Southeast Missouri State volleyball team splits two OVC matches

The Southeast Missouri State volleyball team split a pair of Ohio Valley Conference matches this weekend.

The Redhawks were swept by the defending OVC regular season and tournament champion Murray State Racers on Friday night at Houck Field House in their OVC opener but beat Austin Peay in four sets on Saturday.

Southeast won the first two sets against the visiting Governors 25-21 25-13 before losing the third 25-20. The Redhawks won its first conference match with a 25-19 win in Set 4.

The first set featured nine ties, including the last at 15-15, but Southeast took the lead for good on a kill by Marie Less.

The Redhawks and Govs were tied 6-6 in Set 2 when Southeast used a 6-0 spurt and never led by fewer than five points for the rest of the game.

There were 13 ties in the third set. APSU closed out the game on a 6-1 run after tying it at 19-19.

Southeast never trailed in the last set and led by as many as nine after a Madeline Grimm service ace made it 20-11.

The Govs went on a 7-2 run to cut it to four but never got any closer.

Krissa Gearring finished with 12 kills while Nzingha Clarke had 11 and Marie Less and Madalyn Werths had 10 apiece.

The Racers won 25-23, 25-23, 25-21 on Friday.

The first set was tied seven times and neither team led by more than three.

The Redhawks led 23-22 after a service error by MSU's Scottie Ingram, the defending OVC player of the year, but the Racers closed out the set with a 3-0 run to win it.

MSU jumped out to a 4-0 lead and held a 12-8 advantage when Southeast took a timeout in the second set.

The Redhawks scored the next four points to tie it and took their first lead of the set at 14-13 on an attack error by MSU's Taylor Olden.

There were three more ties in the set before the Racers took the lead for good at 20-19 on an Ingram kill.

Southeast trailed by as many as nine in the final set. A service ace by MSU's Ellie Lorenz pushed the Racers' lead to 19-10.

A 4-0 Redhawks spurt pulled them within six.

MSU extended its lead to 24-16 on match point before a kill by Krissa Gearring and four consecutive attack errors by Ingram pulled the Redhawks within three.

Ingram's 17th kill of the night sealed the victory for the Racers (11-0, 1-0 OVC).

Less led Southeast with nine kills while Clarke and Gearring had eight apiece.

All-conference middle blocker Taylor Masterson played for the first time this season after a knee injury. She had two kills and a dig against MSU and two kills and two digs against APSU.

The Redhawks host UT Martin at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.