NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Southeast Missouri women's volleyball (7-14, 2-5) swept Tennessee State (6-14, 2-5), 25-19, 25-22, 25-16, Friday evening at Kean Hall for the team's first road win of the season.
 
"This was a great team win tonight," head coach Julie Yankus said. "We started out slow, but remained calm and chipped away at their lead. We passed really well which set up our offense to be successful. A huge part of our success tonight was our bench. They did a great job assisting the players on the court and they kept up the energy the whole match."
 
The Redhawks have now won the last six meetings with the Tigers and have now matched their win total from last season.
 
Krissa Gearring led the SEMO offense with 14 kills on a .343 hitting clip. Mikayla Kuhlmann and Nzingha Clarke each chipped in nine kills.
 
Allie Henkelman totaled 20 assists and 12 digs for her third straight double-double performance and seventh of the campaign. Keegan Fornoff added 14 assists.
 
Libero Ally Dion led the Redhawks defensively with 14 digs.
 
Down 10-14 in the opening set, Southeast went on a 6-0 run with back-to-back kills from Gearring, a Fornoff service ace and two Tennessee State attack errors to take a 16-14 edge. The Tigers would then call their first timeout of the set.
 
After the timeout, Krista Berns would grow the Redhawks lead to 19-16 with two kills. Kuhlmann added another kill to give SEMO the first set, 25-19.
 
Southeast outhit TSU .182 to .056 as the Tigers recorded nine errors in the first frame. Gearring paced the Redhawks with six kills and converted .385.
 
The Redhawks took a 2-0 lead in the match after a 25-22 second set win where the team hit a .235 percentage.
 
Southeast once again had to overcome an early deficit in the second stanza. Tennessee State jumped out to an early 11-6 lead before Southeast cut the deficit to a point at 10-11. Madara Bajare hit one of her three second set kills and Clarke hit back-to-back kills in the rally.
 
A kill from Haley Bilbruck knotted the set at 19-19 before kills from Kuhlmann and Gearring along with a Tigers error made the score 22-19. TSU would come as close as a point but Bajare added another kill and a set error gave SEMO the 25-22 win.
 
The Redhawks dominated the third and final set, 25-16, to claim the contest. Southeast hit a match-high .387 in the set and Clarke added five of her kills. 
 
Three-straight kills from Kuhlmann and Clarke (2) extended SEMO's lead to 19-8. Tennessee State came as close as 23-16 on a block by Katora Roberts and Rachel Henderson but Southeast closed out the set two points later, 25-16.
 
The Redhawks continue their Music City road set with a 2 p.m. match tomorrow afternoon at Belmont.