LEXINGTON, Ky. – Southeast Missouri women's volleyball (23-11, 12-4 OVC) wrapped up its historic season with a 20-25, 15-25, 19-25 loss at #9 Kentucky (24-6, 16-2 SEC) in the opening round of the 2019 NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship Friday evening at the Memorial Coliseum. 
 
The 23 wins during the 2019 campaign matched the 2000 season when the Redhawks last made an NCAA Tournament appearance.
 
"I'm so proud of this team," head coach Julie Yankus said after the match. "We have made such a long journey – an amazing journey this year. I think we played with such heart and fight and I think we're a really fun team to watch. I don't think we came out nervous or scared today. We came out to fight and compete, and we did just that. I'm really happy with the way we played. I think we took some big swings. We were aggressive. We went after it."
 
"We just kind of had some lulls with our passing at times that kind of got us out of system, but besides that we did what we normally do as a SEMO team, right now which is be a balanced attack team and get everybody involved, and that usually makes us hard to defend. So, I'm really proud of what we did today."
 
Laney Malloy paced the 2019 OVC Tournament Champion Redhawks with a double-double of 12 kills, 11 digs and two service aces. 
 
Mikayla Kuhlmann and Claire Ochs each finished with six kills. Annie Wehrheim and Maggie Adams chipped in five kills each. 
 
Ochs facilitated the SEMO attack with 21 assists and seven digs. 
 
Tara Beilsmith led the defense with 18 digs and five assists. With the match-high outing, Beilsmith is now the Redhawks single-season digs leader during the 25-point rally scoring era (2008 to present) with 641 digs in 2019. 
 
"She's a great player," Yankus said of Beilsmith. "She picks up some amazing balls on defense. She reads the game very well and that's how she's able to do that. But she definitely makes some great reads and some aggressive plays and is not scared to go after any ball. She plays with a lot of heart, of course, and fight."
 
Kuhlmann, Emily Boggetto and Ally Dion each had five digs Friday. 
 
Southeast hit a .231 hitting percentage in the third and final set and finished with a .188 clip compared to Kentucky's .304. 
 
Leah Edmond posted a match-high 18 kills to lead the Wildcats while Alli Stumler added 12 and nine digs. Madison Lilley tallied 33 assists for Kentucky. 
 
SEMO concluded the match with four total blocks. Berns totaled three while Ochs, Wehrheim and Malloy each had one. 
 
#9 Kentucky will now face Michigan (21-10, 13-7 Big Ten) Saturday in the 2019 NCAA Championship Second Round at 6 p.m., CT at the Memorial Coliseum.