Southeast Missouri State roundup: Redhawks spikers close regular season with loss to JSU

The Southeast Missouri State volleyball team concluded the regular season with a five-set loss at home to Jacksonville State.

The Gamecocks defeated Southeast 25-22, 18-25, 18-25, 25-23, 17-15 to improve to 15-20 and 5-11 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Southeast, which made the OVC tournament as the No. 8 team, dropped to 10-19 and 6-10 in the OVC.

The first set was tied six times, including at 22-all. The Gamecocks scored the final three points of the set to win it.

The Redhawks got out to a 6-1 lead in the second set and never trailed.

JSU cut it to 19-7, but three Gamecock attack errors and a pair of Madalyn Werths kills set up match point. A Werths kill evened the match at one set apiece.

In the third set, the Redhawks went up 9-8 and never relinquished their lead.

The fourth set featured seven ties. JSU's largest lead was at 21-17.

The Redhawks pulled within a point on a Marie Less service ace at 23-22, but a service error by Less set up match point.

A JSU attack error gave Southeast another chance, but a Redhawks attack error ended it and forced a decisive fifth set.

Neither team led by more than three in the final set.

Southeast turned a late two-point deficit into a one-point lead that set up match point. A service error evened it at 14 before the Redhawks regained the lead on a Krissa Gearring kill.

Back-to-back Emily Rutherford kills and a Charis Ludtke block gave the Gamecocks the 17-15 set win and the match.

Gearring led Southeast with 20 kills and 22 digs. Masterson had 15 kills and 11 digs while Werths had 13 kills. Fornoff had 43 assists.

Nzingha Clarke had seven blocks while McElderry and Werths each had five.

The Redhawks face No. 1 Murray State, who won its second straight OVC regular-season title this year, at 7 p.m. Thursday in the first round of the OVC tournament.

The Racers claimed the tournament title last year. They swept Southeast in three sets to begin the tournament.

Cross Country

The Redhawks' men's and women's teams wrapped up their seasons at the NCAA Midwest Regional on Friday.

The women's team finished 25th overall in the meet, which was held in Lawrence, Kansas.

Angie Sumner led the Redhawks with a 91st-place finish in 22 minutes, 2.7 seconds.

Megan Parks was 99th (22:08.1) and Sydney O'Brien was 124th (22:27.2) while Kaitlyn Shea was 175th (23:16) and Lindsey Seabaugh (23:17.2) were 175th and 176th, respectively.

Natalie Kopplin (190th) and Andrea George (191st) rounded out the Redhawks' runners.

The men's team was led by senior Shane Brown, who finished 135th in 32:48.5. Senior Craig Munie was 172nd in 34:03.9.

Jaime Zarate and Marc Maton finished 175th (34:03.9) and 176th (34:08.6), respectively.

The men's team did not have enough runners to compete as a team.