Clarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University’s volleyball team only needed 74 minutes to sweep Southeast Missouri Thursday, November 16th, 2017 at the Dunn Center, in the quarterfinal round of the Ohio Valley Conference Volleyball Championship by scores of 25-18, 25-19, 25-13.
It was the only one of the four OVC quarterfinal round matches that needed just three games to decide things.
With the win, Austin Peay moves to 28-5 on the season, tying the 1992 Govs volleyball team for most wins in a single season, while the eighth-seeded Redhawks sees their season come to an end with an overall mark of 11-20.
The Govs controlled things right from the start, racing out to a 10-5 lead in the opening set, powered by a pair of kills each from Brooke Moore, Jenna Panning and Ashley Slay.
Moore and Slay would finish with 11 and 10 kills respectively, while Christina White led the Govs in kills with 14.
Southeast Missouri would cut the Govs advantage down to just two points, 12-10, aided by APSU committed three attack errors and one service error, but Austin Peay then responded with a 6-2 burst, with Panning recording two kills and Moore an ace to build its lead back out to six points, 20-14.
SEMO wouldn’t get any closer than five points the rest of the way in the opening set, with Moore closing out the first set with a kill to seal away the 25-18 win.
Set two saw Southeast Missouri hang around early-on versus the Govs, only trailing Austin Peay by a point, 7-6, but the Govs would kick their offense into gear — going on a 7-2 run – including six kills and an ace over that span to extend its lead out to 14-9.
The Redhawks would try to rally, scoring three in a row, to make it 14-12, but again Austin Peay’s offense to too stout for SEMO, with Moore picking up a couple of kills to go with back-to-back aces from Slay and a third ace from Kristen Stucker to make it 19-13 Governors.
SEMO would follow by scoring three straight points to get back to within three, 19-16, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the way, with Austin Peay taking a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-19 second set win.
The third and final set was competitive early-on, with SEMO leading 5-4, but an 8-0 run by the Govs – highlighted by three kills from Christina White and two aces from Allie O’Reilly broke the game open – with Austin Peay a commanding 12-5 lead and never looking back in a match-closing 25-13 victory.
O’Reilly would also lead the Govs in digs, with 18, while Stucker – the two-time OVC Setter of the Year recorded 43 assists in the three games.
Austin Peay will now face Eastern Kentucky – who went five games in their quarterfinal match versus Belmont – on Friday, November 17th at 5:00pm, in the Dunn Center with a trip to the OVC Tournament finals on the line.