By Ryne Rickman, UT Martin Sports Information Director
MARTIN, Tenn. – The 2021 Ohio Valley Conference volleyball regular season comes to an end this weekend as the University of Tennessee at Martin hosts Tennessee State on Nov. 12-13 at Skyhawk Fieldhouse. First serve is set for 6 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday.
UT Martin (13-16) has already clinched a spot in next week’s OVC Championship tournament, entering the weekend in a three-way tie for fourth place in the OVC standings at 9-7. The Skyhawks will look to improve their tournament seeding this weekend as they are 35-17 all-time against the Tigers, having not lost to Tennessee State since 2015.
Five members of the UT Martin program will be honored before the match on Saturday as part of Senior Night festivities. Francela Ulate, Addison Conley, Jessica Reynolds, Karen Scanlon and Logan Wallick have combined to play in 355 matches in their Skyhawk careers, piling up 2,382 kills, 77 service aces, 1,157 digs and 491 blocks.
Ulate is a graduate transfer who joined UT Martin this fall after three seasons at Binghamton. Playing in 25 matches this season, the Heredia, Costa Rica native has tallied 109 kills, eight service aces, 29 digs and 43 blocks, logging 15 starts at outside hitter.
Hailing from London, Ohio, Conley is a four-year member of the Skyhawk program. Over 86 career matches, she has collected 462 kills, 341 digs and 84 blocks. The owner of three double-doubles, her career-high of 16 kills came in a four-set victory over Belmont last season. In the classroom, she is a three-time OVC Commissioner’s Honor Roll recipient.
Reynolds has played in 81 matches over her four-year career at UT Martin, compiling 405 kills, 100 digs and 69 blocks. She has 13 double-digit kill performances in her career, including a career-best 19 rally killers against Santa Clara during her sophomore campaign. The Chandler, Ariz. native has earned a spot on the Skyhawk Athletic Director’s Honor Roll in each of the past two seasons.
Making history earlier this season was Scanlon, who became the first UT Martin player in a decade to accumulate a triple-double when she accomplished that feat against Murray State on Oct. 8. Overall, the Scottsdale, Ariz. native has collected 14 double-doubles in a four-year career that includes 752 kills, a .240 hitting percentage, 478 digs and 191 blocks over 93 matches. Academically, she has tallied one OVC Medal of Honor for a perfect 4.0 GPA and three mentions on the OVC Commissioner’s Honor Roll.
Wallick has been a member of the Skyhawk program for four seasons, capturing All-OVC second team accolades in 2019. In 70 career matches, she has reached double figures in the kill column on 30 different occasions – boasting 654 kills, 209 digs and 104 blocks overall. The outside hitter from Waddell, Ariz. has been named to the OVC Commissioner’s Honor Roll in each of the last two years.
Tennessee State (10-15, 2-14 OVC) comes into the weekend just one match out of the projected eight-team OVC Championship field. The Tigers are in search of their first road victory in conference play this fall as they have dropped each of their seven away matches against OVC opposition. Aniya Williams is the reigning OVC Offensive Player of the Week after the 5-11 middle blocker came away with 28 kills (3.50 per set) on a .345 hitting percentage in a home split over SIUE. Gina Rivera-Ortiz, who has claimed a pair of OVC Defensive Player of the Week awards in 2021, ranks second in the league with 5.32 digs per set.
Both matches this weekend will be streamed live on ESPN+ at these links: https://www.espn.com/espnplus/player/_/id/2bdf5ac2-69b8-441b-898b-b854bfb0dcf6#bucketId=1 (Friday); https://www.espn.com/espnplus/player/_/id/d0993518-9fd0-4fdb-8d63-acd4c0f31f31#bucketId=1 (Saturday). Live stats for each of the matches can also be found here: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=362645 (Friday); http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=362646 (Saturday).
Graphic Courtesy of UT Martin Sports Information