SERVICE ACES PROPEL SKYHAWKS TO SWEEP OVER ALABAMA A&M; GYORI AND PHILLIPS LAND ON ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM

Saturday, September 8

Macon, Ga.

10 A.M.

UT Martin

6-4

Alabama A&M

3-8

Alabama A&M

UT Martin

SERVICE ACES PROPEL SKYHAWKS TO SWEEP OVER ALABAMA A&M; GYORI AND PHILLIPS LAND ON ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM

9/8/2018 12:33:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

HTML PDF

MACON, Ga. – The University of Tennessee at Martin volleyball team made short work of Alabama A&M this morning, sweeping the Lady Bulldogs by scores of 25-14, 25-19, 25-17 in its finale of the Mercer Bears Classic.

The Skyhawks improved to 6-4 on the season behind a masterful serving performance as UT Martin accumulated 14 aces today. That marks the most service aces in a single match since the Skyhawks had 17 against Stetson on Sept. 20, 2014 and the most for a three-set match since UT Martin tallied 17 against Sewanee on Sept. 6, 2006. Megan Fair and Brooke Gyori each had four service aces while Jamie Rys (three), Justine Walker (two) and Maddi Noble (one) also chipped in.

In addition, the Skyhawks also posted a season-best .257 attack percentage (40 kills, 14 errors) in 101 attempts today. Hannah Phillips (.435 hitting percentage) and Fair led the charge with match-highs of 11 kills while Noble handed out a match-high 34 assists in her first career start.

Gyori led all players with 16 digs while Rys came close to a double-double with eight kills and nine digs for UT Martin.

Each of Gyori's four service aces in the match came in the opening set, including three aces during the 7-2 Skyhawk run to open the stanza. Alabama A&M would close within three points on two different occasions but that would be as close as the Lady Bulldogs would get as UT Martin led by as many as nine points in the set. Phillips and Rys each had three kills for a Skyhawk offense that hit .409 to begin the match.

UT Martin had to come from behind to win the second set, as the Skyhawks concluded the stanza on an 11-1 surge. A kill by Fair provided UT Martin with an 11-10 lead midway through the set but the Lady Bulldogs soon opened up an 18-14 advantage. The Skyhawks then called a timeout and proceeded to go on their aforementioned run. The duo of Phillips and Fair each piled up six kills while Noble distributed 15 assists for UT Martin in the second set alone.

The Skyhawks rarely trailed in the third set, again using a game-changing run at the end of the set to complete the sweep. Three consecutive service aces by Fair opened up an early UT Martin lead but Alabama A&M battled back to even the score at 13-all. The Skyhawks held an 18-17 advantage before scoring the final seven points of the match, aided by four kills by Fair during that span. Fair (four) and Rys (three) combined for seven service aces in the final set.

At the conclusion of the match, Gyori and Phillips were named to the Mercer Bears Classic All-Tournament Team. Gyori earned her third consecutive all-tournament nod after producing 51 digs (4.64 per set), 14 assists and six service aces while Phillips was named to her first career all-tournament team after 33 kills (3.00 per set), a .325 attack percentage and 12 digs in the three matches.

UT Martin returns to action next weekend at the Wildcat Classic, hosted by the University of Arizona. The Skyhawks take on Arizona and UC Davis on Friday, Sept. 14 before wrapping up the tournament on Saturday, Sept. 15 against New Mexico State.