By Ryne Rickman, UT Martin Sports Information Director
MARTIN, Tenn. – The defending Ohio Valley Conference beach volleyball and reigning volleyball regular season champions received a big lift as University of Tennessee at Martin head coach Jaclynn Wilson has announced the additions of Halle Everett and Jenna Vallée.
Everett is a 6-2 outside hitter who played at Memphis last fall after a first team All-American career at Parkland Community College in Champaign, Ill. A 6-2 outside hitter and opposite side hitter, Vallee wrapped up a NJCAA All-Region first team season at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa.
“We are thrilled to welcome in Halle and Jenna to our beach and indoor programs,” Wilson said. “They’ve both been on our radar for a while and come from highly successful programs. We look for Halle and Jenna to be instant difference makers for us.”
A Norris City, Ill. native, Everett appeared in three matches (seven sets) for Memphis in 2022. She tallied five kills, four digs, a service ace and one block for the Tigers, who went 18-15 overall under head coach Sean Burdette.
Everett was part of a remarkable run at Parkland as she helped the Cobras to an 89-5 overall record with a national championship and national runner-up finish over her two seasons. Playing for head coach Cliff Hastings, Everett dialed up 738 kills (3.51 per set), a .290 hitting percentage, 70 service aces, 407 digs and 132 blocks from 2020-21.
During the 2020-21 season, Everett was named a NJCAA Division II first team All-American while also nabbing NJCAA Region 24 Player of the Year accolades and Mid-West Athletic Conference Player of the Year/Female Athlete of the Year honors. She ranked second nationally in kills (434), service aces (52) and points (525.0) and was named to the NJCAA national championship all-tournament team. The following season, Everett earned a spot on the All-MWAC squad as Parkland went 56-3 and ended their season with a 38-match winning streak, culminating in the school’s first national championship since 2016.
Everett accumulated double-digit kills in 27 matches during the 2020-21 season, including a season-best 24 kills at McHenry County on March 14. She racked up 15 double-doubles and hit over .400 on 10 separate occasions, including a whopping .750 effort (12 kills with no errors in 16 swings) against Lincoln Trail on March 7 and a .600 performance (20 kills with two errors in 30 attempts) against Lincoln on Feb. 14. She landed six service aces on Feb. 10 against Spoon River (one of 14 multi-ace outings) and accounted for 21 multi-block matches, including a season-best six swats against John Wood on March 13.
As a sophomore in 2021, Everett reached double figures in kills 15 times with season-highs of 15 kills twice (against Morton on Aug. 22 and against Iowa Central on Sept. 10). Her season-best .529 hitting effort came against John Wood on Sept. 8 (10 kills, one error in 17 swings) while securing a pair of double-doubles. She had 18 multi-block performances (season-high six blocks in the aforementioned Sept. 8 matchup against John Wood) and posted multiple aces on four separate occasions (season-best four against Frontier on Oct. 30).
Everett, whose sister Hope was an All-OVC selection and the 2018 OVC Freshman of the Year at SIUE and sister Hollan is signed to play at Morehead State next fall, prepped at Norris City-Omaha-Enfield High School. As a four-year starter under head coach Jaclyn Melton, she set the school record for kills (1,245) while finishing in the top-five all-time in digs (511, third), points (572, fourth) and blocks (252, fifth). She was a three-time all-state selection and helped the Fighting Cardinals to a 116-21 record in her four-year career.
Hailing from Pornichet, France is Vallée, who was part of a three-year run at Indian Hills where the squad went 76-25 overall under head coach Lyndsey Michel. That included a 42-4 record this past fall as the Warriors placed fourth in the NJCAA Division I Tournament and finished with the program’s second-most wins and second-best winning percentage (.913). Over her stellar career, Vallée managed 718 kills (2.65 per set) on a .226 hitting percentage, 102 service aces, 664 digs (2.45 per set) and 122 blocks in 79 matches.
Vallée collected All-Region XI first team accolades last fall, ranking in the top-20 nationally in points (489.5, 14th) and service aces (65, 16th). She set career-highs in kills (383, 2.86 per set), attack percentage (.246), digs (343) and blocks (66). She produced 20 double-digit kill performances – including a season-high 20 kills against Barton on Oct. 14 – and piled up 11 double-doubles. She hit over .300 on 11 separate occasions, including a pair of .500 efforts (12 kills, zero errors in 24 swings at Marshalltown on Sept. 28, 15 kills against two miscues on 26 attempts at Kirkwood on Oct. 7). Her six service aces against Mineral Area on Oct. 1 were one of her 17 multi-ace performances while she turned away multiple blocks in 21 matches.
During the 2021 fall season, Vallée collected double-digit kills in four matches while hitting over .300 on five different occasions. She generated two or more service aces five times while recording eight multi-block efforts. Her best match of the season came on Aug. 24 against Des Moines Area as she accrued 15 kills, a .382 hitting percentage and four blocks.
Vallée’s rookie campaign included 10 matches of double figure kills and seven double-doubles, including a 22-kill, season-high .404 attack percentage (only three errors in 47 swings) and 15 digs in the April 2 season finale against Missouri State-West Plains. She hit over .300 in nine separate matches and landed multiple service aces five times. She additionally rejected two or more blocks in nine different matches.
Vallée enjoyed a standout prep career at Lycee Aristide Briand High School in France. She comes from a family with an extensive volleyball background as her father Roger played on the Canadian national team.
The duo of Everett and Vallee join a Skyhawk beach volleyball program who became the first program to sweep the OVC’s regular season and tournament championships last spring and a UT Martin volleyball program that is coming off its first OVC regular season championship in 20 years. Both teams qualified for the postseason during their last season of competition as the Skyhawk beach volleyball squad was one of 16 teams in the NCAA Tournament while the UT Martin volleyball team claimed its first-ever postseason victory at the National Invitational Volleyball Championship.
Graphic courtesy of UT Martin Sports Information