MARTIN, Tenn. – A hard-fought final day of the regular-season saw Austin Peay State University's volleyball team split a pair of matches against UT Martin, Monday, at Skyhawk Arena.

Austin Peay won the day's first match in three sets (28-26, 25-22, 25-22) but UT Martin recovered to claim the nightcap in five sets (22-25, 28-26, 14-25, 25-19, 17-19). With the split, the Governors spring 2021 season concludes as they finish fifth in the regular season race and do not qualify for the four-team OVC Volleyball Championship.

Austin Peay (9-5 OVC), returning to action for the first time in nearly two weeks, got out to a slow start in the day's opening set. After 15 ties and five lead changes, the Govs got back-to-back kills from middle blocker Karli Graham and outside hitter Brooke Moore to clinch the frame.

The Governors won the second set in wire-to-wire fashion. UT Martin raced out to an early 4-1 lead in the third and fended off an Austin Peay charge to maintain an 18-15 lead late.  Austin Peay charged back with a 4-1 run to tie the set at 19-19. One last tie at 20-20 was broken as part of a 4-0 run with outside hitter Tegan Seyring providing a pair of kills. Middle blocker Aysha Hood then provided a block to end the match.

The nightcap proved an even more nip-and-tuck affair with UT Martin (5-11) claiming the first and third sets. Austin Peay countered by winning Set 2 in overtime before winning the fourth set to force the tiebreaker.

That tiebreaker went back and forth with neither team enjoying more than a two-point lead until UTM's Jessica Reynolds' kill gave the Skyhawks an 8-5 lead at the first stoppage. The Skyhawks lead hit four points at 13-10 after a Govs attack error and UTM reached match point at 14-12.

Yet Austin Peay wasn't done battling and fended off a pair of match points as part of a 3-0 run to get to its own match point at 15-14. The Govs had match points at 16-15 and 17-16 but couldn't close the match. UTM would close the match with a 3-0 run with kills from Karen Scanlon and Logan Wallick before a walk-off service ace by Baillie Kearns.

Seyring led the Govs in the first match with 15 kills and a .583 attack percentage then added a 16-kill effort in the second match. Moore posted back-to-back double-doubles – a 14-kill, 13-dig effort in Match 1 and a 13-kill, 21-dig performance in Match 2. Outside hitter Chloe Stitt finished the season with 20 kills and 13 digs in the second match.

UTM's Karen Scanlon had the team's only double-digit kill effort in the opener with 12 kills. Her 18 kills in the night cap led an offensive effort that saw four Skyhawks post double-digit totals.