Volleyball, soccer teams see streaks come to an end

Streaks came to an end for two Southeast Missouri State University women's sports teams Sunday.

At Houck Field House in Cape Girardeau, Southeast's volleyball squad suffered its first home loss in 37 matches as Southwest Missouri State knocked off the Otahkians 30-17, 25-30, 30-18, 30-18 in front of 286 fans.

And in Macomb, Ill., Southeast's soccer team suffered its first loss of the season after nine straight victories as host Western Illinois pulled off a surprising 2-1 victory.

Volleyball team falls

A strong Southwest Missouri squad from Springfield improved to 11-3 with the non-conference victory. Southeast fell to 7-7.

Linette White led the Bears with 17 kills. Casey Young had a double-double with 43 assists and 12 digs.

Southeast, which hit a season-low .045 for the match, received double-double performances from Bobbi Carlile (12 kills, 10 digs) and Sarah Frost (10 kills, 11 digs). Emily Scannell (35 assists, eight digs) and Emily Johnson (13 kills, seven digs) were other statistical leaders.

The Otahkians will have a key Ohio Valley Conference home match Wednesday night as Eastern Illinois visits.

Soccer squad upset

Just two days after handing defending OVC champion Eastern Illinois its first-ever regular-season league loss to improve to 9-0, the Otahkians ventured outside the conference and were stunned by a Western Illinois squad that is just 3-8.

The Westerwinds got first-half goals from Sarah Lippert and Amanda Wandtke to lead 2-0 at halftime and they held off the Otahkians in the second half.

Southeast got its lone goal from Diana Poovey, with an assist by Laura Hauskins, a little more than 18 minutes into the second half but the Otahkians could not score over the final 26-plus minutes.

The Otahkians held a commanding 18-9 edge in shots, but Western Illinois goalkeeper Summer Perala came up with nine saves. Southeast keeper Beth Guccione made three saves.

Southeast will return to action Saturday, hosting Tennessee Tech.

Cross country shines

Southeast's women's cross country team turned in another strong performance Saturday, finishing second among 13 squads at the Saluki Invitational in Carbondale, Ill.

Indiana State won the meet with 57 points and the Otahkians had 60 points. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was third with 78 points.

Kaci Pilcher had the Otahkians' top finish for the fifth time in five meets this year as she placed third in 19:39.82 over 6,000-meters. Amy Arteme was a close fourth (19:42.80)

Also for the Otahkians, Kris Woolf was eighth (19:50.82), Anna Verseman 20th (20:26.66), Jessie Thompson 25th (20:39.80), Jen Burke 29th (20:43.70), Carmen Owens 35th (20:58.93), Colleen Burke 37th (21:03.44), Christy Williams 60th (21:41.08) and Kim Kneger 83rd (22:32.85).

Southeast's men finished ninth out of 13 teams with 280 points. Indiana State was first with 72 and host SIU was second with 74.

The Indians' top finisher was Blake Popp, who was 46th in 26:43.43 over 8,000-meters.

Also for the Indians, Danny Copeland was 52nd (26:48.32), Jared Tanz 70th (27:16.63), Brian Whitehead 77th (27:29.05), Jason Crawford 92nd (27:50.91) and Chad Sierman 119th (29:10.50).

-- From staff reports