Redhawks sweep Skyhawks, Yankus earns 200th win

The SEMO women’s volleyball team defeated the Skyhawks of UT Martin in back-to-back sweeps on both Friday and Saturday. With the win, the Redhawks are 5-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference and sit in second behind Eastern Illinois.

Friday night saw the Redhawks completely dismantle UT Martin, leading in every measurable category. Freshman Lucy Arndt led SEMO in kills with 13, senior Izzy Lukens led with 31 assists, freshman Nina Schuberth added three aces, senior Talia Gouard had three blocks and senior Tara Beilsmith had 18 digs.

SEMO head coach Julie Yankus said the team was really prepared for the style of play that UT Martin runs.

“I think this week we really prepared a lot knowing that they’re a great beach team and so they kind of play with a little bit of a beach style,” Yankus said. “Sending stuff over on ones and twos so we worked on that a lot this week. Worked on serving aggressively and we knew they would come at us hard as well from the service lines.”

Saturday afternoon was a carbon copy of Friday night with the Redhawks outpacing UT Martin in every category. The same players led in each category but two, this time Beilsmith got involved with serving as well as defending with two aces while senior Marisa Guisti led with 12 kills. Beilsmith said their non-conference schedule has helped them in the OVC, especially when every opponent brings their best game to Houck Fieldhouse.

“We came into conference with a lot of confidence, and obviously we went down at SIUE but I think it only pushed us further to really think, ‘everyone's gonna come and try and beat us, everybody wants to beat us,” Beilsmith said. “So it's just really kind of lit a fire under us and at practice, we came in just knowing, we have a target on our back and we always will. But at the end of the day, we still need to fight for every single win.”

This victory for the Redhawks marked the 200th career win for Coach Yankus, a feat she said was great to share with this particular group of players.

“It's all about the team, I told them they’re a great group of girls to get that win or that milestone with. I still remember 100, I actually remember winning number one,” Yankus said. “It's all about the team, they're doing all the work and they're the ones that score all the points. But I love this group of girls, and it's great to get that milestone with them.”

SEMO will be on a road trip to Tennessee State for a series, Little Rock for a single game and Eastern Illinois for a series before returning to Cape on Monday, Oct. 30 for a single-game matchup with the Trojans of Little Rock at 6 p.m.