Southeast soccer plans alumni battle at Savvis

The Southeast Missouri State women's soccer team will play a game against a Southeast alumni squad at the Savvis Center in St. Louis on April 2.

The contest, at 5:30 p.m., will be prior to the professional game between the St. Louis Steamers and Philadelphia Kixx that begins at 7 p.m.

Tickets, on sale at the Houck Field House ticket office, are $12, with $4 from each ticket going to the Southeast soccer program for promotional purposes.

Several area youth soccer teams will also play at the Savvis Center prior to the Southeast game.

"This is a great opportunity for our young women to play in professional arena and for our program to get exposure in the St. Louis market," Southeast coach Heather Nelson said. "Many of our players are from the St. Louis area and the alumni team will include a number of former players from the St. Louis area.

"All area soccer fans, including family and friends of the area youth soccer teams, can purchase tickets at the Houck ticket office. It will be a tremendous day and night of soccer, and $4 from every ticket will go to our soccer program to help us promote next year's team that we hope will contend for an Ohio Valley Conference championship."

Basketball in sixth place

Southeast's men's basketball team is currently in sixth place in the OVC standings, not in third place, as was reported in Sunday's Southeast Missourian.

But the Redhawks are just one game out of second place in the scrambled race. Southeast is 8-6 in conference play, behind four squads who are all deadlocked at 9-5: Austin Peay, Eastern Kentucky, Murray State and Samford.

Tennessee Tech leads the 11-team league at 10-4. The top four finishers earn first-round home games in the eight-team OVC tournament.

Southeast, 13-12 overall after suffering its second straight loss Saturday at Morehead State, plays its final two regular-season games at home. Murray State visits the Show Me Center Thursday night and Tennessee-Martin comes to town Saturday night.

Southeast's women (18-7, 12-2) remain in second place in the OVC, one game behind Eastern Kentucky. The Redhawks are assured of hosting a first-round tournament game March 1. They also finish the regular season this week with home dates against Murray State Thursday and Tennessee-Martin Saturday.

Gymnasts fall on the road

Southeast's gymnastics squad posted another solid road score Sunday but suffered a 195.300-193.025 loss to Kent State University in Ohio.

Friday, the Redhawks scored a season-high 194.525 to place second during a triangular meet at Bowling Green in Ohio.

Kent State won every event. Southeast was led by sophomore Lexie Hein, who was second in the all-around (38.775) and tied for third on bars (9.725).

Other top-three finishers for the Redhawks were senior Katie Bloom (tie for second on vault, 9.725) and junior Tara Boldt (third in all-around, 38.300).

The Redhawks' next match is at home Saturday against Wisconsin-LaCrosse at 1 p.m.

Tennis drops tight match

Southeast's women's tennis team suffered a 5-4 loss to Division II power Drury University in Springfield, Mo., Saturday night.

The Redhawks (2-4) received singles victories from No. 1 Bryce Kristal, No. 3 Daniela Garcia and No. 6 Kim Roberts, while the No. 1 doubles squad of Bryce and Drew Kristal also prevailed.

The contest was played under the Division II scoring system, with one team point awarded for each match victory. The Division I scoring format calls for one point awarded for each singles win, but only one point total for doubles.

Southeast, which has already doubled its victory total from all of last season, plays two more road matches this weekend in Cedar Falls, Iowa, facing Western Illinois Saturday and Northern Iowa Sunday.

Drury 5, Southeast 4

Singles

1. Bryce Kristal (SE) def. Camille Ducourt 6-4, 6-4

2. Nina Jagasia (D) def. Drew Kristal 6-4, 6-0

3. Daniela Garcia (SE) def. Megan Fraser 6-3, 6-2

4. Megan Blosser (D) def. Ashley Hooper 6-4, 6-1

5. Anna King (D) def. Kimmy Anderson 6-1, 6-1

6. Kim Roberts (SE) def. Marie Minowa 6-1, 6-1

Doubles

1. B. Kristal-D. Kristal (SE) def. Ducourt-Minowa 8-1

2. Jagasia-Fraser (D) def. Hooper-Garcia 8-4

3. Blosser-King (D) def. Roberts-Miranda Petrea 8-1

--From staff reports