Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Salukis Host Longtime Rival Southeast Missouri State On September 11
09/10/2001 | 12:00:00 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 10, 2001
Ccarbondale, Ill. - Southern Illinois University Carbondale hosts longtime rival Southeast Missouri State University on Tuesday, September 11 at 7 p.m. at Davies Gym.
"SEMO always hits the ball well, has a good setter and is a good blocking team. It's going to be a dogfight, we have a great rivalry going on and the matches are always good," said Sonya Locke, Salukis head coach.
"I'm just looking for us to improve and take advantage of another opportunity to get better. We need to serve strong, pass better and play better defense ... especially defense, that's the area where I really want us to get better."
Southeast Missouri State is 2-4. The Othakians were 23-9 overall and 16-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference last year including a second round appearance in the 2000 NCAA Tournament. SEMO represents the fourth 2000 NCAA Tournament team in seven matches for the Salukis to open the season.
"I think it's important that we play good teams like this early in the year. This gives us a chance to evaluate where we are against teams the caliber of our MVC opponents. This will get us prepared for a tough MVC schedule," added Locke.
SIU is coming off a second place finish at the Saluki/Best Inns Invitational after winning two of three matches. The Salukis beat Western Kentucky 3-2 and swept IUPUI 3-0 before falling to Missouri 3-1 in the title match to improve to 2-4.
"Anytime that you play well you're going to gain confidence. It's early in the season and last year we started 6-0 and couldn't maintain that momentum so we just have to take it one match at a time and keep getting better. We played better last weekend but we can't be content. We haven't played an MVC match yet," stated Locke.
The match will be SIU's last non-conference match before Missouri Valley Conference play begins this weekend against Northern Iowa and Bradley on September 14-15.
