Despite Eastern dropping its fourth

straight loss to Southeast Missouri, junior Emily Franklin and

sophomore Reynae Hutchinson put on impressive showings.

Franklin led the Panthers with 15

kills and four digs, while Hutchinson backed her up with 13 kills

and 12 digs.

The Panthers will play

Tennessee-Martin and hope to have different results.

“This is where we need to start

winning in order for us to get into the conference tournament,”

Franklin said. “It does not mean that UT-Martin is anything

special, it just means that they should be really scared because we

are not holding anything back.”

Around the OVC

Jacksonville State tops Tennessee Tech

in a 3-2 victory thanks to an outstanding performance from freshman

Nicole Merget on Tuesday night.

In five sets (20-25, 25-22, 25-23,

15-25, 15-11), the Gamecocks took the first three sets before

Tennessee Tech tried to make a comeback taking the fourth set.

The Golden Eagles were led by Ellen

Conti with 19 kills and Allison May’s 26 digs.

The Gamecocks would then take the

final set by a margin of four earning the season sweep of Tennessee

Tech.

Merget nailed 13 kills on just 22

attempts and while leading four Gamecocks with eight or more

digs.

Sophomore Abbey Heredia notched a

double-double with 28 assists and 13 digs.

The Murray State volleyball team broke

a two-match losing streak, with a 3-1 (23-25, 27-25, 25-22, 25-22)

win over Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

Murray State sophomore Casey Bucher

scored her first career double-double, with a career-best 11 kills

and a season-best 10 digs while Sophomore Wendi Zickfield paced the

team with a career-best 21 kills.

Junior Lia Havili recorded her seventh

double-double of the year, with 57 assists and 14 digs. 

Sophomore Katlyn Hudson led the

defense, with a career-best 31 digs.

After losing the first set, Murray

State adjusted and went on a 3-0 run taking the game in four

sets.

In was not easy, however, as both

teams went back and forth the final two sets.

The final set was much like the third

as Murray State was leading and then Southern Illinois-Edwardsville

took a strong run before giving in to Murray State.

The Racers took an 11-5 lead and

despite trading blows with Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, the

Cougars cut the lead to just two (22-20), with a 5-0 run.  Murray

State buckled up and went on a 3-2 run to end the set with a 25-22

win.

Lenny Arquilla can be reached at

“mailto:%[email protected]”>[email protected]