By DAVID SCHERER | Staff Writer

The Lady Govs volleyball team completed their last road trip of the season the weekend of Friday, Nov. 5, with a pair of wins at Eastern Illinois and Southeast Missouri.

With the first win, they were able to clinch second place in the OVC and secured a bye in the first round of the OVC Championship Tourney.

This is the second year the Lady Govs finished the regular season in second place.

In the first match of the weekend, the Lady Govs had a rusty start but were able to shake it off and come away with a four set win (17-25, 25-19, 25-21, 26-24). Eastern Illinois scared the Lady Govs at first, displaying dominance that has been lacking all season, and captured the first set 25-17, courtesy of a pair of consecutive aces.

The Panthers came out sluggish in the second set, fell behind 8-0 early and were unable to overcome the large deficit and fell 25-19. The Lady Govs led wire-to-wire helped by five EIU errors.

In the third, both teams fought hard with 10 ties and two lead changes. The Lady Govs were unable to gain a strong lead until a 3-1 run late in the set left them with a 24-20 lead.

Senior Jessica Mollman came through in the clutch, coming away with a kill for the set point.

The Lady Govs came out strong yet again in the fourth set, opening with a 6-0 lead, and eventually leading by 18-8. Eastern Illinois was not going to go away without a fight, and utilized a 15-5 run to storm back and tie the set at 23-23.

Senior Sarah Alisaleh and sophomore Nikki Doyle came through in the clutch and won the match with consecutive kills.

In the second match of the road trip, the Lady Govs completely dominated Southeast Missouri, trailing only once in the entire match.

SEMO tried to stick close to the Lady Govs, trailing by a maximum of seven points, but were unable to capitalize on any APSU mistakes. APSU won the match comfortably in three sets (25-22, 25-21, 25-18).

The Lady Govs return home this weekend to close out their consecutive 20-win regular season with a 7 p.m. match on Friday, Nov. 12, against Tennessee State and a 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13, contest against SIU Edwardsville. APSU defeated both teams this season. TAS

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