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UTM Volleyball blanks Tennessee State

Dubach sets new career mark for digs


The University of Tennessee at Martin Skyhawks blanked Tennessee State 3-0 Friday night in Ohio Valley Conference volleyball action. With the victory, the Skyhawks improve to 13-4 overall and 8-0 in the league.

The Skyhawks won game one 30-14, game two 30-22 and game three 30-19. The victory is the third consecutive 3-0 win over an OVC opponent for Tennessee-Martin. It is also the 20th consecutive regular season OVC match the Skyhawks have won. The streak goes back to last season when the Skyhawks won their last 12 regular season matches against OVC foes.

"We played hard and stayed focused throughout this match," said UT Martin volleyball coach Chris Rushing.

"This was a good opportunity for us to play everybody on the team against an improved TSU team."

With 20 digs in the match, senior Stefanie Dubach, from Geneva, Ind., climbs to the top of the career list for most digs as a Skyhawk with 1,196. Dubach replaces Carrie Smith (1993-96) who had 1,187 career digs.

The Skyhawks claimed game one 30-14. They built a 6-0 lead and never looked back. Senior Natalie Klevan, from Germantown, led the Skyhawks’ effort with a .778 hitting percentage. Junior Jamie Fitzwater turned in a .750 hitting percentage. As a team the Skyhawks hit .429 in the first game and had 19 kills to TSU’s nine.

In game two, Tennessee State posed as an early threat as the two teams battled to a 7-7 tie. TSU took an 8-7 lead, but that was it as the Skyhawks rallied to win the game 30-22.

Tennessee State built a 6-3 lead to open game 3, but the Skyhawks rallied back to tie the game at 7-7 with a kill by Lindsey Stock. The Skyhawks built a 12-9 advantage and forced TSU to take a timeout. TSU fought back and tied the game at 14 all, but the Skyhawks answered quickly and posted a 30-19 win. Freshman Rebecca Palmer sealed the victory with a kill.

The Skyhawks return to action Friday, Oct. 18 when they travel to Charleston Ill., to meet Eastern Illinois in a rematch of last year’s OVC tournament championship. The Skyhawks will wrap up their two-game road trip Saturday, Oct. 19 at Southeast Missouri State.