Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Game One Box | Game Two Box
 
ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Southeast Missouri volleyball team completed tournament play at the Saint Louis University Marcia E. Hamilton Classic Saturday. The Redhawks came up empty against both Saint Louis (1-2) and Northern Iowa (2-1) on the day.
 
Saint Louis swept the Redhawks in three sets to begin day two followed by Southeast falling to UNI in four sets.
 
Southeast Missouri finished 1-3 on the weekend to open the 2014 season.
 
Andrea Baylin was named All-Tournament team.
 
"Andrea was the bright spot for us today," said head coach Julie Yankus. "She picked it up, she showed a lot of leadership, we had her swinging from the front and back rows, and she had a lot of kills from just being smart with her swing today."
 
Southeast Missouri 0, Saint Louis 3
Saint Louis trailed only for a few points in the first set, but was otherwise dominate in the opening stanza. Down 20-17, SLU used eight-straight points to surpass the Redhawks and take the first set by a score of 25-20. The Billikens hit .452 in the set and put up 4.5 team blocks.
 
The second set looked to be all SLU as the Billikens were ahead of Southeast 18-11. Southeast used an 8-0 run to take a one-point lead on Saint Louis. The match went extra long as the teams combined for four different occasions for set point before SLU locked it down, 28-26, and took a 2-0 lead in the match. Baylin recorded 10 of Southeast's 13 kills in the set.
 
Looking to avoid a sweep, the Redhawks came out strong in the third set as they held a steady lead the first half of the set. With SLU's offense beginning to fire and a couple errors by the Redhawks, the Billikens took the lead and carried it to a sweep of the Redhawks with a 25-22 set victory. Baylin added seven kills in the set.
 
Baylin was not only Southeast's kill leader with 20 (.304 hitting clip) but also led the squad defensively with 11 digs and also contributed on a block. Her performance against SLU was her second double-double of the tournament.
 
"Unfortunately, we just couldn't get a lot of offense going in the match against SLU. We just couldn't get any other offense going and you can't survive with only one person terminating. In all, SLU was in system a lot and that made them hard to stop."
 
Southeast Missouri 1, Northern Iowa 3
The Redhawks won their first set of the day to begin their match against Northern Iowa. Both teams fought valiantly throughout the set going toe-to-toe much of the time. UNI opened a 23-19 lead on Southeast but the Redhawks put up four-straight points to tie the set. Both teams went back-and-forth but the Redhawks emerged victorious, 28-26, and took a 1-0 lead in the match.
 
UNI never trailed in the second set as they cruised to a 25-19 set two win to tie up the match at one set apiece.
 
Set three proves very similar to set two. While the score was tied a number of times early in the set, the Panthers never trailed the Redhawks. UNI began to slowly widen a lead and carried it to another 25-19 set win to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
Once again, NUI lead the entire fourth, and would be final, set. However, with NIU up 24-18, Southeast was able to hold off match point to narrow the lead to 24-21 before an attack error by the Redhawks sealed the deal for the Panthers.
 
Once again, Baylin recorded another double-double in the match with 13 kills and 14 digs. Taylor Masterson tallied 11 kills while hitting .304.
 
"Northern Iowa is a really good team with a good RPI and from a strong conference. We competed all the way through by doing the small things better than we did against SLU. We picked it up better defensively against UNI and had better sideout percentages.
 
"We will work on being more in system this week in practice and getting more hitters involved. Overall, we saw a lot of good things from the weekend. It was a tough tournament scheduling-wise. It makes us better to compete against these really good teams and even if we get a loss but compete well, we're putting ourselves in a good position as we approach the conference season."
 
Southeast Missouri will return to the floor Friday, Sept. 5, at the Indiana Invitational in Bloomington, Indiana. The Redhawks will take on SEC foe Mississippi State Friday at 4 p.m., CT. Southeast faces Indiana and Miami (Ohio) on Saturday.