CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Southeast Missouri volleyball (19-5, 11-2 OVC) won in a thrilling five-set match against Western Illinois (7-17, 6-7 OVC) on Friday night by a final score of 3-2 in front of 242 people in Houck Field House.
Freshman
Lucy Arndt led the Redhawks' offensive attack on Friday night, recording a new career-high in kills. The reigning Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Week finished with 34 kills on 71 attempts for a .380 hitting-percentage.
SEMO won Friday night's match 26-24, 21-25, 25-17, 22-25, and 15-11 as the Redhawks were in a battle the entire match that lasted two hours and 33 minutes.
Three Redhawks finished in double-digit kills including Arndt,
Marisa Guisti, and
Zoey Beasley. Guisti finished the night with 20 kills on 49 attempts for a .367 hitting-percentage. Beasley, the outside hitter from Paragould, Ark., finished with a season-high 17 kills and a .208 hitting-percentage.
SEMO utilized the bench in the five-set match as 12 different Redhawks entered the match to record the 11
thOVC victory in 2023.
Senior setter
Izzy Lukens set a new career-high in assists after dishing out 69 Friday night, leading SEMO to an overall team hitting percentage of .264.
Lukens set her new personal-best by clearing her season-high of 52 by 17 as the Redhawks hit .241, .244, .486, .125, and .385 over the duration of the five sets, respectively.
Tara Beilsmith was all over the court defensively for the Redhawks finishing with 39 digs and a perfect 1.000 reception percentage over 46 attempts.
Trailing 5-2 early in the fifth set,
Lucy Arndt slammed a cross-court shot that was ruled out. A SEMO challenge reversed the call to make it 5-3, instead of 6-2.
The Redhawks would use the momentum from the challenge into the rest of the set as SEMO finished with a .385 hitting-percentage in the fifth set alone.
The Leathernecks had four different players finish in double-digit kills and finished the match with a .243 hitting-percentage.
SEMO Volleyball will be back in action tomorrow night, Nov. 4, to finish the regular season series with Western Illinois on senior day. First serve is slated for 6 p.m., CT. in Houck Field House.
