-seeded Southeast 25-17, 23-25, 25-13, 20-25, 15-10 in Morehead, Ky.

Southeast fought an uphill battle the entire match after dropping the opening game.

The Redhawks came back to take Game 2 before being blasted in Game 3.

Southeast again battled back to win Game 4 and even the match. But the Bruins scored the first five points of Game 5 and were never seriously threatened.

"I'm proud of the way we battled and the way we came from behind showed that we had a lot of heart," second-year Southeast coach Julie Folliard said in a release.

All-OVC junior Colleen Yarber led Southeast offensively with 18 kills.

Junior setter Julie Shives dished out 47 assists as she moved into fifth place in career assists at Southeast.

Junior Berkley Idel recorded a career-high 29 digs and senior Karlee Lursen added 11 digs.

"Berkley played very scrappy for us tonight and her reaction time was great," said Folliard, whose squad beat Belmont in five games at home during their only regular-season meeting.

Southeast hit .197 while Belmont hit .292. The Bruins recorded 74 kills compared to 56 for the Redhawks.

Despite the loss, Folliard had few complaints about Southeast's first 20-win season since the 2007 squad captured a share of the OVC regular-season title.

Southeast, which finished with a 21-13 record, won the OVC West Division title, finished second in the conference standings overall and beat Jacksonville State in Thursday's opening round of the eight-team tournament.

"We have established ourselves as a title contender in the OVC and the future is very bright for Southeast volleyball," Folliard said.

Belmont went on to win the tournament and gain the league's automatic NCAA tournament berth by upsetting top-seeded host Morehead State 13-25, 25-23, 25-18, 25-22 in Saturday's title match.

Morehead State had its 24-match winning streak snapped.

Southeast placed Yarber on the seven-member all-tournament team.