COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Following Senior Day festivities, the Tennessee Tech volleyball team took the court, and used their emotions to challenge the Southeast Missouri Redhawks. While Tech opened the match up one set, the Redhawks refused to be shaken and took the final three sets to win the match, 24-26, 25-22, 25-16, 25-17.
The two Golden Eagle seniors led the way on Saturday afternoon as Elise Robertson put down a team-high 15 kills and added three blocks, while setter Ashleigh Hancock recorded a double-double with 44 assists, 12 digs, and added two blocks and one kill to finish her Tech Career. Junior Ellen Conti put down 12 kills, while junior Madison Keyes put down seven kills and added four blocks.
The Redhawks were led by outside hitter Colleen Yarber who put down a game-high 18 kills and added seven digs. Setter Julie Shives dished out 37 assists and libero Berkley Idel tallied 21 digs.
Tech came out with a 6-2 lead to open the first set, however a 7-3 run by SEMO tied the set. SEMO continued its roll on a couple of kills, services aces, and errors by TTU and took a 20-15 lead. The Golden Eagles fought back. Robertson put down back-to-back kills to tie the set at 24-all. A bad set by SEMO and a Keyes kill put the set away for the Golden Eagles, who took set one, 26-24.
SEMO opened up the second set on an 8-3 run, but Tech was able to cut the lead down to two points at 12-10 off a well-balanced offense that saw kills from Conti, and sophomores Audrey Lewis and Cody Dodd. Then Tech's defense aided in the point run, as Robertson and Dodd combined for a block, and in addition to a few other SEMO mistakes, Tech took the lead 15-14. Trading points to the end of the set, Tech and SEMO fought tooth-and-nail for their points, and the Redhawks came out with the advantage and took the set 25-22 to send the match into the intermission with a 1-1 tie.
In the final set, the Golden Eagles and the Redhawks fought back-and-fourth early in the set, but a 15-9 run gave SEMO a 20-13 advantage. Despite getting three kills in the set from Lewis, Robertson, and freshman Irem Sile, the offense was not enough as the Redhawks closed out the match with a 25-17 win in set four.
Prior to the match, the Tennessee Tech volleyball team honored Robertson, Hancock and Natalie Penrod for their careers in purple and gold. This was the final match of the 2013 season.
