Preseason All-Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) outside hitter Logan Wallick was on fire for the UTM volleyball squad as the Skyhawks scored a four-set triumph (25-23, 22-25, 25-22, 25-19) in the 2020-21 opener at Eastern Kentucky.
Wallick slammed down a match-high 17 kills while committing zero attack errors in 44 swings, which was good enough for a .386 hitting percentage. She delivered four kills in the opening set and three in the second set before piling up five kills in each of the final two sets. Her performance marked the most kills in a single match in school history without an error, breaking the record previously set by Megan Fair (16 kills against Louisiana-Monroe on Sept. 15, 2017).
Sophomore Haeleigh Paulino set career-highs in assists (21) and digs (11) on the way to her first career double-double while Addy Vaughn (15 assists, four kills, .375 attack percentage) also saw time at setter in her collegiate debut. Karen Scanlon narrowly missed a double-double with nine kills and 10 digs) while Baillie Kearns (match-high 15 digs) and Zoe Merriweather (match-best four blocks) also shined in their first match of their collegiate careers.
After an Addison Conley kill officially opened the 2020-21 campaign, the Colonels scored three consecutive points. UTM later used a 7-1 run to go on top by a 10-6 margin. Back-to-back kills by Scanlon resulted in a 17-12 Skyhawk advantage but Eastern Kentucky battled back to get within one point on three different occasions. On its second opportunity for set point, UTM took a 1-0 lead after Wallick put away a big kill. Scanlon had five kills on six swings as the Skyhawks hit .242 (12 kills against four errors) in 33 attempts in the opening stanza.
UTM held a sizeable lead in the second set but a late Colonel rally evened the match at 1-all. Addison Conley had a pair of early kills and was later serving during a 4-0 Skyhawk run that made the score 12-8 in favor of UTM. Consecutive kills by Scanlon and Wallick helped the Skyhawks take a 21-18 lead but Eastern Kentucky ended the stanza on a 7-1 run. Kearns scooped up a team-best six digs in the second set to guide UTM.
The Colonels seemed to carry over that momentum into the third set, jumping out to a 5-2 advantage. However, the Skyhawks temporarily put a halt to that with a 5-0 run – aided by two Conley kills. Eastern Kentucky was able to briefly reclaim the lead at 20-19 but UTM found its groove late as Merriweather, Wallick, Vaughn and Olivia Lucia tallied kills on four straight points. Wallick once again came up clutch with kills on the Skyhawks’ final two points. UTM combined for a .262 team hitting percentage in the third set, accumulating 16 kills with only five errors in 42 swings.
The fourth set was won on defense as the Skyhawks limited the host Colonels to a minuscule .102 attack percentage. Jessica Reynolds, Paulino and Vaughn were each responsible for a kill as UTM raced out to an 8-2 lead. After Eastern Kentucky trimmed its deficit to 11-10, a Wallick kill and Dylan Mott service ace bookended a 4-0 run. Wallick then took over with each of the Skyhawks’ final three kills as UTM accounted for seven of the final 10 points. Paulino and Kearns set the tone for the Skyhawk defense with six digs apiece in the fourth set alone.
UTM will look for an opening-weekend sweep on Monday, Feb. 8 when these same two teams square off at 3 p.m. CST at McBrayer Arena.
