Southeast Missouri (9-16, 4-7)
at Tennessee Tech (3-20, 1-10)
Match Information
Date: Friday, Oct. 27, 2017
First Serve: 7 p.m.
Location: Cookeville, Tenn.
Venue: Hooper Eblen Center
Series: SEMO leads 40-12
 
Media Information
Live Stats: StatBroadcast  
Video: OVC Digital Network
 
Follow the Redhawks on Twitter for in-match updates @SEMOvb
 
Complete Match Notes: Southeast Missouri
 
Southeast Faces Golden Eagles Friday
Southeast Missouri women's volleyball (9-16, 4-7) travels to Cookeville, Tennessee for a 7 p.m. Friday night match against Tennessee Tech.
 
Follow the Redhawks
• Live stats will be available for Friday's match. The live stat link can be found on the volleyball schedule on GoSoutheast.com.
• The match will also be streamed live and for free on the OVC Digital Network.
• @SEMOvb, the official Twitter page of the Redhawks volleyball team, will feature live in-game updates all season long.
 
Series History
Southeast leads the all-time series with Tennessee Tech, 40-12. The Redhawks took the most recent meeting against Tech, 3-0, on Nov. 12, 2016 in Cape. Nzingha Clarke tallied 11 kills to lead the SEMO offense. Krissa Gearring, Jessica McElderry and Krista Berns each added eight kills in the contest. Southeast posted a season-best .350 clip (43 kills, eight errors, 100 attempts). The Redhawks last won in Cookeville, Tennessee on Nov. 16, 2013 (3-1).
 
Scouting the Golden Eagles (3-20, 1-10)
TTU enters the matchup with a seven-match losing streak for a 3-20 overall record and 1-10 mark in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Golden Eagles fell to Jacksonville State in straight sets Wednesday night in Jacksonville, Alabama. Junior middle blocker Shaneice James led Tech with 11 kills and junior setter Susie Jeziorowski recorded 35 assists. Libero Kirsten Brugere tallied 21 digs. This past weekend, Tech was swept in a pair of matches at Eastern Illinois and SIUE. The Golden Eagles were picked to finish the 2017 season 10th in the OVC, according to the preseason poll.
 
Let's Recap
The Redhawks pulled off an epic, five-set comeback victory over UT Martin Tuesday night at Houck Field House. Down two sets, the Redhawks rallied off three straight set wins. Krissa Gearring led Southeast with 18 kills and 19 digs. Allie Henkelman also compiled a double-double with 30 assists and 14 digs. Nzingha Clarke and Haley Bilbruck each added 12 kills. Ally Dion had 14 digs in the match and Clarke and Madara Bajare each had seven block assists.
 
Southeast split their homestand this past weekend with a win over Morehead State on Friday, Oct. 20 before a loss to Eastern Kentucky on Saturday, Oct. 21. On Friday evening, the Redhawks posted their season-best team hitting percentage of .371 in the victory.  
 
Making it Look Ea"Z"y
Nzingha Clarke leads the conference and ranks 14th in the NCAA with 118 total blocks (24 solo and 94 assists) this season. She now has 119 solo blocks and 314 block assists for 433 total blocks in her Redhawks career.
 
Clarke ranks 11th all-time in Southeast program history for total blocks behind Brenna Schlader (438 from 2004-07). She also ranks 11th all-time in career block assists behind Theresa Sebacher who recorded 328 from 1993 to 1996.
 
Offensively, Clarke is second in the OVC with a .379 hitting percentage. In solely conference matches, Clarke leads the league with a .396.
 
Da Ally D Show
Libero Ally Dion matched her career-best of five services aces in Tuesday's match. Dion rallied off three-straight service aces in the third set. She leads the conference with 0.45 aces per set (24th in the NCAA) and 35 service aces (26th in the NCAA). Dion also recorded a career-high of seven assists in the match with 13 digs.
 
Assisting Allie
Senior setter Allie Henkelman led Southeast on Tuesday with 30 assists. She also added 14 digs. Henkelman has now totaled a career-high 429 assists and 200 digs in 2017. She has 581 assists and 270 digs in her Redhawks career.
 
Less is More
Marie Less recorded a season-high eight kills with nine digs off the bench on Tuesday. Prior to the contest, Less had played a majority of the campaign as a defensive specialist and contributed on Tuesday as an outside hitter.
 
Fornoff the Facilitator
Setter Keegan Fornoff currently has 992 career assists and is eight assists from eclipsing 1,000 in her Redhawks career. Fornoff has posted a career-high 463 assists in 2017 and ranks 10th all-time in program history for career assists.
 
Career-Highs for Bilbruck
Rightside hitter Haley Bilbruck notched a career-best 12 kills on Tuesday against UT Martin. Bilbruck previously recorded a career-high of 10 kills on a .643 hitting clip on Friday, Oct. 20.
 
Gearring the Terminator
Krissa Gearring notched her 1,000th career kill and 1,000th career dig earlier this season and is one of 27 NCAA Division I volleyball players to join the club in 2017. She currently has 1,230 career kills as a Redhawk and sits 11th all-time in program history behind Nancy Scheller (1,244 in 1987-91). Gearing also ranks fourth in Southeast program history with 3,837 career attack attempts.
 
Golden Eagles Connection
Redhawks assistant coach Calaeb Campbell returns to his alma mater, Tennessee Tech, on Friday. Campbell graduated in 2013 from TTU and served as the libero for the Tech club volleyball team. He also previously worked as the Golden Eagles volunteer assistant coach in 2015 prior to joining the SEMO volleyball staff.
 
Looking Ahead
Friday's match begins a three-game road stretch for Southeast. The Redhawks take on Murray State and Austin Peay on Nov. 3 and 4 before closing out the regular season with home matchups against SIUE on Nov. 10 and Eastern Illinois on Nov. 11.
 
Non-Conference Recap
SEMO concluded their non-conference schedule with a 5-9 record (4-0 home, 0-4 away, 1-5 neutral). Southeast picked up its first win of the season over Alcorn State at the New Orleans Invitational and returned to Cape where the team rallied off four-straight wins and claimed the Redhawks Invitational Championship. The Redhawks then lost seven-straight matches at both the Drake Invitational and Chicago State Invitational with a stop at SIU sandwiched in between.
 
Roster Breakdown
The Redhawks squad includes 15 student-athletes with the bulk of the team made up of upperclassmen (five seniors and five juniors). Nine members from the 2016 team return this season with four returnees being regular starters last season. The 2017 roster features five newcomers, two of which are true freshman and the other three players transferring from other institutions.
 
OVC Preseason
SEMO was chosen to finish ninth in the 2017 Ohio Valley Conference preseason poll. The Redhawks received 70 points in the survey voted on by OVC Coaches and Sports Information Directors. Belmont was picked as the 2017 preseason favorite. The Bruins garnered 10 of the 24 first place votes for 223 points. Austin Peay (214 points) finished second with six first-place votes. SIUE (199 points) took two first-place votes for third and 2016 OVC Champion, Murray State, (188 points) received six first-place votes to place fourth. Senior outside hitter Krissa Gearring and senior middle blocker Nzingha Clarke were both named to the 2017 Preseason All-OVC Team.