MURRAY, Ky.—The Racers downed the Cougars 27-25, 25-20, 19-25, 25-19. Murray State improved to 14-9 overall and 8-3 in the OVC. SIUE is now 6-5 in OVC play and 11-12 overall.

"Several components of our game were at a high tonight," said SIUE Head Coach Kendall Paulus. "We maintained a high attack efficiency and stayed very balanced. We offensively had one of our best matches."

Rachel Giustino powered the Racers offense with 28 kills. Southeast Missouri hit .208 as a team.

"Murray has a very tough serve and it affected not only our passing mentality, but let it feed into our serving," said Paulus. "We needed to gain control of the serve and pass battle but just fell short."

After dropping the first two sets, SIUE stormed back with a third-set victory.

Rachel McDonald who tallied 19 kills and Annie Ellis who contributed 10 led the Cougars. The team ended the night hitting .288.

"We are learning from the match and are focused on starting strong tomorrow," added Paulus.

SIUE returns to action Saturday for a 2 p.m. contest at Austin Peay.