The SIUC women’s volleyball team ended its 1995 home season on a losing note Saturday, as the Salukis feel to non-conference rival Southeast Missouri State University.

The Salukis went the distance with the Otahkians during the five game match, winning the first and third games 15-9 and 15-7. However, the Salukis went on to lose the second, third and fifth matches 15-9, 15-11 and 15-10.

SEMO clinched its third straight Ohio Valley Conference season crown on Tuesday with a win over Murray State. The Otahkians are now 3-11 lifetime against the Salukis.

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The loss drops the Salukis to 12-8 in the Missouri Valley Conference and 15-12 overall.

The non-conference loss will not hamper the Salukis in terms of the 1995 Missouri Valley Conference. SIUC has already clinched a berth in the tournament and will play rival Illinois State on Friday.

However, several seniors on the team were hoping to walk away with a win in their final match in Davies Gymnasium.

I wanted to have a good memory of this last game, senior middle blocker Kelly Parke said. But I do have good memories as a student, so I can look back at those.

We need to remember what we did wrong in this game and try to fix it and just stay aggreessive.

Aggressiveness will be a key factor in Friday’s matchup against Illinois State.

SIUC lost both of its matches against Illinois State this season and are 4-33 against the Redbirds overall.

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Senior outside hitter Heather Herdes led the Saluki attack with 23 kills in the match against SEMO and said the spikers were just not aggressive enough to ensure a win.

We played well after the first game and we should have won the second game, Herdes said. I think we kind of backed off when we should have been more aggressive.

Senior outside hitter Beth Diehl, who did not play in the match against SEMO due to a shoulder injury, said it was hard for her to sit out the final home game of the season.

It was very difficult to sit there and watch my team play without me, Diehl said. I don’t think this will hit me for three or four weeks.

Diehl said she hopes to return to action for the MVC tournament next weekend in Normal.

Despite clinching a berth in this years tournament, SIUC coach Sonya Locke said she had higher expectations with the 1995 squad.

I’m not satisfied with our win – loss record, Locke said. I very well expected to win 20 matches this season, and that did not happen.

Locke said the Salukis failed to gain valuable rating points against SEMO.

We had opportunities to really rack up some rating points against SEMO and we didn’t take advantage of it.

I’m not goint go let anything overshadow the fact that we’re going to the conference tournament for the first time since I’ve been a head coach, but I’m not satisfied with our win – loss record.