Photo by: UT Martin Sports Information
FOUR SKYHAWKS SET FOR AVCA PAIRS NATIONAL BEACH VOLLEYBALL QUALIFIER THIS WEEKEND IN ALABAMA
10/25/2023 2:16:00 PM | Beach Volleyball
MARTIN, Tenn. – The American Volleyball Coaches Association is hosting a Fall Collegiate Beach Championships qualifying event this weekend in Huntsville, Ala. and four University of Tennessee at Martin representatives will be making the trip.
Skyhawk returners Lucy Kaufman and Olivia O'Keefe will join newcomers Sydney Eckhardt and Reagan McGee in hopes of securing a bid into the national event, which will also be held in Huntsville on Nov. 3-5. Kaufman will be joining forces with McGee while O'Keefe will team up with Eckhardt at the Oct. 28-29 Huntsville event, which is one of six AVCA qualifiers held across the country.
All action this weekend will take place at the John Hunt Park Sand Volleyball Complex, a 428-acre site that was built in 2019 and features 15 LED-lighted courts. The two UT Martin pairs are part of a 52-player field that includes duos from Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, Georgia State, LSU, Mercer, North Alabama, South Carolina, Southeastern Louisiana, Southern Miss, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Tulane and UAB.
The Skyhawk team of Kaufman/McGee are assigned to Pool 6 alongside Tulane's Tawny Ensign/Trinity Jackson and Texas A&M's Chloe Tome/Stephanie Young as those matches will take place Saturday at 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. The UT Martin duo of O'Keefe/Eckhardt will compete in Pool 1 on Saturday at 11 a.m. and noon with Georgia State's Angelina Ferary/Isabella Ferary and Mercer's Jordan Passock/Lexi Polychrones. All matches are best two-out-of-three with the first two sets going to 21 with no cap and the tiebreaking third set going to 15 with no cap.
Kaufman is coming off an All-Ohio Valley Conference second team accolade as she went 20-8 with a perfect 10-0 mark in OVC play last season. The graduate out of Eureka, Mo. ranks eighth on the Skyhawks' all-time victories list (33) and fifth in all-time OVC wins (14).
A senior from Scottsdale, Ariz., O'Keefe is coming off a record-setting debut season at UT Martin in 2023. She racked up All-OVC first team honors after going 24-10 with an unblemished 10-0 mark against league competition, not dropping a single set against OVC foes. Her .714 winning percentage at the No. 2 slot is the best in program history.
Eckhardt transferred to the Skyhawks from Jacksonville University, a member of the ASUN Conference. The Readington, NJ native compiled 31 individual victories in two seasons, including a team-best 16 wins as a freshman while competing at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions.
UT Martin's lone freshman on the 2024 beach roster is McGee, who joined the program out of Norfolk, Va. She was a key member of the highly successful Beach Elite 18 Adidas Black club program and was a USA Volleyball Beach National Championship bid winner earlier this year.
For more information on this weekend's AVCA event, click on the link above.
Skyhawk returners Lucy Kaufman and Olivia O'Keefe will join newcomers Sydney Eckhardt and Reagan McGee in hopes of securing a bid into the national event, which will also be held in Huntsville on Nov. 3-5. Kaufman will be joining forces with McGee while O'Keefe will team up with Eckhardt at the Oct. 28-29 Huntsville event, which is one of six AVCA qualifiers held across the country.
All action this weekend will take place at the John Hunt Park Sand Volleyball Complex, a 428-acre site that was built in 2019 and features 15 LED-lighted courts. The two UT Martin pairs are part of a 52-player field that includes duos from Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, Georgia State, LSU, Mercer, North Alabama, South Carolina, Southeastern Louisiana, Southern Miss, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Tulane and UAB.
The Skyhawk team of Kaufman/McGee are assigned to Pool 6 alongside Tulane's Tawny Ensign/Trinity Jackson and Texas A&M's Chloe Tome/Stephanie Young as those matches will take place Saturday at 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. The UT Martin duo of O'Keefe/Eckhardt will compete in Pool 1 on Saturday at 11 a.m. and noon with Georgia State's Angelina Ferary/Isabella Ferary and Mercer's Jordan Passock/Lexi Polychrones. All matches are best two-out-of-three with the first two sets going to 21 with no cap and the tiebreaking third set going to 15 with no cap.
Kaufman is coming off an All-Ohio Valley Conference second team accolade as she went 20-8 with a perfect 10-0 mark in OVC play last season. The graduate out of Eureka, Mo. ranks eighth on the Skyhawks' all-time victories list (33) and fifth in all-time OVC wins (14).
A senior from Scottsdale, Ariz., O'Keefe is coming off a record-setting debut season at UT Martin in 2023. She racked up All-OVC first team honors after going 24-10 with an unblemished 10-0 mark against league competition, not dropping a single set against OVC foes. Her .714 winning percentage at the No. 2 slot is the best in program history.
Eckhardt transferred to the Skyhawks from Jacksonville University, a member of the ASUN Conference. The Readington, NJ native compiled 31 individual victories in two seasons, including a team-best 16 wins as a freshman while competing at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions.
UT Martin's lone freshman on the 2024 beach roster is McGee, who joined the program out of Norfolk, Va. She was a key member of the highly successful Beach Elite 18 Adidas Black club program and was a USA Volleyball Beach National Championship bid winner earlier this year.
For more information on this weekend's AVCA event, click on the link above.
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