Southeast roundup: Blum named OVC scholar-athlete, volleyball secures No. 8 seed

Southeast Missouri State senior second baseman Jason Blum was one of six recipients of the Ohio Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Award, which was announced Friday.

Austin Peay's Aleksas Tverijonas, Belmont's Alison Alcott and JJ Mann, Eastern Kentucky's Ann Eason and SIU Edwardsville's Cori Harris also received the award, which is the "highest individual honor that can be earned by OVC student-athletes...for their accomplishments in both the classroom and athletic arena and because of their leadership qualities," according to a news release.

Blum is a three-year starter at Southeast and was a member of the Redhawks' 2014 OVC championship team, during which he started every game.

Blum, a finance major, who is working towards a Masters in Business Administration, has a 4.0 GPA, and also is a member of Southeast's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee as well as the Beta Gamma Sigma business fraternity and the Harris College of Business Finance Student Academic Achievement program.

He's the 12th recipient of the award from Southeast. Senior cross country runner Rebekah Lawson was named an OVC Scholar-Athlete last season.

Volleyball

The Southeast volleyball team dropped it's regular-season finale at Jacksonville State 24-26, 25-15, 15-25, 21-15 on Saturday.

The loss assured the Redhawks of the No. 8 seed in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament. They will face top-seeded host Murray State at 3 p.m. Thursday.

Southeast had a set point in the first set at 24-23, but JSU scored three points in a row to seize the lead.

The Redhawks jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the second set and led by as many as 12 points before closing out the set to even the match.

Southeast's only other lead of the match came at 1-0 in the fourth set as they were beaten in the final two sets.

Krissa Gearring and Kelsey Keeve led Southeast with 10 kills each while Madalyn Werths added nine.

Katarina Rotta finished with 23 assists, and Haley Roberts added 21. Carlie Cuffle had 17 digs.

JSU improved to 18-15 overall and 9-7 in the OVC while Southeast dropped to 11-19 and 7-9 in conference play.

Cross Country

The Southeast cross country team finished its season at the NCAA Midwest Regional in Peoria, Illinois, on Friday.

The men's and women's teams finished 28th in the standings.

Senior Gloria Westlake finished 78th with a time of 21 minutes, 30.9 seconds. Senior Rebekah Lawson finished in 21:33.6 for 84th place.

Sophomores Angela Sumner and Megan Parks were 147th and 151st, respectively. Senior and Central graduate Mary Dohogne was 199th (23:08.2), senior and Jackson graduate Kristen Richardet was 202nd (23:10.5) and freshman Sydney O'Brien was 208th (23:27.3).

Freshman Nathan Cook led the men's team in 137th place. He finished the 10K race in 32:20.6.

Sophomore Marc Maton was 157th (32:42.3), freshman Tyler Beaman was 163rd, and senior Ryan Anderson was 178th (33:11.5). Senior and Jackson graduate Tyson Stoverink was 181st (33:12.5), and freshman Dan Plunkett and junior Shane Brown were 189th and 191st with times of 33:30.6 and 33:38.6, respectively.

Gymnastics

The Southeast gymnastics team announced the signing of two gymnasts on Friday.

Emily Robbins and Madison Tueller signed National Letters of Intent during the week-long early signing period.

Robbins trains at Crenshaws Athletic Club in Austin, Texas, and Tueller trains at USA Gym World and attends Mountain Heights Academy in Smithfield, Utah.