Just a little over two weeks after the UTM’s indoor volleyball season came to a close, the Skyhawks are ramping up for the 2021 beach volleyball campaign – which begins this week with six matches over a five-day span.
UTM, who held its first official beach volleyball practice of the season on April 2, will play a 12-match regular season (10 of which will count towards the Ohio Valley Conference standings) over a two-week stretch. The Skyhawks will host the 2021 OVC Beach Volleyball Championship tournament on campus from April 29 through May 1 as Austin Peay, Chattanooga, Eastern Kentucky, Jacksonville State, Morehead State and UTM will all compete in the inaugural championship event.
The Skyhawks start the season on Wednesday, April 14 with a double dual at Austin Peay. UTM then travels to Anniston, Alabama, for a tournament on April 17-18, squaring off against Morehead State and event host Jacksonville State on Day 1 before matchups against Eastern Kentucky and Chattanooga on Day 2.
The only home matches of the regular season will take place on Tuesday, April 20 as the Skyhawks host Austin Peay for a double dual. The 2021 campaign concludes with a tournament in Richmond, Ky. as UTM will face Chattanooga and event host Eastern Kentucky on April 24, followed by contests against Jacksonville State and Morehead State on April 25.
This spring marks the fourth beach volleyball season in Skyhawk history. UTM is coming off a 2020 campaign that was shaping up to be the best in school history before the COVID-19 pandemic cut the season short on March 7, just 10 matches into a 27-match slate.
A total of nine returners and six newcomers grace the 2021 roster for head coach Jaclynn Wilson. Hannah Phillips returns as the program’s first-ever four-year student-athlete, as the Orient, Ohio native has played 38 of her 46 career matches out of the No. 1 slot.
Addison Conley (10 career wins, mostly out of the No. 4 spot), Jessica Reynolds (six of her nine career victories at No. 5) and Karen Scanlon (nine career wins competing at the No. 1 through No. 3 slots) also boast two years of playing experience.
Haeleigh Paulino (team-best 6-3 record last season), Lucy Kaufman (5-4 mark in 2020, including wins at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3), Kayla Carrell (team-high five wins at No. 4 last spring), Logan Wallick (three victories in 2019) and Zoe Merriweather (one match last season) all have one year of collegiate beach volleyball under their belts to round out the Skyhawk returners.
A half-dozen freshmen will look to make a splash in their collegiate debuts this spring as the newcomer class is comprised of Baillie Kearns, Kambree Lucas, Olivia Lucia, Dylan Mott, Lauren O’Neill and Addy Vaughn.
