JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – The #2-seeded Southeast Missouri women's volleyball team (22-10, 12-4 OVC) outlasted #3 Murray State (19-11, 12-4 OVC) in a five-set thriller (25-20, 14-25, 25-22, 20-25, 21-19) Friday at the Pete Mathews Coliseum to advance to the 2019 Ohio Valley Conference Volleyball Championship Final Saturday.
 
Southeast will face #4 Morehead State (23-8, 12-4 OVC) Saturday at 6 p.m. in the final. The Eagles swept top-seeded host, Jacksonville State (20-10, 13-3 OVC), 25-20, 25-23, 25-20, Friday in the second semifinal. 
 
The Redhawks advanced to the OVC Championship Tournament Final for the first time since 2006 (Jacksonville, Alabama). With the win, SEMO has also notched 22 wins in 2019 which is the most for the program since 23 victories in 2000 (23-9, 16-0 OVC).
 
"I'm so proud of this team's resilience, toughness, and competitiveness," head coach Julie Yankus said after the match. "Everyone on the team should be proud of their combined efforts that got us to the championship match."
 
Mikayla Kuhlmann led the Redhawks attackers with 14 kills. Laney Malloy finished with a double-double of 13 kills and 12 digs. Maggie Adams added 10 kills with nine total blocks. Annie Wehrheim concluded the contest with eight kills.
 
Claire Ochs directed the offense with 43 assists and 13 digs for the double-double outing. 
 
Tara Beilsmith paced the defense with 28 digs and two assists. Emily Boggetto tallied 12 digs and Ally Dion had nine. Dion has now surpassed 2,000 career digs in her career as a Redhawk (2,006).
 
"I give so much credit to our passers for this win tonight," Yankus said. "Tara Beilsmith, Ally Dion, Laney Malloy, and Emily Boggetto did a great job of getting us in system so we could run our offense. They did an excellent job of passing against a team who has very aggressive servers."
 
The Redhawks out blocked the Racers, 17-6, for their second-highest block total in 2019. 
 
"We also did an excellent job blocking," Yankus said of the team's presence at the net. "Our middles worked so hard to close as many blocks as they could and we had a lot of positive touches in addition to 17-kill blocks."
 
Krista Berns and Malloy each had five total blocks for second after Adams (9). Wehrheim finished with four, Ochs had three and Kuhlmann notched two. 

Knotted at 2-2, the match necessitated a decisive fifth and final set. The fifth frame didn't disappoint as it featured 15 ties and seven lead changes.
 
A kill from Kuhlmann coupled with a block assist by Adams and Wehrheim gave the Redhawks an early 4-2 lead and forced a Racers timeout. 
 
Malloy then slammed a kill to push the advantage to 8-7 ahead of the changeover. 
 
A solo block from Kuhlmann brought on an 11-9 edge before consecutive kills by Rachel Holthaus tied the set.
 
SEMO and the Racers each had attack errors to bring on Southeast match point at 14-13. After a Redhawks error, Kuhlmann connected with a kill to make the score, 15-14. 
 
Wehrheim then notched a rally stopper for a 16-15 advantage.
 
A block assist by Malloy and Berns knotted the set back up at 17-17. 
 
Murray State fended off seven Redhawks match points down the stretch before Southeast captured the win. Ochs registered a kill before Adams tallied the game-winning kill, 21-19. 

2019 OVC Player of the Year Rachel Giustino led the Racers with 26 kills and 19 digs. Holthaus added 23 kills and 12 digs. Ashley McBee totaled 58 assists. 
 
Southeast will next face #4 Morehead State (23-8, 12-4 OVC) Saturday at 6 p.m. in the final.