CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. ? Austin Peay State University volleyball team's road woes continued Friday as the Lady Govs fell at Southeast Missouri, 3-0, losing 30-20, 30-25 and 30-25, in Ohio Valley Conference volleyball action.

It was the ninth straight road defeat for the Lady Govs, who fell to 8-24 overall, 3-16 in the OVC. Southeast Missouri, meanwhile, continued its torrid late surge, pushing its OVC mark to 15-5 while improving to 20-11 overall.

In the first game, APSU and SEMO battled back-and-forth in the early going before APSU took a 10-8 lead. However, the Redhawks ran off five straight points and the Lady Govs could never get closer than one point the game's remainder.

In the second game, the two teams again battled close, this time APSU hanging with the OVC's second-place team until midway through the match. In fact, Taylor Skinner's kill tied the game at 15. However, Southeast Missouri would run off three straight points and the Lady Govs could never get closer than two points the contest's remainder.

In Game 3, the Lady Govs fell behind 10-2, but rallied to tie the game at 11. Again the young Lady Govs could not continue the momentum as the Redhawks pulled away in the game's latter stages, running off four straight points to make it a 21-16 contest. SEMO would not look back.

APSU could manage only a .107 hitting percentage during the match, hitting better than .100 just one of the three games (.213 in Game 2).

Dodi Szymska was the only Govs to reach double figures in kills with 12 on the night. Kristen Kirch had 14 digs for APSU while Sarah Alisaleh had 12. APSU failed to record a service ace in the match.

SEMO, meanwhile, connected for .215 hitting percentage and had 11 blocks on the night.

“SEMO is a good team and they're fighting for second place,” APSU coach Jenny Hazelwood said. “Southeast Missouri played hard and I'm proud of the girls for not giving up.

“There are a lot of areas that we need to improve. We were down big in game three and eventually tied that game. We're a young team that is getting better and not giving up is a big part of that.”

-AP-