NORMAL, Ill. – Southeast Missouri women's volleyball (3-2) split its opening day of the 2022 Redbird Classic Friday at Redbird Arena. After falling in three sets (19-25, 23-25, 15-25) to Green Bay (2-2), SEMO rallied for a five-set victory (25-20, 22-25, 25-12, 12-25, 15-9) over Oral Roberts (2-3) to conclude the first day of the Classic.
SEMO 0, Green Bay 3 (19-25, 23-25, 15-25)
The Redhawks opened the two-day Redbird Classic with a 19-25, 23-25, 15-25 loss to Green Bay (2-2) Friday afternoon at Redbird Arena.
Colby Greene led the offense with 10 kills on a .241 clip to go along with a pair of blocks.
Zoey Beasley and
Addy McAleer each added eight kills.
McAleer, a junior from Leawood, Kansas, added seven digs and three assists in her first start of the season.
Trailing 12-9 in the opening set, SEMO utilized a 4-0 run to pull ahead 13-12. Beasley hit consecutive kills following a block assist by Greene and
Mackenzie Meehan during the span.
The Phoenix then retook the lead with a 3-0 rally, 21-16. Green Bay closed out the frame, scoring four of the next seven points for the early 1-0 edge.
Beasley knocked six kills during the first set Friday on a .308 hitting percentage.
The Redhawks knotted the second set at 17-17 after a 4-0 rally that featured a pair of kills from McAleer.
Blocks from Greene and Meehan, followed by Meehan and Beasley kept the set all square at 19-19 and 21-21.
Greene added a pair of kills to tie it once again at 22-22 and 23-23 before consecutive rally stoppers by Tiffany Paalman and Calli Gentry secured the set for the Phoenix.
Green Bay jumped out to a 13-4 advantage in the third set that SEMO cut to 15-10 after an ace by
Izzy Lukens.
The Phoenix then regrew their margin to 20-13 and won the match with a 25-15 third stanza.
Lukens dished out 14 assists with five digs and an ace.
Jenny Shook added 10 assists and seven digs in her second career collegiate match.
Libero
Tara Beilsmith grabbed a match high 21 digs with four assists.
Kalia Morris, a freshman defensive specialist from Kansas City, Missouri, made her Redhawks debut Friday against Green Bay, finishing with two digs.
Meehan paced the SEMO defense with a career-matching seven blocks (fourth time at SEMO, two solo, five assists).
Blocks finished tied at 8-8.
Paalman led GB with nine kills on a .500 clip while Alexandra Zakutney and Cora Behnke each had eight. Gentry dished out 30 assists with 17 digs as the Phoenix hit .264 as a team.
Kayla Lass added 17 digs.
SEMO finished with a team hitting percentage of .071.
SEMO 3, Oral Roberts 2 (25-20, 22-25, 25-12, 12-25, 15-9)
With the match knotted at 2-2, SEMO overcame the Golden Eagles with a 15-9 decisive fifth set.
The Redhawks opened the frame with a 5-2 lead that grew to 7-3 after consecutive kills by McAleer.
ORU used a 3-0 run to pull within one, 7-6, before a strong 6-0 rally from SEMO pushed the advantage to 13-6. McAleer opened the sequence with a block before adding a service ace.
The Golden Eagles would come as close as 14-9 before the Redhawks clinched the match.
Beasley knocked a pair of kills down the stretch to secure the victory for SEMO (15-9).
The Redhawks out hit ORU in the final set, .231 to .000.
SEMO commenced the match with a 12-6 lead after a 6-0 run. A kill from Smith coupled with a pair of Golden Eagles errors made the score 17-9.
McAleer then pounded a kill before a Smith service ace to make it a 10-point lead (21-11),
McAleer finished with six kills, nine digs and two blocks in her second-straight start of the 2022 campaign. Smith added five rally stoppers, two blocks and two digs.
ORU responded with five-straight points to cut the deficit to 22-19.
Greene then claimed the opening set with a kill, 25-20. She had six kills (.667) during the set as SEMO hit at a rate of .351.
Oral Roberts then evened the match at 1-1 with a 25-22 second period before the two teams traded 25-12 third and fourth stanzas, respectively.
The Golden Eagles increased their edge to 21-19 after a 7-1 run.
Greene registered a rally stopper to cut the deficit to 22-21 before ORU evened the match with a 25-22 second set.
The Redhawks hit a match-high .529 in the third set en route to a commanding 25-12 decision.
SEMO jumped out to a 15-5 lead that it extended to 22-8. The Redhawks scored the first seven points of the frame.
Beasley notched six kills on a .625 rate in set #3. She finished the match with 13 kills on a .286 to go with five digs.
Greene paced the Redhawks attack with 16 kills on a .467 clip.
Beilsmith led the defense with 19 digs to complement five assists and an ace.
She now ranks second all-time in the SEMO record books (25-point rally scoring era, 2008-present) for career digs with 1,572, which surpassed Berkley Idel (1,534 digs from 2010-13).
Lukens passed out 26 assists with five digs. Shook added nine along with five digs and an ace.
Meehan tallied five blocks followed by Torrey's three.
Morris posted three digs in her second-straight career appearance as a Redhawk.
Taylor Beasley made her SEMO debut, appearing in a set.
Trinity Freeman led ORU with 19 kills while Kaia Dunford had 10. Kyla Randall led the Eagles defensive corps with 16 digs and Bryanne Soares had a match-high 37 assists.
SEMO next closes the Classic Saturday against host Illinois State. The match is set for 2:30 p.m., CT at Redbird Arena and will be televised on ESPN+.
