SEMO volleyball push for a championship

Over the course of a two-week road trip, the SEMO women’s volleyball team went 4-1 with an important series split with Eastern Illinois. The Redhawks played three matches at home this past week and added on three more conference wins, defeating Little Rock on Monday and taking the series sweep over Western Illinois over the weekend.

Western Illinois took the Redhawks to the limit on Friday night, forcing a fifth set in which SEMO squeaked out a victory. Saturday night Western Illinois took one set before the Redhawks put them away in four sets. SEMO head coach Julie Yankus said the team really stepped up to take care of a tough team on senior night.

“We started off slow, that's the emotion of a senior night and we just couldn't quite get it together from the beginning but I’m really proud of how we responded,” Yankus said. “We got our composure and found our rhythm, and we know Western Illinois is a good team, just like every team in the conference, they're gonna fight tooth and nail every time. Everybody we play is going to try to play up, we got a target on our back, and so that's how it goes.”

The Redhawks are currently tied for first place in the Ohio Valley Conference with Eastern Illinois at 12-2 with two conference series left. SEMO will travel to Tennessee Tech this coming weekend before finishing with Lindenwood in Cape Girardeau on Nov. 15-16.

The Redhawks control their own destiny as four straight wins would all but guarantee a regular-season championship. Yankus said the most important thing in order to maintain their winning ways is rest.

“Honestly we're gonna need to take a little bit of a break, I think we need some rest. After having played two big matches last weekend and now three at home this week with our midweek match,” Yankus said. “We've been going, going, going so I think it's going to be rest and then we're just going to have to prepare for a really good Tech team. I think we match up pretty well with them and we’ll just take one opponent at a time.”