EASTERN KENTUCKY 3, SIUE 0
RICHMOND, Ky. - Eastern Kentucky snapped a four-match losing skid with a 3-0 shutout of Southern Illinois Edwardsville on Friday night at McBrayer Arena.

EKU (12-13, 7-7 OVC) won by scores of 25-16, 25-23, 25-12.

Sophomore Kelsey Kuehner led the Colonels with 14 kills.  She did not make an error in 23 attempts for a .609 attack percentage to go along with three aces and three block assists.  Ashley Edmond added 12 kills.  Hannah Burkle contributed six blocks.  Dena Ott led all players with 25 digs.

Kelsey Augustine led SIU Edwardsville (10-17, 5-10 OVC) with five kills.  Chelsea Colclasure added 10 digs for the Cougars.

An 11-3 Eastern Kentucky run allowed the home squad to pull away in the first set.  EKU led by six three times early in the second set but SIUE didn't allow the Colonels to pull away.  With the set tied 23-23, Kuehner posted a kill and the Cougars suffered an attack error to end the set and give the Colonels a 2-0 lead.

The third set resembled the first.  An 8-2 run midway through the set allowed Eastern to pull away.  A kill by Edmond finished off the set and the match.

EKU hit .273 as a team, finishing with 42 kills and only 15 errors in 99 attempts.  SIU Edwardsville posted a .009 attack percentage, finishing with 23 kills and 22 errors.  Eastern Kentucky held a 9-0 edge in blocks and an 8-2 advantage in aces.

EASTERN ILLINOIS 3, MOREHEAD STATE 0
MOREHEAD, Ky. - Visiting Eastern Illinois used stout defense to disrupt the Morehead State volleyball team's offensive game plan Friday night as the Panthers handed the Eagles their first Ohio Valley Conference loss of the 2011 season, 3-0, at Wetherby Gym.

EIU raced past the Eagles 25-16 in the opening set by limiting MSU to an -.027 attack effort, and the Panthers held off MSU 25-22 in the second and third sets to improve to 9-17 overall and 6-9 in the league. MSU saw its 22-match OVC winning string halted and fell to 13-1 in the conference and 18-6 overall.

EIU registered 16 team blocks and held the Eagles to a season-low .070 attack percentage. Each team totaled 35 kills, but the Panthers committed just 16 miscues, while MSU finished with 27 attack mistakes.

Redshirt freshman Laura McDermott managed to hit .261 to pace the Eagles while collecting 11 kills and three blocks. Redshirt senior Emma Keough had seven kills, hit .286, and totaled two blocks. She needs just 14 more block assists to break the MSU career record of 350.

EIU's Alison Berens chalked up 10 total blocks, while Stephanie Arnold had five, including four solo stuffs. Reynae Hutchinson and Emily Franklin each had team-best 10-kill nights.

The Eagles still won the dig battle, collecting 47 scoops to the Panthers' 42. Sophomore libero Leslie Schellhaas led all players with 16 digs.

JACKSONVILLE STATE 3, TENNESSEE STATE 1
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Jacksonville State volleyball team used a stingy defense on Friday night to rally for a 3-1 (23-25, 25-19, 25-21, 25-23) win over Tennessee State in Ohio Valley Conference action.

After committing nine errors and recording just nine kills in a first-set loss, the Gamecocks (9-16, 7-8 OVC) became more efficient on offense and limited the Tigers (13-9, 9-6 OVC) to an .068 attack percentage en route to their third-straight win.

Senior Lauren Harkins led five Gamecocks in double figures in the digs category with 16, while freshman Alina Agamay picked up 14 for half of her double-double. One match after notching JSU's first triple-double since joining the OVC in 2003, the Bloomington, Ill., native paired her defensive numbers with 17 assists against TSU.

Fellow setter and sophomore Abbey Heredia also picked up a double-double in the same two categories, thanks to a team-high 22 assists and 12 digs, while junior Hivya Leite and sophomore Kelly Cole pitched in 11 and 10 digs, respectively.

On the front row, senior Liza Senenkova picked up 13 kills, while junior Jen Meyer needed just 18 swings and a .500 attack percentage to find the floor on nine kills. Senior Stephanie Koontz added seven kills and led the Gamecocks with five blocks.

The Tigers got 17 kills and 17 digs from Terakka Walker, while Erika Moss dished out 44 assists.

AUSTIN PEAY 3, TENNESSEE TECH 1
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Austin Peay State University's volleyball team faltered briefly but used a powerful offensive performance to win a four-set (25-20, 25-17, 22-25, 25-20) Ohio Valley Conference decision against Tennessee Tech, Friday night, at the Dunn Center.

Austin Peay (8-18, 6-9 OVC) opened the match with a defensive show, recording five blocks in the set. The Lady Govs used three consecutive blocks to build a 9-2 lead.

Tennessee Tech slowly reeled Austin Peay back in, tying the match at 19-19. However, freshman Hillary Plybon recorded back-to-back aces to give APSU a 22-19 lead it would not relinquish.

The Lady Govs offense hit its stride in the second set, recording 15 kills and a .464 attack percentage as they committed just two attack errors. Meanwhile, the APSU defense again caused the Golden Eagles problems, recording four blocks in the frame. Those woes proved deadly late in the set when four consecutive TTU attack errors - one caused by an APSU block - gave APSU a 21-15 lead.

Tennessee Tech (4-21, 3-12 OVC) seemingly solved all of its offensive woes during the break, recording just one attack error in the third set while posting 12 kills. Austin Peay out-performed the Golden Eagles with 17 kills but also committed seven attack errors.  The set was close, there were nine ties and three lead changes, until a 6-2 run gave TTU a 24-20 lead. Austin Peay staved off a pair of set points - courtesy consecutive kills by junior Nikki Doyle and senior Ilyanna Hernandez - but Tennessee Tech won the set on its fourth try on Kelsey Gray's kill.

Austin Peay recovered to dominate the fourth set, scoring five of the set's first six points. The Lady Govs maintained their lead through 10-6 and later 18-13. Austin Peay got to set point first, 25-15, but Tennessee Tech fended off five match point chances that to four consecutive kills and a block. The Lady Govs broke through on their sixth try, Doyle recording a match-ending kill.

Austin Peay finished with 60 kills and a .256 attack percentage while also recording 10 service aces and 12 blocks. Doyle led the Lady Govs with 15 kills and Pybon added 11 kills and five blocks.

The Lady Govs three seniors - Hernandez, Grantham and Economos - also had a large hand in the win after being recognized prior to the match. Hernandez had 12 kills and three blocks; Grantham posted nine kills, two service aces and three blocks while Economos finished with 28 digs.

Tennessee Tech recorded 44 kills and a .147 attack percentage in the loss. Natalie Penrod led the Golden Eagles with 13 kills and Ellen Conti added 11 kills off the bench.

MURRAY STATE 3, UT MARTIN 2
MURRAY, Ky. - For the first time since Oct. 31, 2009, the Murray State volleyball team came back from a 0-2 deficit to earn a 3-2 (24-26, 19-25, 25-19, 25-22, 15-11) win.  This time the Racers (7-19, 7-8 OVC) defeated Ohio Valley Conference foe, UT Martin in Racer Arena.

MSU was led by senior Teresa Krog, who garnered her first career double-double.  The Elgin, Ill., native tallied 15 kills and a career-best 13 digs, while adding a season-best .371 (15k-2e-35ta) hitting percentage.  Freshman Beth Mahurin added a career-best 20 kills and four blocks.  Senior Kayleah Sauer saw her second match of the season with 30+ digs, recording a season-high 33.

The first set was close throughout and was forced into extra points.  The teams combined for 13 tie scores and eight lead changes, with no team leading by more than three points during the set.  The score was 23-22, in favor of the Skyhawks (15-10, 10-5 OVC), when the Racers went on a 2-0 run and were going for set-point when UTM fought back and went on a 3-0 run to earn the 26-24 win.

The Skyhawks used the momentum they gained at the end of set one to start the second set with a 5-0 run that gave them the lead for the rest of the set.  The Racers made several small 3-0 and 2-0 runs throughout the set, but could not cut the deficit to lower than two and eventually lost 25-19.

MSU came out of the intermission with new hair styles and a renewed energy.  After allowing UTM to go up 4-1, the Racers went on a 7-0 run that not only gave them an 8-4 advantage, but also the lead for good.  MSU secured control of the set with a 5-0 run that included two-straight service aces by Sauer and gave the Racers a 15-6 lead.  The teams traded serves for the rest of the set, except for a few 2-0 Skyhawk runs, on the way to a 25-19 win for MSU.

Set four started out as a back-and-forth battle with 2-0 runs for each team.  The Racers then went on a 2-0 run and took the lead.  UTM kept the disadvantage to just one point for most of the first half of the set, until a 3-0 run gave the Racers a 12-8 lead and a 4-0 run pushed the advantage to 17-11.  The Skyhawks did not give up and used several small runs throughout the rest of the set to force a 22-all tie.  However, Mahurin responded for MSU with three-straight kills to give them the 25-22 win and force set five.

UTM took an early 2-0 lead in the final set and then traded serves and runs until the score was knotted at six.  MSU then pulled away with a 3-0 run to take the lead for good.  The Skyhawks cut the lead to one (9-8), but that was as close as they would get as two more 2-0 runs by MSU gave them the needed cushion to earn the 15-11 win.

The keys to the win for the Racers were in the digs and blocks columns.  MSU tallied 107 digs to UTM's 95 and out-blocked the Skyhawks 10.5 to eight.  The Racers also had a slight lead in the hitting percentage column, with a .237 (66k-21e-190ta) mark to a .204 (68k-23e-221ta) pace by UTM.

UT Martin was led by Emily Keaton with 20 kills and 14 digs while Kasey Eslwick tallied a team-high 29 digs.