Match #20
Southeast Missouri (15-4, 7-1 OVC)         
vs. Little Rock (2-13, 2-3 OVC) 
Match Information
Date: Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023
First Serve: 6:00 p.m.
Location: Little Rock, Ark.
Venue: Jack Stephens Center
All-Time Series: SEMO is tied with Little Rock 1-1
Last Meetings: at Little Rock (L, 2-3, Oct. 18, 2022)
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Watch: ESPN+
 
Redhawks Travel to Little Rock for Midweek Matchup with Trojans
Southeast Missouri volleyball (15-4, 7-1 OVC) will travel to Little Rock, Arkansas on Wednesday, October 18, to take on the Little Rock Trojans (2-13, 2-3 OVC) in a midweek Ohio Valley Conference matchup. First serve is slated for 6 p.m., CT. at the Jack Stephens Center in Little Rock. 
 
Series History
The Redhawks and Trojans will meet for just the third time on Wednesday evening with the series split 1-1. Little Rock joined the Ohio Valley Conference in 2022 and played their first season in the conference a season ago. 
 
Last time these two faced one another came on Oct. 18, 2022, in Little Rock in a match that saw the Trojans win in five-sets. 
 
Earlier in 2022, SEMO hosted Little Rock at Houck Field House and swept the Trojans, 3-0, sparking a three-match win streak. 
 
Dish it Out
Senior setter Izzy Lukens found herself back on the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Week list, this time as the Setter of the Week for her 84 assists performance last weekend at Tennessee State. 
 
Lukens, a senior from Omaha, Neb., registered 84 assists over the two-match weekend at Tennessee State including 52 assists on Friday night against the Tigers. 
 
She is currently sitting at 663 total assists in 2023 and ranks second in the OVC in both number and average-per-set (10.05 APS). 
 
As a team, SEMO ended the weekend with a .257 attack-percentage as the Redhawks picked up their sixth and seventh wins in Ohio Valley Conference play. 
 
 All-Time List
Graduate student Tara Beilsmith became the Ohio Valley Conference leader in digs this past weekend at Tennessee State, surpassing Gina Rivera-Ortiz of TSU with 2,663 digs after recording 21 in Saturday's match. 
 
Heading into the match, Beilsmith needed just 21 digs to break Rivera-Ortiz's record of 2,662 career digs. Leading 21-17 in the third set, Tara dug the 21st ball of the match to become the all-time digs leader in conference history. 
 
The Libero from Weldon Spring, Mo. finished with exactly 21 digs including a perfect 1.000 reception percentage on 17 attempts.
 
Last Time Out
The Redhawks were last in action a weekend ago in Nashville, Tenn. taking on Tennessee State and won both matches in dominating fashion. 

Friday night Marisa Guisti led the Redhawks offensively with a career-high 27 kills on 48 total attacks for a .521 percentage, surpassing her previous kills mark of 23 (9/8/23).
 
Guisti, the middle blocker from Peru, Ill., finished with her third highest attacking percentage on the season. Guisti finished with 28 points, a team and career-high for her. 
 
As a team, the Redhawks finished the match with a .268 hitting percentage, including a season-high 92-percent side-out percentage in the third set. In the third and fourth set, SEMO finished the sets with a .316 and .317, respectively, hitting percentage. 
 
Three Redhawks found their way into double digits on the offensive side of the net, led by Guisti, including freshman Lucy Arndt and graduate student Talia Gouard.
 
Arndt and Gouard finished with 13 and 10 kills, respectively. Arndt finished with a double-double on the evening, recording 15 digs on the defensive side of the net.
 
Saturday's match featured a 3-0 SEMO sweep of the Tigers to improve to 7-1 in league play as the Redhawks won 25-17, 25-18, 25-17. 
 
Lucy Arndt recorded her second-straight double double in Saturday's contest, leading the Redhawks with 12 kills and 10 digs including a service ace. 
 
Arndt finished the day with a .314 htting-percentage. 
 
Talia Gouard continued her impressive weekend with 12 kills of her own on just 19 attempts for a team-high .421 attack-percentage. Gouard recorded a block assist on the defensive side of the net. 
 
As a team, SEMO had just three blocks to TSU's eight, but the Redhawks finished the afternoon with 42 kills as a team and a .241 team hitting-percentage to just .084 from TSU. 
 
Scouting the Opponent
Little Rock
The Trojans come into the match following a 1-3 and 2-3 loss to Western Illinois, October 6 and 7.
 
Little Rock registered a .162 hitting percentage, notching 57 kills to WIU's 51.
 
Carolina Rodriguez and Daedrianna Cail posted 13 kills apiece to lead the team. 
 
Cail hit on a .500 clip for the night while chalking up six total blocks on the defensive side for the Trojans.
 
Freshman defensive specialists tallied 26 digs for Little Rock and added seven assists.
 
The team leader in assists and digs Dariana Valencia, dished out 24 assists and added ten digs to bring her totals to 239 and 120.
 
On the Offensive side Daria Burrows racked up ten digs and defensively put up four blocks.
 
Freshman setter Kaylee Smith handed out 17 assists while totaling 15 digs to add to the stat sheet.
 
Bella Cherry played a part in all facets of the game. The freshman led the team in service aces with two while adding six kills. Defensively she posted two blocks and 11 digs for the trojans.
 
Head Coach Van Compton enters her 36th season with the Trojans.