Southeast Missouri State University student publication

Southeast volleyball team defeats UMKC

Friday, September 20, 2013

On Wednesday the Southeast Missouri State University volleyball team (5-4) hosted their home opener against the UMKC Roos (6-5). The Redhawks brought home a win with this match, but not without a crucial effort from the Roos.

"We really had two players play above, up and beyond. Colleen Yarber and Emily Coon did a great job offensively and that comes from are ball control people getting us passing," Southeast coach Julie Yankus said.

The contest went a complete five sets with Southeast coming out on top 3-2 (25-22, 25-19, 25-20, 25-23, 15-9).

Senior middle blocker Coon was a major deciding factor in the competition as she tied her own season-high with 20 kills with an impressive attack percentage of .515 and recorded a team-high seven blocks. Senior outside hitter Yarber also had an impressive night as she recorded 20 kills and 12 digs.

"We had a lot of people contributing," Yankus said.

Aiding the two performances was senior setter Julie Shives, who recorded a career-high of 60 assists.

"We have a lot of great team chemistry on and off the court. These girls work together very well," Yankus said. "We have five new players this year and you would have thought they had been here for years. The freshmen, everyone really bonded really quickly and felt comfortable, which says a huge assessment about the older kids kind of grooming the younger ones, letting them know what to expect. We have a great group of girls, and they all get along together, which helps us, you know, win games."

The first set was a tight one after the Redhawks bounced back from an early 4-0 run by UMKC. Southeast had 15 kills that allowed the team to win the first set 25-22.

The Roos capitalized quickly in the beginning of the second set as they built a 12-4 lead in a hurry.

The Redhawks would not give up though and fought back by bringing the game to one of its closest margins being 21-16. The deficit would be too much though, and UMKC took the second set with a score of 25-19.

Coming out of the locker room after the first two sets, Southeast would come out and make the third set an extremely close one. Coon had a very strong set as she recorded several kills to lead her team to a 25-20 win and bring the team one set closer to winning the entire match.

The fourth set, being one of the most exciting, was tremendously close the entire way as the stat sheet was almost even for this set. UMKC ended up winning the set 25-23 taking the match to the fifth and final set of the night.

With this being Southeast's first home game of the year, the crowd cheered for the team and seemed to add much momentum for the Redhawks. The Redhawks pulled out a sensational lead of 13-5 in the final set and did not look back, winning the final set 15-9 and ultimately winning the match 3-2. Southeast improved to 6-4 on the season.

Southeast will head north to Columbia, Mo., to play in the Mizzou Classic volleyball tournament, which will be held Friday and Saturday.

"The Mizzou Classic is going to be a very good tournament," Coon said. "It's going to be a challenging tournament for us, but I think it's definitely gonna show our strengths. We're going to be able to show who we are in that tournament. We just had the Ohio State tournament. We took third, but we played two really big schools and did really well against them. So we have that high momentum coming from that and carrying us on to next weekend."

Southeast's first Ohio Valley Conference game will be a home game. The Redhawks will take on Eastern Illinois on Sept. 27.

"I think the OVC should be watching out for us," Yarber said. "I think we're gonna take it all."

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