Southeast roundup: Volleyball team picks up 2 conference home wins

The Southeast Missouri State volleyball team picked up a pair of Ohio Valley Conference wins at home to improve to 4-4 in the conference and 8-14 overall.

The Redhawks defeated Eastern Illinois in five sets (23-25, 25-23, 25-19, 18-25, 15-10) on Saturday at Houck Fieldhouse.

The Panthers never trailed in the first set. They led 17-12, but the Redhawks were able to tie it at 23 with help from four EIU attack errors. A Southeast service error and kill by Allie Hueston gave the Panthers the first-set win.

There were 10 ties in the second set but a kill by senior Kelsey Keeve evened it at a set apiece.

The Redhawks led by as many as seven points in the third set and held on for a 25-19 win. The Redhawks only had nine kills in the set, but the Panthers had 10 attack errors.

It was 17-all in the fourth set, but four attack errors contributed to EIU's 8-1 run to close out the game.

Southeast broke a 2-2 tie in the decisive fifth set with a couple of service aces by Jade Mortimer and never trailed again to win 15-10.

Junior Taylor Masterson had 16 kills in the match, hitting .609. Seniors Andrea Baylin and Kelsey Keeve each had 12 while freshman Nzingha Clark chipped in 10.

The Redhawks defeated SIU-Edwardsville on Friday in straight sets 25-14, 25-19, 27-25.

The Redhawks broke a 9-9 tie in the opening set with a 5-0 run. The Cougars (9-13, 1-6 OVC) only scored five points the remainder of the set.

The second set was knotted at 10-all when the Redhawks used a 6-1 run to take a 5-point lead.

Three Cougars service aces and a Southeast service error helped SIUE pull within a point at 18-17, but it was as close as the set would get.

SIUE led 15-8 in the final set, but the Redhawks used a 12-5 run to knot it at 20-all

The set was tied four more times after that, including at 25-25, but a couple of SIUE errors sealed the Redhawks victory.

Clarke had nine kills and hit .692, Baylin added eight and Masterson had seven in the match and hit .438.

Cross Country

The Southeast cross country team completed its final tune-up before the Ohio Valley Conference championship meet.

The women's team finished 10th and the men's team was 18th in the Bradley Pink Class 6K race on Friday in Peoria, Illinois.

Senior Rebekah Lawson led the women's squad with a 14th-place finish in 21 minutes, 37.9 seconds.

Senior Gloria Westlake took 24th place in the race and was exactly 20 seconds behind Lawson.

Sophomores Megan Parks and Angela Sumner were 41st and 120th, respectively, while Central graduate and senior Mary Dohogne was 101st.

Freshman Tyler Beaman was the top finisher for the men's team. He came in 66th place with a time of 25:53.5.

About 23 seconds separated the Redhawks next four finishers. Sophomore Marc Maton was 86th (26:05.6), senior Ryan Anderson was 89th(26:06.5), junior Shane Brown was 95th (26:09.1)and senior Colten Strotheide was 106th (26:16.1).

Southeast's next race is the OVC Championships, which are Nov. 1 in Oxford, Alabama.

Basketball

The Murray State men's basketball team and Belmont women's team were picked to win the Ohio Valley Conference in the league's media poll, which was released Friday.

Southeast Missouri State's men's basketball team was picked to finish second in the OVC West Division behind the Racers.

The Southeast women's team was predicted to finish 11th out of 12 teams in the conference.

The Belmont men's team was picked to win the East Division.

Murray State sophomore guard Cameron Payne, who was a first-team all-OVC selection and the Freshman of the Year last season, was voted the preseason Player of the Year.

Eastern Illinois senior forward Sabina Oroszova was selected the women's preseason Player of the Year.

The conference's preseason poll, which is voted on by head coaches and sports information directors, will be released on Tuesday during the OVC's media day.