Southeast Missouri State volleyball team secures spot in OVC tourney

The Southeast Missouri State volleyball team split two home matches over the weekend to end the regular season.

Southeast, as a result, qualified for the Ohio Valley Conference tournament for the first time since 2008.

Friday's 16-25, 25-22, 25-15, 25-15 win over Austin Peay punched the Redhawks' ticket to the OVC tournament that begins Thursday at regular-season champion Morehead State.

The Redhawks followed up Saturday with a 25-19, 20-25, 18-25, 25-21, 15-11 loss to Tennessee State.

"It's a great feeling to know that we will be playing in the tournament. We knew we had the skill to make it there," said senior Paige Dossey, who along with Southeast's other senior Holly Reynolds was honored before Saturday's senior day match.

Southeast is 13-18 overall and 11-9 in OVC play. The Redhawks finished fourth in the 11-team league. They were ninth last season.

The turnaround season has come under first-year coach Julie Folliard, who took over a struggling program that failed to make the OVC tournament the past two years.

"We are excited to be involved in the tournament, and we feel we can make our presence known," Folliard said.

Sophomore setter Julie Shives surpassed 2,000 career assists in Friday's win over Austin Peay. She dished out 34 assists and added 20 digs.

Junior Karlee Lursen had a team-high 10 kills and added nine digs. Junior Brittany Kalinoski followed with nine kills.

Sophomore Emily Coon had eight kills and six blocks. Sophomore Berkley Idel matched Shives with 20 digs.

Lursen and Cook both had 15 kills against Tennessee State (18-10, 13-7), which finished second in the OVC. Lursen added 14 digs while Coon recorded eight blocks.

Shives posted 42 assists, nine kills and nine digs. Idel had 27 digs and sophomore Andrea Baylin added 11 digs.

The fourth-seeded Redhawks open the six-team conference tournament at 6 p.m. Thursday, facing fifth-seeded Eastern Kentucky. Southeast won both regular-season meetings with the Colonels in four games.

Cross country

Southeast Missouri cross country teams completed their seasons at the Midwest Regional in DeKalb, Ill.

Southeast's men placed 19th and the women were 26th.

Senior Nate Shipley led the men with a 73rd-place finish. His time over the 10K course was 33 minutes, 18 seconds.

Freshman Colten Strotheide (102nd, 33:59), sophomore Brent Collins (105th, 34:01), junior Tyler Mullen (106th, 34:03) and freshman Craig Munie (139th, 34:57) rounded out Southeast's scorers.

Freshman Rebekah Lawson paced the women with a 114th-place finish. Her time in the 6K race was 23:16.

Freshman Gloria Westlake (148th, 23:53.47), freshman Jenny Govero (149th, 23:53.56), senior Jessica Bollinger (151st, 23:55) and freshman Melanie Lacey (177th, 25:36) completed the Redhawks' scorers.

-- From staff reports