CAPE GIRARDEAO, Mo. – The Jacksonville State volleyball team came up just short on the road to Southeast Missouri in a battle between two first-place teams in the Ohio Valley Conference on Saturday.
 
JSU (15-9, 9-3 OVC) hit .282 as a team and had four players reach double-digit kills, but it wasn't enough to down SEMO (18-8, 10-2 OVC) who takes control of the OVC race with two weekends of action remaining.
 
Senior Kaylee Frear stepped up in the pivotal match hitting .542 with a team-high 15 kills on the day where she became the 21st Gamecock in program history to reach 1,000 career kills. Junior Kaylie Milton had a double-double with 12 kills and 13 digs as she put away a trio of clutch kills late in the fourth trying to extend the match to a fifth frame. Sophomore Lena Kindermann turned in a .348 attack percentage with 11 kills, just ahead of senior Shayla Schmidt with 10 successful swings.
 
Junior Lexie Libs dished 47 assists and freshman Erin Carmichael upped 21 attacks ahead of Milton, and Sadie Anderson and Dani Steele who each recorded eight digs.
 
After an 8-8 tie in the first set, SEMO slowly pulled away to a 16-12 lead which forced a Gamecock timeout. JSU couldn't close the gap after the break, falling 25-19 in the opening frame. In the second, Jax State reversed the score with a 25-19 win of its own. This time after an 8-8 deadlock, it was JSU who used a 10-3 run to gain separation. Frear's sixth kill of the afternoon to make it 18-11 cemented her name in the record books with her 1,000th kill.
 
Like the first two sets, a tight set early in the third eventually started to go one way as SEMO slowly built its advantage once again. Down 24-13, JSU put together a late rally with six of the next seven points, but it wasn't enough as the home team took a 2-1 match lead with a 25-20 result.
 
Jax State's best start came in the fourth with a quick 9-5 lead. As SEMO fought back, back-to-back service aces pulled the Redhawks within two at 12-10. After a few JSU errors, another SEMO ace tied the frame at 14-14. Still tied at 18-18, SEMO used a 6-1 run to put JSU's backs against the wall down 24-19. The Gamecocks fought off four match-points to keep the match alive, but ultimately came up a point shy of tying the set as SEMO would take a 25-23 win.
 
JSU returns to the road next weekend for its final OVC road trip with a visits to Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State.