Lindenwood (21-10, 14-4 OVC) swept Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (12-18, 7-11 OVC) in straight sets (25-19, 25-21, 25-20) to advance to the Ohio Valley Conference semifinals. This marks the third straight year Lindenwood has appeared in the semifinals and continues the Lions’ season, who are still looking for their first OVC championship in program history. Lindenwood’s offense and defense shined in the win, as they had 45 kills as a team and held SIUE to a .172 hit percentage in the match. Addy McAleer led the Lions with a team-high 12 kills on the afternoon while posting a .417 hit percentage. Rebecca Janke was the only other Lion with double-digit kills tallying 11 and having three total blocks. Lindenwood, as a team, had six blocks in the match including two from Ashley Geluck. Autumn Bax chipped in with six kills and Nyah Wilson had seven in the win.
Lindenwood found themselves down early in the first set 16-13 before they came roaring back and finished the set on a 12-3 run to claim the opening set of the match. Six different Lions had a kill in the opening set, led by McAleer who tallied five on 10 attempts. Three different Lions also tallied an ace in the set while the Lions were able to hold SIUE to only a .125 hit percentage in the opening set and also tallied two blocks as a team in the set.
Lindenwood took a commanding 2-0 lead in the match in yet another set that saw SIUE jump out a 15-13 lead heading into the media timeout. Out of the timeout, the Lions went on a 12-5 run to close out the set and win it 25-20 and take firm control of the match. McAleer continued her hot play tallying six kills on only nine attempts in the second set. Janke added four kills of her own while Geluck and Wilson each had three. Lindenwood had 18 kills in the set while hitting a match-high .353.
The Lions were able to close out the match with a convincing 25-21 win in set three. Lindenwood controlled much of the set only finding themselves down 12-10 early before the Lions were able to regain control and ride kills from McAleer, Janke, and Allie Otten to close out the set and the match. Janke led the team with four kills in the penultimate set while also tallying two blocks. Otten and Nyah Wilson each had three kills in the third set as the Lions outhit the Cougars .229-.150 to finish out the sweep.
The Lions will play the #3-seeded Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles on Monday, Nov. 25 at 2:00 pm with a spot in the OVC Championship on the line. The winner of this match will play the winner of the other semifinal between the #1-seeded SEMO Redhawks against the #4-seeded Morehead State Eagles. Morehead State was the only team able to sweep Lindenwood during the regular season.
