SEMO volleyball falls short in regular-season finale

In the final game of the regular season, the Redhawks women’s volleyball team came up a little short, losing in five sets to Lindenwood University. The Lions also defeated SEMO in Wednesday night's game in four sets.

Thursday was a back-and-forth affair with both teams winning two sets before heading to the final set. The Redhawks had a five-point lead in the fifth and final set but could not put Lindenwood away. SEMO head coach Julie Yankus was understandably upset with the loss but is looking ahead to the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

“We obviously had a lot of opportunities when we were up a lot in that fifth set and just couldn't capitalize, too many unforced errors unfortunately, and taking too long to respond to what they were doing,” Yankus said. “We've got to figure out with a new lineup how we're going to try to attack this conference tournament.”

Although the win went to Lindenwod, SEMO had a good night stat-wise with four players having double-digit kills and five players having double-digit digs. Freshmen Lucy Arndt and Nina Schuberth had two of those stat lines while seniors made up the rest. Yankus spoke highly of her senior class and was disappointed their final game at Houck Field House ended like this.

“It's tough to see all these seniors play their last game at Houck and this is the result we got,” Yankus said. “They've all done a great job with the program and we love them all dearly, but a sad way to end it for them here tonight.”

Looking ahead to the OVC Tournament, Eastern Illinois won the regular season championship and the right to host the tournament as the #1 seed. SEMO is the #2 seed and will take on #7 Western Illinois on Monday at 4 p.m. in Charleston, IL. The Redhawks defeated Western Illinois twice in the regular season but as Yankus said, everyone is 0-0 in the tournament and it’s always a battle.

“You have to be ready to ball out and respond to the opponent throughout the match,” Yankus said. “I think we match up pretty well with Western but we've got to show up and make sure that we play our game.”