ST. CHARLES, Mo. - Southeast Missouri women's volleyball met the Quincy University Hawks in SEMO's first-ever volleyball exhibition match Thursday at Hyland Arena on the Lindenwood University campus.
 
"I think it was very helpful," Redhawks Head Coach Julie Yankus said of the preseason match. "You could tell a lot of our players were obviously nervous today even knowing that this doesn't count toward the record. Hopefully now that we have exhibition games we can actually use that as a tool to get those first game of the season jitters out, give some new people some playing time and get an experience with another set of uniforms across the net so that we can hopefully develop and work on things coming into the regular season."
 
Yankus said the strategy behind the different lineups in the exhibition was to see the team's ability to adapt.
 
 "We were definitely trying different varieties of things we could do," she said. "So it wasn't a starting lineup per se just to kind of see how we could adjust. That's one thing we need to work on is our ability to adjust to each opponent that we play."
 
Assistant coach Bob Crank added the match was focused on development.
 
"One of the great things about exhibitions is it gives us a chance to kind of set a road map for the next couple of weeks as we get ready for competition that counts," Crank said.
 
The exhibition also served as a reunion for Crank who coached Quincy for four seasons before joining the Redhawks volleyball staff in May.
 
"It was a good feeling to get a chance to see them [Quincy] and see them play well," he said. "They are starting off their season really well so that makes me feel good as a former coach of that program. Obviously it's a little bittersweet and tough because in this moment and this day I'm trying to find a way to compete against them and beat them."
 
Southeast will host a full team scrimmage on Friday at Houck Field House in preparation for the season opener in Louisiana at the New Orleans Tournament Aug 25-26.
 
SEMO hosts the Redhawks Invitational for the team's home opener Sept. 1-2 at the Show Me Center.