OVC Matches #7 & #8
 
Southeast Missouri (4-2, 4-2 OVC)
vs. SIUE (4-2, 4-2 OVC)
Match Information
Date: Sunday, Feb. 28, 2021
Location: Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Venue: Houck Field House
First Serve: 4 p.m., CT
All-Time Series: SIUE leads 13-8
Video: ESPN+
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
 
Southeast Missouri (4-2, 4-2 OVC)
vs. SIUE (4-2, 4-2 OVC)
Match Information
Date: Monday, March 1, 2021
Location: Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Venue: Houck Field House
First Serve: 2 p.m., CT
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
 
Media Coverage
Twitter: @SEMOvb
Media Guide
 
Redhawks Hosts SIUE for Pair of Matches Sunday and Monday
Southeast Missouri women's volleyball (4-2, 4-2 OVC) welcomes SIUE (4-2, 4-2 OVC) to Cape Girardeau for a pair of home matches Sunday and Monday at Houck Field House. First service is set for 4 p.m., CT Sunday and 2 p.m. Monday.
 
Follow the Redhawks
• Stats will be available for Sunday's and Monday's matches on GoSoutheast.com.
• Sunday's match will be streamed on ESPN+.
• @SEMOvb, the official Twitter page of Redhawks volleyball, will feature live in-game updates all season long.
 
Scouting the Cougars
SIUE beat Murray State this past week, 3-2 (18-25, 25-9, 22-25, 25-23, 15-13), and 3-0 (25-13, 25-20, 28-26) on Feb. 20 and 21.
 
Hope Everett posted a 14-kill, six-block outing while Sarah Armendariz notched a double-double of 48 assists and 12 digs in the series opener. Annie Ellis tallied 12 kills and six blocks while Rachel McDonald recorded 10 kills and nine digs.
 
The Cougars picked up the sweep in the series finale. Ellis posted nine kills and seven total blocks, while Sydney Hummert recorded eight kills, seven digs, and five total blocks. Savannah Christian, Hope Everett, and Rachel McDonald each compiled seven kills, while Jordyn Klein once paced the Cougars with 29 digs. Armendariz contributed 29 assists and three total blocks.
 
Series History
SIUE leads the all-time series with SEMO, 13-8. The Cougars have won the last two matchups including both meetings in 2019.
 
SIUE most recently swept the Redhawks on Nov. 15, 2019 in Edwardsville, Illinois. In Cape, the Cougars outlasted SEMO in five on Oct. 12, 2019.
 
The Redhawks last beat SIUE in Cape Girardeau on Nov. 2, 2018, a 3-1 win.
 
About Last Week
SEMO registered a pair of 3-1 wins over Belmont this past week and enter Sunday's matchup riding a four-match win streak. All four of the Redhawks victories this campaign have been 3-1 decisions after dropping the opening set.
 
SEMO beat Belmont, 17-25, 25-15, 25-21, 25-10, on Feb. 21 in Nashville, Tennessee, before claiming the regular-season sweep with a 18-25, 25-21, 25-9, 25-17 victory on Feb. 22.
 
Laney Malloy averaged a double-double of 27 kills (3.38 kills/set) and 31 digs (3.88 digs/set). Malloy opened the series with 11 kills and 15 digs Feb. 21 before concluding the week with 16 kills and 16 digs on a .295 hitting percentage in the Monday (Feb. 22) match. She now has 35 career double-doubles after the series in Nashville. Malloy also finished the week with a service ace and a block.
 
Malloy leads the OVC with 11.43 attacks per set and is third in the conference for kills per set (3.96) and points per set (4.37). She leads the Redhawks with 91 kills (3.96) in 2020-21.
 
Tara Beilsmith led the Redhawks defense with 34 digs (4.25). She was perfect in serve receive, tallying no errors over the two matches. Beilsmith registered four assists in the opener, finishing with six over the two matches. She also finished the week with four service aces including three in the series finale on Feb. 22.
 
Beilsmith is third in the OVC with 109 digs, averaging 4.74 digs per set (fourth).
 
Claire Ochs ran the Redhawks offense with 81 assists as SEMO hit at a .197 pace at Belmont. She opened the series against the Bruins with 43 assists and 13 digs as the Redhawks connected at a rate of .200 on Feb. 21. Ochs then added 38 assists and 10 digs on Feb. 22 in the second match of the series as SEMO posted a clip of .194. With the pair of double-doubles at Belmont, Ochs has now tallied five this season (21 in her career). She also finished the series with four kills and two service aces.
 
Ochs ranks second in the OVC with 237 assists, averaging 10.30 assists per set, good for third in the conference for the statistic.
 
The Beas Knees
Sophomore Zoey Beasley led the Redhawks attack against Belmont with 30 kills on a .257 hitting clip. Beasley, a Paragould, Arkansas native, tallied a career-best 17 kills on a .333 hitting clip in the opener before finishing the series with 13 kills.
 
Beasley is third on the team this campaign with 31 kills (1.35 kills/set).
 
Career-High for Gouard
Talia Gouard tallied a career-high eight kills with five blocks on a .538 clip in SEMO's series finale at Belmont on Feb. 22. She finished the week with 13 kills, five blocks and four digs.
 
The Houston, Texas native, is fourth on the team this season with 31 kills (1.35 kills/set).
 
Greene is our Favorite Color After Red
Colby Greene has registered double-digit kills in four of the last five matches. The junior from North Liberty, Iowa, finished with 13 kills (.296) in the series opener with Belmont on Feb. 21 and concluded the trip to the Music City with seven on Feb. 22.
 
She tallied 27 (12 and 15, .375 %) in the doubleheader against Eastern Kentucky on Feb. 14. She also notched 15 kills on a .324 hitting clip to conclude the season-opening series at Jacksonville State on Feb. 8.
 
Greene is second on the Redhawks with 69 kills (3.00 kills/set) this season.
 
Adams with the Block
Senior Maggie Adams is fourth in the OVC with 1.13 blocks per set. Adams leads the Redhawks this season with 26.0 total blocks followed by Colby Greene (15.0) and Talia Gouard (13.0).
 
Offensively, Adams has posted 18 kills (0.78 kills/set) thus far.
 
Block Party!!
SEMO ranks third in the OVC with 43 total blocks. The Redhawks most recently registered 9.0 and 6.0 total blocks this past week at Belmont.
 
Yeah Carol!!
Caroline Draver sealed the four set victory over Belmont on Feb. 22 with her first career kill. Draver, a redshirt sophomore from Shorewood, Wisconsin, made her Redhawks debut in the match and provided the Redhawks with a 25-17 final set to complete the series sweep of Belmont. She also notched a dig in the win.
 
Season Debuts
Elissa Moylan, Kendall Washington and freshman Lexie Smith all made their season debuts at Belmont on Feb. 21. Smith, a Smithton, Illinois native, tallied her first career collegiate kill right after she was substituted in to make the score, 22-9. Moylan, a junior from Bettendorf, Iowa, then hit a kill to make the SEMO advantage, 23-10.
 
Washington, a junior from Atlanta, Georgia, registered a service ace in the series opener against Belmont.
 
That's a Redhawks ACE!!
SEMO concluded its series at Belmont on Feb. 22 with a season-best 11 service aces. Freshman Kayla Closset led the Redhawks with a career-best of four. Tara Beilsmith added three and Ally Dion had two. Setters Izzy Lukens and Claire Ochs each tallied one in the win.
 
Freshman Addy McAleer sealed the Redhawks victory in the series opener with Belmont on Feb. 21 with a service ace to provide SEMO a 17-25, 25-15, 25-21, 25-10 win.
 
Redhawks Debuts
Freshmen Addy McAleer and Izzy Lukens both made their Redhawks debuts at Jacksonville State Feb. 7-8.
 
McAleer, an outside hitter from Leawood, Kansas, started in both matches and tallied three kills and three digs. Lukens, a setter from Omaha, Nebraska, appeared in four of the six sets.         
 
2020-21 OVC Preseason Poll
Four Redhawks were featured on the 2020-21 Preseason All-Ohio Valley Conference team as the Redhawks were selected to finish first in the preseason poll. SEMO, the 2019 OVC Tournament Champions, earned 10 first place votes and 222 total votes in the predicted order of finish that was selected by OVC Head Volleyball Coaches and Sports Information Directors.
 
The Redhawks also had a league-best four players selected to the 2020-21 Preseason All-OVC volleyball team in middle blocker Maggie Adams, libero Tara Beilsmith, outside hitter Laney Malloy and setter Claire Ochs. All four were named to 2019 All-OVC Teams.
 
2019 OVC Tournament Champions
The #2-seeded Southeast Missouri women's volleyball team swept #4 Morehead State, 26-24, 25-19, 28-26, at the Pete Mathews Coliseum to capture the 2019 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Championship on Nov. 23, 2019. The title was the sixth for SEMO and first since 2006. With the victory, SEMO earned an automatic qualification to the 2019 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship where it faced #9-ranked Kentucky on Dec. 6, 2019.
 
SEMO also matched the 2000 Redhawks that totaled 23 wins (23-9, 16-0 OVC) with the victory on Nov. 23, 2019. Laney Malloy, Mikayla Kuhlmann and Claire Ochs were each named to the 2019 OVC All-Tournament Team. Ochs was selected as the tournament MVP. The trio is the first Redhawks awarded OVC All-Tournament Team honors since Colleen Yarber garnered the distinction in 2012.
 
Malloy led the Redhawks offense with 16 kills and 10 digs for the double-double on a .267. Kuhlmann chipped in 12 on a .417 hitting clip. Annie Wehrheim finished with seven kills (.300) and Maggie Adams had five kills and four total blocks. Ochs dished out 32 assists with eight digs and five kills. Tara Beilsmith led the SEMO defense with a match-high 18 digs.
 
SEMO concluded the 2019 campaign with a 23-11 record, finishing 12-4 in OVC play (second in the regular season).
 
Team Makeup
SEMO returns 12 players from the 2019 OVC Tournament Championship team. The 2020-21 Redhawks team features seven upperclassmen including Maggie Adams, Laney Malloy and Claire Ochs who were all starters and All-OVC performers in 2019. SEMO also returns its All-OVC libero in sophomore Tara Beilsmith.
 
There are also six newcomers on the 2020-21 squad including Radford sophomore transfer Mackenzie Meehan and freshmen Addy McAleer, Nwakaego Nwagbuo, Izzy Lukens, Lexie Smith and Kayla Closset.
 
Looking Ahead
After this week's series against SIUE, SEMO will take the short trip to Martin, Tennessee, to face UT Martin March 7 and 8. First service is scheduled for 6 p.m. and 3 p.m., respectively in the two-match series.