Oct. 20, 2006

Box Score

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Junior Abbey Breit (13 kills, 13 digs) and freshman Brittney Whitten (12 kills, 17 digs) tallied double-doubles as visiting Jacksonville State captured a 3-0 (30-18, 30-22, 30-13) victory over Southeast Missouri State tonight in Ohio Valley Conference volleyball action at Houck Fieldhouse. With the win, the OVC-leading Gamecocks improve their season record to 15-4 (9-0), while the Redhawks fall to 10-13 (4-5) on the year.

Senior outside hitter Jessica Koeper (Jackson, Mo./Jackson) led the Redhawks with 14 digs and eight kills. Freshman setter Sarah Barth (Germantown, Ill./Central) produced a career-best 20 assists, seven digs and five kills, while freshman libero Molly Davis (Muncie, Ind./Burris) added 13 digs for Southeast.

The Gamecocks opened the first game with an early 5-0 run that included three kills from Breit and later increased their lead to 11-4 on a senior Joi Watts kill. A Breit solo block handed JSU its biggest lead of the stanza at 22-10 as it split the final 16 points with the Redhawks to capture a 1-0 lead.

In the second game, Southeast posted a 5-2 lead on a kill by freshman right side hitter Karleigh DeLong (Corona, Calif./Santiago). JSU bounced back with an 11-2 run to gain the lead at 13-7 on a Southeast hitting error. The Redhawks sliced their deficit to 14-11 thanks to a Barth service ace and a block by freshman middle blocker Hannah Weis (St. Louis, Mo./Incarnate Word) and DeLong. A Breit kill at 17-11 helped the Gamecocks score 13 of the next 24 points to go up two games to none entering the break. Consecutive kills by Watts propelled JSU to an early 6-2 lead to start the game three. Four kills from Whitten and a service ace from sophomore Abbey Vierling later hiked the Gamecocks' advantage to 20-6. Two more kills from Watts at 24-9 opened a 6-4 scoring drive to close the match

In addition to Breit and Whitten, Watts finished 11 kills and a match-best .474 hitting clip for JSU. Senior Shari Weyer (three solo, one assist) and junior Rebekah Nichols (two solo, two assisted) recorded four blocks, while senior Emily Withers nearly tallied a double-double with a match-best 46 assists and nine digs. Senior Jessica Starck posted 11 digs for the Gamecocks.

Southeast returns to action tomorrow evening as it welcomes Samford to Houck with the first serve set for 5 p.m.