SEMO volleyball goes undefeated during Redhawks Invitational

Holding off Tusla, Southern Illinois (SIU), and Central Arkansas (UCA), SEMO volleyball went 3-0 on the weekend in the Redhawks Invitational, September 17 and 18.

What contributed to this successful weekend from Southeast? Redhawks coach Julie Yankus believes it was a combined team effort.

“A lot of times we have to rely on two or three players to hopefully carry the match for us, and in the next match, it changes,” Yankus said. “This time everybody was doing their part all weekend, and it was really great to see.”

In the first match Friday morning, Southeast took on Tusla, defeating them 3-1 with Tusla grabbing the second set. The Redhawks then proceeded to sweep both Southern Illinois and Central Arkansas 3-0, Friday and Saturday afternoon respectively.

Against Tusla, Southeast was led by Senior outside hitter Laney Malloy who had a double-double with 23 kills and 10 digs.

Behind Malloy was Junior duo, outside and right side hitters, Zoey Beasley and Colby Greene who had 14 and 11 kills respectively. Senior setter Claire Ochs also set a season-high for assists with 53.

Malloy, Beasley, and Greene also led the Redhawks against SIU and UCA with 22, 13, and 15 total kills respectively in the two games. You also saw players like Junior and Senior middle blockers Talia Gouard and Elissa Moylan step up, adding in 8 and 7 total kills of their own.

Yankus said having multiple attackers on her team makes it hard for other teams to defend them.

“They can’t cheat and just go block Laney because they know our middle and right side can score also,” Yankus said. “They have to play straight up and make reads.”

Yankus believes what also helped her team go 3-0 on the weekend is her team's serving ability.

“We are a really aggressive serving team,” Yankus said. “You can tell that from the aces we had.”

Across the whole weekend, Southeast had 30 service aces and only made 15 service errors. Yankus said errors are something that just comes with having a lot of aces.

“We have to expect that,” Yankus said. “If we make those errors, we just have to make sure they are at the right time and not when they are detrimental to the team.”

Yankus also said her team has “Serving rules.” These rules include things like not missing the first serve of the set nor the game point serve. She says these are just rules her team just sticks by.

These three wins moved the Redhawks to 9-3 overall before Ohio Valley Conference play begins on Sept. 24.

Southeast returns to action on September 24th when they head to Nashville, TN to take on the Tennessee State University Tigers in a two-game series, signaling the start of conference play.