Southeast volleyball, soccer squads begin OVC play

As their teams enter Ohio Valley Conference play today, Southeast Missouri State soccer coach Heather Nelson and Southeast volleyball coach Julie Yankus both believe the same things about their teams -- they're improving at the pace they expected, but aren't close to the level of play they think they're capable.

The details are different for what Nelson and Yankus expect the progress and end results for their teams to be in their respective sports, but the mentality isn't.

"I think we're on track," Nelson said. "We're not where we need to be yet, but I think because we have so many newcomers we're going to continue to see really good development from week to week. With the group of players I have I really do think they're very dedicated, they're responding to coaching very well. They care a lot about the team, and I think we have a lot of really good strides yet to come for the remainder of the season just because of their attitude."

The Redhawks soccer team enters conference play at Eastern Illinois today with a record of 3-3.

The Panthers have posted a 1-7-1 record in non-conference play. Their lone win was a 2-0 triumph at Chicago State on Sunday.

Nelson's pleased with her team's performance so far, and believes that the speed and drive of her forwards will be something they can use to their advantage in the OVC.

The Redhawks have scored eight goals over their six games. Senior Breana Beine leads the team with four following a hat trick last Friday against Arkansas State. Natasha Minor, Ashley Brendel and Torey Byrd each have a goal, and Byrd's also scored on a penalty kick.

"I would say some of our weaknesses have to do with more battling for 50-50 balls ... and gaining an understanding of full commitment of the physical level of play that's required to be successful at Division I, and that's probably to be expected with having so many new players inserted into our program," Nelson said. "It's also something that at practice we have to go out of our way to find things that create more physical contact between players, and try to move their mindset from, 'Hey, I really like this player' to 'My teammate needs to develop me like how I'll be treated by opponents within the OVC.'"

The Redhawks' defense, bolstered by freshman goalkeeper Kindra Lierz, has recorded three shutouts. The defense has allowed five goals total in a pair of 1-0 losses and 3-0 loss to Illinois State.

"On one side of the ball with our defense, they're very optimistic players, they're very comfortable with the ball at their feet and that definitely helps us building the attack out of the back," Nelson said. "The downfall of that is we have to make sure their personalities understand that they're defenders first and that they have to take a lot of pride in not only those individual tackles, but also when you play in the back you have to be very safety-oriented. You always have to be thinking about what could go wrong even when we have the ball, and to me those two things are going to be the biggest gains. We're improving from week to week, but I'd like to see that happen on a very, very fast pace."

Nelson admitted that her team's been "a little beat up" through the non-conference schedule. The Redhawks had 22 players practice this week -- the most since the team arrived for preseason camp. Junior Erin Shulman, who tied for the team-lead in goals last season, has yet to play a game this season with IT (illiotibial) Band Syndrome, an injury to the fibrous tissue that runs down the outside of the thigh, and is being eased back in to playing.

Volleyball

The Southeast volleyball team enters conference action with a 4-9 record and faces Murray State (9-3) on the road tonight and Austin Peay (6-10) on Saturday.

Before the season, Yankus stressed a need to increase the team's kills each match over the totals posted last season. It is still a need heading into the OVC schedule.

The Redhawks currently rank eighth in the 12-team conference in kills with 579 or 11.82 per set.

"It varies from match to match," Yankus said about the areas of improvement. "A lot of times it's our offense, just making sure that we're getting more production out of more hitters. If we have a balanced attack, that'll definitely help us be more successful. We usually have a couple hitters that are really strong in the game, but we can't just have two people carrying the load. We've got to be able to spread it to more options. Those two people changes from game to game, but we need to make sure we can get more people involved in every match."

Senior Andrea Baylin leads the team with 144 kills (2.94 per set), which ranks 10th in the conference. Junior Taylor Masterson and freshman Krissa Gearring have 108 and 100, respectively. Sophomore setter Katarina Rotta has 414 assists.

"It's a lot with communication with Kat and [freshman] Allie [Henkelman] as our setters, to telling them who they should be distributing the ball to and when, and when we're going to be successful with it," Yankus said. "Part of that's decision-making as well, making sure that we're getting enough people involved at the right times, and that's kind of a learning experience, too. It's like having a really young quarterback on the football team. You've got to make those right choices."

Yankus noted that her team has lost several sets by two points -- 13 sets, to be exact -- and was pleased with how her team battled back from a 2-0 deficit against regional-rival Southern Illinois on Sunday to force five sets before losing. Each set against the Salukis was decided by five or fewer points, including two two-point sets.

"We've got that experience under our belt," Yankus said. "I think we're at where we should be. We don't want to peak too early, but hopefully we're moving up here at the start of conference and peak at the very end of the season."