Southeast Missouri State University student publication

Southeast volleyball team's win streak comes to an end

Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Southeasts middle blocker Emily Coon spikes the ball during Tuesday Oct. 2, 2012 game against Arkansas State.Photo by Nathan Hamilton

The Southeast Missouri State University volleyball team's six-game win streak ended in a 3-2 loss to the Arkansas State Red Wolves Tuesday night. The win streak is the team's longest since 2007.

"Any loss is a tough loss," junior middle blocker Emily Coon said. "We came out really wanting this game and really wanting to prove who we were today. It's always our goal to protect our home court, so when we walk away without that it's kind of a sore feeling in the bottom of the stomach."

The Redhawks lost the first set, 25-19. Southeast responded with a 25-15 win in the second set, where they rallied for five straight points twice.

In the third set Arkansas State answered with a 25-21 win. Southeast tried to rally late in the set and scored five straight points to pull the score to 24-21, but the Red Wolves were able to hang on and finish off the set point to win.

Southeast won the fourth set 25-22. The Redhawks had a 17-10 lead at one point in the set, but the Red Wolves went on a 10-4 run to make the score 21-20. Southeast then won four of the next six points to take the set.

"I think there were points where we were letting down on our side and we weren't doing what we were supposed to do," senior outside hitter Karlee Lursen said. "We played a good match, it just wasn't consistent. We know what we are capable of. The second and fourth sets show that we could beat the team."

In the final set, Southeast couldn't overcome a 5-0 lead by Arkansas State and lost 15-7.

"Overall, we did a great job battling with them," Southeast coach Julie Folliard said. "They have an athletic team. I think we did some nice things, we just couldn't get enough players to really turn it on offensively tonight for us."

Arkansas State dominated the match with 73 total kills, while Southeast had 48 kills. The Red Wolves had four players that contributed more than 10 kills and only two Redhawks had more than 10 kills. Coon led the team with 15 kills, while junior outside hitter Colleen Yarber added 11 kills.

The Red Wolves' senior outside hitter Jasmine Terry caused problems for the Redhawks' defense the entire match. Terry contributed 24 kills in the win.

"She's definitely a good player," Folliard said. "We knew we had to try and shut her down as best as we could. She'd get her kills, but if we could shut down the rest of the team, that was kind of our game plan really, we just couldn't finish."

The loss brings Southeast's record to 12-7. But, the team is still undefeated in conference at 4-0 and in first place of the Ohio Valley Conference West Division standings.

Southeast's next match is against OVC opponent Austin Peay at 6:30 Friday at Houck Field House. The team has another OVC match at 2 p.m. Saturday against Murray State at Houck Field House.

"Definitely, excited to come back to conference play," Folliard said. "We're always focused on that in this point of the year. It will be a good competitive weekend, but definitely two wins that we should get."

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