OTAHKS SEE OVC PRESEASON FAVORITE GEL IN POSTSEASON

Whatever impelled Ohio Valley Conference volleyball coaches to pick Eastern Illinois University to win the league this season never surfaced -- until now.

Fifth-seeded Eastern Illinois controlled No. 1 Southeast Missouri State 15-12, 16-14, 9-15, 15-5 on Saturday before 555 at Houck Field House in an OVC Tournament semifinal match.

Southeast's surprisingly fruitful season ended with a record of 26-9. Instead of finishing atop the OVC during the regular season, Eastern Illinois finished 11-7 in the league, four matches behind Southeast. The Panthers are now 21-13.

Entering the tournament, Eastern Illinois had beaten each conference opponent except Southeast and Austin Peay. The Panthers upset No. 4 Austin Peay in the first round and then disposed of Southeast.

"We were going to make sure that we beat everyone this year," said Eastern Illinois coach Betty Ralston. "We were picked to finish first and we knew we had the talent to finish first, and we'd rather finish first in the tournament than in the regular season because we want to go the NCAAs."

For the first time, the winner of the OVC Tournament gains an automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament. Last season, after winning the OVC Tournament, Southeast had to win a play-in match before advancing to the national tournament.

The Panthers will play xxx today at 3 p.m. at Houck for the tournament berth. xxx beat xxx xx-xx, x-x.

Southeast topped Eastern Illinois in both meetings this season. Southeast coach Cindy Gannon said the Panthers simply played better this time.

"The first two times we played them, they made a lot of key mistakes," Gannon said. "Tonight they were pretty error-free. And we just couldn't capitalize on opportunities when they would give us that opportunity.

"They had something to prove and they came out and did it. I figured they had it in them."

Southeast lost late leads in the first two games. The Otahkians led 12-11 in the first game and 14-11 in the second game.

In the third game, Southeast trailed 9-4, and it looked as though the Panthers would sweep the match. But the Otahkians scored the next 11 points.

Eastern Illinois led 5-4 early in the fourth game. The Panthers then scored 10 of the next 11 points as the Otahkians couldn't get anything started.

Sherry Austin, a 6-foot-1 junior middle hitter, gave Southeast problems. Austin led everyone with 27 kills.

"Sherry Austin . . . used to be a right-side hitter for us," Ralston said. "She never played club or anything; she never quite got to be a middle. But she can attack the heck out of the ball, and that was a big key for us."

Austin said the pressure of the tournament brought the best out of the Panthers.

"We were like `this is it,'" Austin said. "We played pretty well. We just worked well as a team. We fought all the way through . . . we just kept hitting away. We knew we were the underdogs and had nothing to lose."

First-team all-OVC selection Lorri Sommer had 20 kills and 22 digs, Kim Blackwell had 18 kills, Lindsey Celba added 17 kills and 24 digs and Meleah Cutler totaled 14 kills for a balanced Eastern Illinois squad.

Kara Harper had 72 assists.

While Southeast will lose setter Tuba Meto, the OVC player of the year the last two seasons who had 60 assists and 18 digs on Saturday, and Nicole Gonzalez, all of the Otahkians' hitting will return next season.

Krista Haukap, who had 22 kills, is a freshman; first-team all OVC pick Jackie Derwort, who had 18 kills and 19 digs, is a sophomore; and Angie Aschoff, who added 15 kills, is a sophomore. While that sounds good for the next couple seasons, youth is what hurt Southeast Saturday.

"There was one point we had three freshmen, two sophomores and a senior [on the floor]," Aschoff said. "We just made dumb mistakes and we didn't play like we could.

"Right now this season is in the past and there's nothing we can do about it. So hopefully we can use this to our advantage and build on this for next year. We'll probably be in the gym on Monday getting ready for next year."

Said Gannon: "I'll tell you what, we had a better season than I ever anticipated us having. So I'm not disappointed; we fought hard. We had key mistakes -- we're a young team and that's going to happen.