After ending their regular season on a three-game win streak and clawing their way above .500 in conference play, the Murray State (MSU) Racers made short work of the Skyhawks, knocking UTM out of the playoffs in three stanzas Nov. 21.
The Skyhawks came into the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) quarterfinals as the No. 6 seed while the Racers held the No. 3 seed. UTM, despite being swept, recorded significantly less errors (18 to MSU’s 25), but fizzled out towards the end as their hitting percentage dropped from a match high .179 to a mere .067 in the final stanza.
Sophomore outside hitter (OH) Logan Wallick and sophomore OH/middle-blocker (MB) Karen Scanlon led the Skyhawks in kills with eight. Scanlon also led the team in points with 9.5 and hitting percentage with .412.
Defensively, freshman OH/defensive specialist (DS) Lucy Kaufman led the team in digs with 10, with Wallick and senior OH Hannah Phillips each adding five of their own. Junior MB/opposite (OPP) Justine Walker led the team in blocks with five.
In the first stanza, the Skyhawks took a 4-2 lead thanks to a couple of kills by Scanlon. The Racers soon went on a 5-1 stretch, with UTM’s point coming off an attack-error, to take a 7-5 lead.
UTM answered back with three points to reclaim the lead, thanks in part to attack errors by MSU. Tied at 11-all, the Racers couldn’t keep their attack errors under control, as a 4-0 Skyhawk run came as a result of three attack errors and a kill by Walker.
The Racers took control of the stanza after this point, tying the score at 15 before reeling off five unanswered points to recover from a 17-15 margin. MSU went on to take the first stanza by a 25-22 margin.
The two teams battled back-and-fourth in the second to ultimately tie the score at 10. The Racers turned on the firepower and went on a 7-0 run to prompt a UTM timeout. The Racers went on to score a total of 10 unanswered points in that span before an attack error and service ace by junior setter Kenzie Hinshaw stopped the momentum.
The Skyhawks came close to closing the gap, getting as close as 20-23, but the Racers closed the second stanza with two unanswered points, establishing a commanding 2-0 lead.
Similar to the first stanza, the Skyhawks established a 4-2 lead before the Racers went on a 9-1 run with two attack errors giving UTM points afterwards. The Racers kept up their offensive production, but the Skyhawks wouldn’t go down easily, clawing back to a 19-24 deficit before a Wallick attack error ended the match.
The Skyhawks ended the 2019 season with an overall record of 13-19 and an OVC record of 9-7, ultimately finishing in the top-five in the OVC.
This season marks the program’s first winning-season in OVC play since 2011, according to Sports Information. The team’s two seniors, Gintare Mackeviciute and Phillips played their final collegiate game, amassing a combined 1,058 kills during their tenure at UTM, according to Sports Information.
Mackeviciute, a native of Lithuania, joined the program in 2018 after transferring from Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia, Kentucky. Phillips, an Orient, Ohio native, joined the program right out of high school in 2016.
Photo Credit / Sports Information
