CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Southeast Missouri women's volleyball (8-16, 3-7) dropped a 3-0 decision (21-25, 23-25, 22-25) to Eastern Kentucky (9-15, 7-3) Saturday afternoon at Houck Field House to split their weekend set.
 
Krissa Gearring led Southeast offensively with 12 kills and added 10 digs for her eighth double-double of the season. Mikayla Kuhlmann chipped in 11 kills.
 
Allie Henkelman also recorded her eighth double-double of 2017 with 21 assists along with a career-high 16 digs.
 
Defensively, Nzingha Clarke matched her career-high of 11 blocks (five solo, six assist) and also tallied seven kills. Libero Ally Dion led the team with 19 digs.
 
Eastern Kentucky took the opening set, 25-21, and went on a 5-0 scoring run to extend their lead to 19-13. Clarke hit a kill to make the score line, 14-19.
 
The Colonels then rallied off four straight points with back-to-back kills from Celina Sanks to grow their lead to 23-14.
 
Southeast cut the deficit to 21-23 on a 7-0 rally that featured three Gearring kills and two blocks from Clarke (one with Madara Bajare). Kills from Sanks and Clairissa Hankinson sealed the set for EKU.
 
The Redhawks hit a match-high .200 percentage in the opening set and outhit the Colonels. Gearring hit four kills in the first set and Kuhlmann and Clarke each had three.
 
The second frame was highly competitive but EKU extended their edge to 2-0 after a 25-23 set win. Gearring led the Redhawks with seven kills in the stanza and got the score as close as 23-24. Clarke had four blocks (three solo) in the second set.
 
In the third set, Southeast jumped out to a 7-3 lead with kills from Kuhlmann and Clarke. A 4-0 run by the Colonels switched the lead to Eastern Kentucky's favor prompting a SEMO timeout.
 
The Redhawks responded with a 4-0 rally of their own with kills from Henkelman and Kuhlmann along with a Clarke and Haley Bilbruck block assist to make the score 18-17. Clarke would add two more kills to extend SEMO's lead to 20-18 before EKU would close the set and claim the match.
 
Southeast faces UT Martin for their second 2017 meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 24 at Houck Field House at 6:30 p.m. The Skyhawks took the first meeting of the season in Martin, Tennessee, 3-1.