Southeast Missouri (13-8, 5-3)
vs. Belmont (2-18, 2-5)
Match Information
Date: Friday, Oct. 19, 2018
First Serve: 6:30 p.m., CT
Location: Cape Girardeau, Mo. 
Venue: Houck Field House
Series: Belmont leads all-time series 6-3
Video: OVC Digital Network
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
 
vs. Tennessee State (7-12, 5-3)
Match Information
Date: Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018
First Serve: 5 p.m., CT
Location: Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Venue: Houck Field House
Series: Southeast leads all-time series 42-7
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
 
Complete Match Notes:
Southeast Missouri (PDF)
Belmont (PDF)
Tennessee State (PDF)
 
Pink Up Match Friday Highlights Pair of Redhawk Contests with Belmont and TSU 
Southeast Missouri women's volleyball (13-8, 5-3) hosts a pair of contests this weekend at Houck Field House. The Redhawks face Belmont (2-18, 2-5) Friday in its annual Pink Up Match. Survivors and a guest receive free admission to the match. Southeast will also wear special edition pink breast cancer awareness uniforms and fans are encouraged to wear pink. SEMO then takes on Tennessee State (7-12, 5-3) Saturday, Oct. 20 at 5 p.m. Fans receive free admission to Saturday's match with a Southeast Football ticket (game at 1 p.m. at Houck Field). Both matches will feature post-match autographs.
 
Promotions
Friday, Oct. 19 - Pink Up Match
            • The Redhawks will wear special edition breast cancer awareness uniforms.
            • Survivors and a guest receive free admission.
• All fans are encouraged to wear pink.
• Post match autographs. 
Saturday, Oct. 20
            • Free admission with SEMO Football Ticket (Game at 1 p.m. at Houck Field).
            •  Post match autographs.
 
Follow the Redhawks
• Stats will be available for Southeast's matches on Friday and Saturday at GoSoutheast.com.
• @SEMOvb, the official Twitter page of Redhawks volleyball, will feature live in-game updates all season long.
 
Series History
Belmont leads the all-time series with Southeast, 6-3. The two teams met once in 2017 with the Bruins winning, 3-0, in Nashville, Tennessee, on Oct. 14. Nzingha Clarke, Haley Bilbruck and Marie Less each had three kills in the match. Allie Henkelman tallied seven assists along with seven digs. Ally Dion added seven digs and Mikayla Kuhlmann chipped in five.
 
SEMO last beat Belmont on Oct. 14, 2016, 3-2, at Houck Field House. Krissa Gearring led the Redhawks with 17 kills and 15 digs, earning her 14th double-double of the season. Less followed with 12 kills, adding on nine digs during her three sets of action. Katarina Rotta tallied 38 assists during the contest while Jade Mortimer registered 14 digs.
 
The Redhawks boast a 42-7 all-time record with Tennessee State and have won the last six matches including last season on Oct. 13, 2017, 3-0, in Nashville, Tennessee. 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. Keegan Fornoff added 14 assists. Ally Dion led the Redhawks defensively with 14 digs.
 
Scouting the Opponents
Bruins
Belmont is 2-18 in 2018 with a conference mark of 2-5. The Bruins started the campaign with 17 straight losses before their first win over Eastern Kentucky, 3-1, on Oct. 6. Last week the Bruins bested Austin Peay, 3-2, at home on Friday before dropping a 1-3 decision to Murray State Saturday. 
 
Taylor Floyd was one dig short of a double-double versus APSU with 16 kills and nine digs. She then added 15 kills on a .343 attack percentage and seven digs versus MSU. Peyton Kelley came off the bench to notch a team-high 16 digs in the win over Austin Peay. Kelley also had 15 digs against the Racers. Carly Mason posted back-to-back 30-plus outings last week. She had 30 assists and 11 digs in the win over APSU and followed that up with 42 assists versus Murray State. 
 
Assistant coach Karlee Lursen was a member of the Redhawks volleyball team from 2009-2012. Lursen was a standout outside hitter at Southeast and was a perennial member of both the SEMO and Ohio Valley Conference academic honor rolls. In her SEMO career, Lursen recorded 563 kills with 78 total blocks. 
 
Belmont was picked to finish fifth in the preseason OVC poll. 
 
Tigers
Tennessee State is tied for third in the OVC with SEMO and Murray State with a 5-3 record. Overall, the Tigers are 7-12 and are currently on a three-match losing streak after falling to Morehead State (0-3) on Oct. 6, Murray State (2-3) on Oct. 12 and Austin Peay (1-3) on Oct. 13. 
 
Rachel Henderson recorded a career-high 22 kills on a .436 hitting percentage against Murray State. She also had nine digs and six blocks. Henderson totaled 30 kills and 10 blocks during the week. Gina Rivera Ortiz set a season-high with 37 digs versus Murray State and followed that up with 27 against Austin Peay. Laken Te'o recorded double-doubles in each match. She had a career-high 49 assists to go with 12 digs against the Racers. She followed that up with 45 assists and 11 digs versus the Govs. Hinalei Fihaki finished the weekend with 15 blocks. 
 
Tennessee State was pegged to finish 10th in the league. 
 
Weekend Recap
Southeast split a pair of road matches this past weekend in Kentucky. The Redhawks registered their third straight victory with their first OVC sweep of 2018 over Eastern Kentucky Friday and then fell at Morehead State, 1-3, Saturday. 
 
Annie Wehrheim led the Redhawk offense with 29 kills and 30.0 points. She notched a team-high 18 kills against EKU. Maggie Adams totaled a team-best eight blocks over the two matches. Claire Ochs led the team with 71 assists and helped Southeast Missouri hit .260 as a team. She recorded a double-double in each match with 35 assists and 11 digs at EKU and 36 assists and 14 digs at Morehead State. She now has 10 straight double-doubles. 
 
Redhawks Leading the Conference
Claire Ochs is first in the OVC with 27 service aces. She is also third with 841 assists and fourth in assists per set with 10.26.
 
Laney Malloy also leads the conference with 835 total attacks. Malloy also ranks second in the league for total kills (277) and points (314.0). She is third in the OVC with 10.18 attacks per set. 
 
Maggie Adams tops the league with 81 total blocks. She is also second in the OVC with 0.99 blocks per set. 
 
13 Overall Wins in 2018
With the victory on Friday (Oct. 12), Southeast has now tallied their highest win total of 13 in the past four seasons. 
 
Looking Ahead
After this weekend's two-match homestand, Southeast faces both Murray State and Austin Peay for the second time this season on the road. The Redhawks head to Murray, Kentucky, for a meeting with MSU on Friday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. and then take on APSU Saturday, Oct. 27 at 1 p.m. in Clarksville, Tennessee. 
 
Non-Conference Recap
The Redhawks concluded their non-conference slate with an 8-5 mark (2-2 home, 4-1 away, 2-2 neutral), which matches the 2013 season when the team finished 17-16 (8-9 nonconference). SEMO started the season 5-0 for the team's best start to a season in its NCAA Division I era (1991). Prior to this year, Southeast had never opened a season during its DI era with five consecutive sweeps (15 sets). Southeast captured the 2018 Troy Invitational Championship to start the season with three, three-set sweeps over Southern, Southeastern Louisiana and Troy.
 
The Redhawks picked up a Tuesday night win at Evansville and beat Louisiana Monroe in their opening Redhawks Invitational match before losses to Radford and Northwestern State. Southeast then defeated regional rival Southern Illinois before dropping matches to Arkansas State, Providence and Missouri-Kansas City at the Kangaroo Classic.
 
SEMO ended non-conference play with wins at WIU and NIU last week. 
 
2017 OVC Recap
Southeast posted a 6-10 record in the OVC in 2018 to secure its first tournament berth since 2015 and 24th appearance in program history. As the eighth seed, the Redhawks met #1 seed Austin Peay in the first round in Clarksville, Tennessee. The Governors took the match, 3-0, before claiming the conference title in 2017. 
 
O Captains! My Captains!
Southeast Head Coach Julie Yankus announced on Aug. 20, Haley Bilbruck, Madeline Grimm and Claire Ochs were selected as team captains for the 2018 season. The trio were chosen to the leadership positions by their teammates.
 
Roster Breakdown
The Redhawks squad includes 16 student-athletes and features eight upperclassmen (four seniors and four juniors). Southeast returns 10 players from the 2017 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Team and only lost five letter winners. The 2018 squad features six newcomers including five freshmen and one transfer (sophomore).  
 
Despite losing All-OVC picks in Nzingha Clarke and Krissa Gearring, offensively the Redhawks return Mikayla Kuhlmann (205 kills, 2.38 kills/set), Haley Bilbruck (166 kills, 1.42 kills/set), Madara Bajare (130 kills) and Krista Berns (116 kills) who ranked third, fourth, fifth and sixth for winners in 2017. 
 
Keegan Fornoff returns at setter for her senior season and dished out 530 assists in 2017. Fornoff currently ranks fourth overall in SEMO program history (25-point rally scoring, 2008-present) with 1059 career assists. Freshman Claire Ochs joins Fornoff at the setter position.
 
Defensively, Ally Dion returns at the libero/defensive specialist position after she led the team in 2017 with 340 digs (3.33) as a freshman. Emily Boggetto is another returner at defensive specialist and was fourth on SEMO with 148 digs (2.96 digs/set) in 2017.
 
Oh, Hi Carly!
Carly Thomas joins the Redhawks in 2018 as an assistant coach after spending a year at Missouri State. Thomas coaches the setters and is responsible for travel, film exchange, home match management and academic development among other duties. Thomas was a standout player at Missouri State from 2010-13, starting in 107 of her 124 career matches at setter. She earned First-Team All-Missouri Valley Conference honors each of her final three seasons. An AVCA honorable mention All-American in 2013, Thomas ranked second in MSU history with 4,708 career assists and 12th with 1,201 digs, while adding 498 kills on a .257 hitting percentage. She added 177 blocks and four triple-doubles during her career as well.
 
Thomas most recently coached at her alma mater, assisting the MSU Beach Volleyball program during its inaugural season. Prior to that, she spent three years as an assistant coach at Ozark High School, earning Large Class Assistant Coach of the Year honors from the Missouri High School Volleyball Coaches Association in 2016. Thomas also spent the last four years coaching club volleyball for Springfield Juniors, leading her team to a berth in the USA Junior National Championships. 
 
OVC Preseason Poll
SEMO was chosen to finish ninth in the 2018 Ohio Valley Conference Volleyball Predicted Order of Finish, the league announced Aug. 14. The Redhawks received 95 points in the poll voted on by OVC coaches and sports information directors. Murray State was picked to finish first with 230 points and 10 first-place votes. 2017 OVC Champion Austin Peay earned 14 first-place votes and totaled 227 points for second. Rounding out the poll are SIUE (193), Eastern Kentucky (175), Belmont (152), Morehead State (129), Jacksonville State (125), Eastern Illinois (112), Southeast Missouri (95), Tennessee State (58), UT Martin (56), Tennessee Tech (32).
 
Redhawks Crushing it in the Classroom 
Southeast racked up multiple academic awards in the offseason. The Redhawks earned a NCAA Public Recognition Award based on their most recent multiyear Academic Progress Rates for the third-straight season. SEMO was also awarded their 11th American Volleyball Coaches Association AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2017-2018 season after registering a 3.30 cumulative GPA.
 
Maggie Adams, Madara Bajare, Krista Berns, Haley Bilbruck, Keegan Fornoff, Marie Less and Jessica McElderry were each listed on the OVC's Commissioner's Honor Roll for the 2017-18 academic year after they achieved at least a 3.25 grade point average. Less also earned her second straight OVC Medal of Honor after she posted a perfect 4.0 grade point average during the 2017-18 academic year.