The UTM volleyball team’s final surge wasn’t quite enough as they fell 3-2 to Austin Peay (26-24, 25-23, 16-25, 16-25, 15-12) at home on Nov. 8.
Austin Peay narrowly took the first two sets against the Skyhawks. There were six lead changes in the first set, which included twelve tied scores. Austin Peay took the first set (26-24).
The Skyhawks took an early lead in the second set (6-1) and held it until Austin Peay pushed its way to tie the set (12-12). It was back-and-forth, but the Governors came ahead with a three-point lead at 19-16. Eventually Austin Peay won the second set (25-23).
“I told them that we weren’t leaving here without a win,” Head Coach Darrin McClure said. “Players know when they’ve got little things here and there that they need to pick up.”
McClure said that the team was being unproductive from the outside hitter position.
“Neither one of our starter outside hitters were hitting above zero. Hitting percentage in volleyball is a lot like baseball. .250 is pretty good, .300 is really good, but we were hitting negative then we lost by two points. You’ve got to have production from that position,” McClure said.
After the half, UTM found the spark they needed and answered back in the third set by taking and keeping the lead.
“I put Madison Wessling in at the third set, and she was a spark plug for us and did a good job. Emily did a great job playing back row. When you give a team two wins off the start, it’s hard to win three in a row. We just have to learn to not put ourselves in those situations,” McClure said.
Alisha Erves gave the Skyhawks the first point in the set with a kill. A service error tied the game (1-1), but the Skyhawks took the lead back. An attack error by UTM tied the game again (3-3).
After that, UTM kept the lead until they won the set (25-16).
UTM’s outcome was looking grim as the fourth set started, since the Governors had a lead (3-0) over the Skyhawks. After a timeout, Lynsey Hazelwood had a kill and the Skyhawks surged toward the finish line.
UTM tied the score in the fourth set (7-7) then didn’t look back. UTM took a large lead over the Governors to win the set (25-16).
Early in the fifth set, Austin Peay took the lead (4-3), and the Skyhawks didn’t catch up until they tied (11-11). Ultimately, the Governors won the fifth set (15-12) thereby taking the series win over the Skyhawks.
“First and foremost, I love the way we played. The way we played tonight, I can live with. We made some mistakes, sure. Do we need to get better in some regards? Sure. The effort and the intensity in which we played, I thought, was great, and I can live with that,” McClure said. “I thought we outplayed them tonight, but we just had a few too many errors.”
Freshman Julia Devinney led the Skyhawks with a season high 15 kills against four errors in 28 attempts (.393 attack percentage). Devinney had one dig.
Junior Allie Whimpey also had 15 kills against four errors, but in 29 attempts. Whimpey had a season- high attack percentage of .379, and she also had two digs.
Sophomore Lynsey Hazelwood recorded her sixth double-double of the season with ten kills and 16 digs. Hazelwood also recorded a season high 42 total attempts.
Amanda Crask helped the team along with 52 assists and 14 digs. Madison Wessling had ten kills, Chelsea Bowles had 13 digs and Emily Keaton had ten digs.
The team is looking to win the next three games in order to guarantee a spot in the OVC Tournament.
“We’re going to keep fighting. We need no motivation tomorrow to play against Murray. I asked the girls to promise themselves that they would play with the same type of intensity tomorrow and they know it, so we’ll see what happens,” McClure said.
The volleyball team takes on Murray State at home Nov. 9 at 2 p.m., and senior Kelly Hogan will be recognized before the game for Senior Day.
