Through the end of the 2019-20 academic year, we will be posting a season recap for each UTM athletic program. This edition of the “Skyhawk Season in Review” series features the volleyball team.
The UTM volleyball program continued its upward ascent in 2019, finishing with a 9-7 Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) record to mark the program’s first winning season in league play since 2011. The Skyhawks soared into the postseason with eight victories in their final 11 conference matches, finishing in the top-five of the OVC standings for just the second time in the last 16 years.
UTM adopted a road warrior mentality in 2019, finishing with a winning record in OVC road matches (5-3) for the first time since 2002. Highlights included a four-set victory at OVC regular season champion Jacksonville State on Sept. 28 (the Gamecocks’ only conference home loss) and sweeping road trips at Belmont/Tennessee State (Oct. 25-26) and Eastern Illinois/SIUE (Nov. 15-16) for the first time in school history.
A pair of Skyhawks secured All-OVC accolades as middle blocker Gintare Mackeviciute and outside hitter Logan Wallick were both named to the league’s second team. It was the first time in program history that UTM boasted a pair of All-OVC second team performers.
The Skyhawks claimed four OVC weekly awards last fall, as Justin Walker became the first middle blocker in school history to win multiple Defensive Player of the Week honors (Sept. 9, Nov. 11) in the same season. Wallick (Offensive) and Kenzie Hinshaw (Setter) also received Player of the Week accolades on Oct. 28, which was only the 10th instance in program history that UTM collected multiple recipients on the same date.
Walker paced the OVC in blocks by a wide margin for the second consecutive season, becoming the OVC’s first repeat block leader since Southeast Missouri’s Taylor Masterson in 2013-14. Walker’s 148 blocks were the fourth-most in Skyhawk single-season history and the most by any UTM player since 2007.
Lucy Kaufman also provided a spark down the stretch, as she became the first player to lead the Skyhawks in digs in OVC play since UTM Hall of Famer Kasey Elswick Copeland accomplished that feat in 2009.
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