|
Congratulations to the school record ten Lady Vols who were named to the 2011 SEC Fall Academic Honor Roll! No other league team had more players make the list this year than UT (and only a few have had more in conference history). The Lady Vols have placed at least 8 players on the honor roll the last three seasons. And Tennessee continues to be the only team in the conference to have at least 5 players on the list every year since 1996. This year’s honorees are:
Nikki Brice – Biological Sciences
Jasmine Brown – Social Work
Leslie Cikra – Sport Management
DeeDee Harrison – Sport Management
Kayla Jeter – Sociology
Kelsey Mahoney – Nutrition
Ellen Mullins – Business
Kelsey Robinson – Journalism & Electronic Media
Carly Sahagian – Hotel, Restaurant & Tourism Management
Kylann Scheidt – Journalism & Electronic Media
The NCAA posted a story this week with rules committee chair and LSU head coach Fran Flory about possible changes that could be coming soon:
Increase substitutions from 12 to 15. “The rules committee as a whole felt more substitutions in a match can help student-athlete well-being and keep student-athletes happy. The traditionalists of the game probably don’t want this. They want us to make it truer and make people play all positions so players become well-rounded. That certainly was a big topic of discussion. But ultimately, this committee sided with the opportunities for student-athletes.”
Allow transmission of statistical data to the bench area. Audio/video would continue to be restricted. “People from all the divisions are using [laptops and iPads]. Technology is advancing in the world, and volleyball is no exception. We don’t want to close down technology in our sport.”
Ensure referee platforms, including the ladder, are distributed evenly behind the net pole. “Potentially, this could be a cost issue for some schools. We felt like there was enough opportunity to adapt to another system. We want to implement this immediately for player-safety reasons.”
They also clarified rules about libero jerseys to allow trim and piping as long as it is still distinguishable from other players.
In other news, the SEC coaches had their annual meeting earlier this month. A big topic of discussion I’d be willing to bet was the schedule for the upcoming season. Currently each SEC team plays the other 10 opponents in the conference two times, home and away, for a total of 20 league matches. With Missouri and Texas A&M joining the fold next year, that system becomes impossible. It would require each team to play 24 conference matches. And due to NCAA rules limiting the days of competition allowed each regular season (capped at 28 I believe), that wouldn’t leave enough room for preseason tournaments or other out of conference games. So for the first time in 7 years, SEC teams will not play an even schedule with their league foes. I have no idea what they’re going to come up with but it is inevitable that we’re going to have a situation where it’s possible that if two teams are neck and neck for the title one of them might have an easier schedule than the other.
The honors keep coming for Kelsey Robinson, today named a Volleyball Magazine Second Team All-American! Congratulations!
 The holiday break is over and it’s time to get back to work! I’ll get the record book update done and posted soon and then some other 2011 housekeeping. Until then here are some of the things that happened over the last couple of weeks.
Tennessee has officially announced local recruit Megan Hatcher (pictured) will be joining the squad this upcoming season.
Hatcher was recently named to the TSWA Division II All-State Volleyball Team. And while I reported on her All-American and Gatorade State Player of the Year honors, I don’t remember if I mentioned another Tennessee 2012 recruit, Bianca Arellano, was also named All-State and All-Arizona.
Previously mentioned high school junior Ashley Mariani was named to the PrepVolleyball.com Class of 2013 Top 50 Recruits list. Also making the list and noted as coming to Tennessee was a name I hadn’t heard yet, Jamie Lea of Hillsborough NC. Lea is a 6’2” outside hitter from Jammers Volleyball Club and (appropriately enough!) Orange High School.
Curious about the RPI formula? For the first time the NCAA is letting fans view the actual data used by the selection committee. Check out the final numbers from the 2011 season here.
The results are in for the UT website poll on the top moment of 2011 in Tennessee athletics. The winner with 31.6% of the vote was Brad Craig winning back-to-back SEC titles in the 200-meter breaststroke. Of the 17 available choices, the Lady Vols winning the SEC Volleyball Championship came in 4th with 7.4% of the vote.
Tennessee has an update on Anna Martin. It also includes a photo gallery of some of the UT teams visiting and showing their support. As mentioned in a post this past September, the ten year old went through a bone marrow transplant after being diagnosed in May with leukemia. Her mother is Kristen Martin, the coordinator of Tennessee’s Team ENHANCE (Enhancing Nutrition, Health, Athletic Performance, Networking, Community and Education) program. Anna played in the same volleyball league as my daughter. Here’s a photo of all the 5th grade teams this year showing Martin their support after the last week of the season.
Congratulations to DeeDee Harrison on her second All-American honor of the year — this time earning a spot on the COBRA Magazine All-National Second Team! You can download the latest issue here.
The official Tennessee sports page has a poll up asking readers to vote on the top UT sports moment of 2011. The volleyball team has two options on the list: Rob Patrick earning his 300th career victory, and the team winning the SEC Championship. Voting ends January 2nd, and results will be posted January 3rd. You can vote as often as you like, so let’s win this title too!
Being just a fan and not officially involved with the program has certain advantages. One is I can say what I want without having to temper it! And I admit to being disappointed with the AVCA Coaches Poll this year. Twice this season they dropped us when I think we deserved to move up. After the final week of the season after we’d beaten #16 Kentucky to clinch the SEC Championship they decided not to publish a final regular season poll for the first time in years. And in the final poll we’ve fallen 4 spots to #19 and are only the 3rd highest ranked SEC team listed, after beating the two teams above us in 3 of the 4 matches we played them in. It seems to me we were punished for losing a match (to now #23 Ohio State) but never given credit for winning two other matches (vs now #13 Kentucky and Duke) since the previously published poll. Oh well, they can’t take away the spectacular season we had or that long-awaited SEC title! I’ll focus on that instead!
In other systems, Tennessee fell from 9th to 14th in the final RPI, 14th to 19th in the final RichKern.com Poll, and from 9th to 12th in the Pablo Rankings.
The official UT site has more: “Tennessee has now finished the season with a top-25 ranking in each of the past three years and seventh time in program history. The highest final ranking came in 2005, as the Lady Vols finished sixth after a run to the NCAA Final Four. UT also finished 10th in 2004, 14th in both 1982 and 1983 and 24th in 2009 and 2010.”
 For the first time since I started this website 5 years ago, a team other than Penn State has won the national championship. Congratulations to UCLA on winning their first title in 20 years. Illinois put up a good fight in the 3-1 match (25-23, 23-25, 26-24, 25-16). In fact it felt a lot like the UT/UI match earlier this season.
This time next year I’ll be in Louisville watching the national championship. It’s just a 247 mile drive from Knoxville. Hopefully I’ll see a lot of you there…
Tonight is the 2011 volleyball national championship, and I have to say that after seeing how everything shook out that I would have liked Tennessee’s chances of reaching the Final Four this year if they could have squeaked out a win in the Second Round. But we’re not going to dwell on the past! Well, OK, we’re going to kind of dwell on the past, but not about that game!
Illinois faces UCLA for the title this evening. The Lady Vols and the Bruins have (surprisingly, I think) never met. The Illini own a 2-4 advantage over Tennessee all time. The last meeting was earlier this season, when Illinois won a tough 3-1 match (31-29, 25-23, 23-25, 25-19). The Lady Vols were 1 point away from winning the first set, 2 points away from winning the second set, and won the third — just a 3 point swing and Tennessee would have had a sweep over the potential national champion! It was a brutal game at 2 and a half hours (long for a 4 set match) in an un-air conditioned gym. But the team has stated that that match, despite the loss, was when they really first felt the potential of this Tennessee squad.
In 2008, Illinois got a 3-2 win over UT, becoming the only team to defeat Tennessee in the Lady Vol Classic in the past 7 years.
Four Lady Vols are from the state of Illinois — Kelsey Robinson, Carly Sahagian, Shealyn Kolosky, and assistant coach Rachel Cooper. In fact the Illini roster has several players Robinson, Sahagian, and Kolosky were club or school teammates with.
The match is on ESPN2 tonight at 8:30pm ET (assuming the basketball game on before it doesn’t run long). And be sure to check out the UT Twitter feed for a few photos of the coaches and All-American Kelsey Robinson at the AVCA convention (which precedes the championship game) this week.
Congratulations to future Lady Vol Bianca Arellano who was named the 2011-12 Gatorade Arizona Volleyball Player of the Year! The award “recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the court”. The full list of state by state winners can be found at ESPN. The press release announcing Arellano’s achievement is online here (PDF).
Congratulations to the latest Lady Vol All-Americans! Kelsey Robinson was named to the All-America Second Team, while Leslie Cikra, DeeDee Harrison, and Mary Pollmiller were named Honorable Mentions!
Robinson’s Second Team honor is the highest for a Lady Vol since Kristen Andre also made the Second Team in 2005. She becomes just the 6th Tennessee player in school history to earn First, Second, or Third Team recognition on the AVCA All-America list.
Mary Pollmiller is the first UT freshman to ever win All-American status.
This is the first time all four players have picked up an All-America award. They are the 13th – 16th All-Americans in school history.
Tennessee has placed 4 players on the AVCA All-American lists for just the 2nd time, the last time being 2004, when Julie Knytych made the Third Team and Andre, Amy Morris, and Michelle Piantadosi were named Honorable Mentions. (In 2005, Andre, Knytych, and Yuliya Stoyanova made the AVCA All-American lists while Amy Morris was named to the Volleyball Magazine All-America list.)
UT has had at least one player named an All-American in 7 out of the last 8 years. Prior to 2004, only 2 Lady Vols had ever been honored.
Next season, Tennessee will have 5 All-Americans on the court as Cikra, Harrison, Pollmiller, and Robinson will be joined by Kayla Jeter, who was named an All-America Honorable Mention in 2010.
Congratulations to Leslie Cikra, DeeDee Harrison, Mary Pollmiller, and Kelsey Robinson on being named to the AVCA All-South Region Team! And again to Mary Pollmiller on being named the South Region Freshman of the Year! All are now eligible for spots on the All America teams! Congratulations again and good luck in the next round!
UPDATES: Pollmiller is the SEC’s 8th All-Region Freshman of the Year recipient and the 2nd from Tennessee (Yuliya Stoyanova, 2004). She’s the 9th freshman since 1999 to make the All-Region Team, the 6th from the SEC, and the 1st Lady Vol.
Robinson is the 4th sophomore from UT to be named All-Region since 1999 — Ariana Wilson (1999), Stoyanova (2005), and Nikki Fowler (2008) were the others.
Tennessee last got 4 players on the All-Region Team in 2004 (though 3 + 1 honorable mention made the cut in 2005).
More info from UT, including quotes from Coach Patrick, now online.
While the season may not have ended exactly when we would have hoped, we can’t be too down after all the historic things this young team did after facing some unexpected preseason setbacks. Here are just a few of the amazing numbers:
The Lady Vols went 28-4 overall this season. That’s the second fewest losses in school history and the second most wins in the past quarter century.
28-4 is good for an .875 winning percentage, which is the second best record in school history.
At 19-1 in the SEC, Tennessee easily surpassed their old record of 16 for the most conference wins in school history. The record also tied for the least conference losses in school history and the best SEC winning percentage in school history.
UT had a 14-1 record at home, which tied for the best home record in the past 25 years. Their 13-0 regular season record was the best of that time frame.
For just the second time in program history, Tennessee went an entire season without being swept by an opponent.
There was a 52 day time period between Lady Vol losses this year — from October 12th to December 2nd. That tops the previous longest stretch which was 50 days between losses set in 2004 from October 22nd to December 10th (both streaks were ended by Ohio State).
Three out of Tennessee’s four losses this year came in 5 set matches.
Just moving 11 points total over UT’s four losses would have been enough to win every match: 3 points vs Illinois, and 2 points each vs Houston, Kentucky, and Ohio State.
The Lady Vols had winning steaks of 13 and 11 matches this year, the 4th and 5th longest in school history.
An unprecedented in SEC history 14 weekly conference honors were given to an SEC record tying 6 different players this year.
Tennessee had a record year with 7 spots on the All-SEC teams going to Lady Vols.
SEC annual awards went to 3 Lady Vols in the same season for the first time, including the first ever Player of the Year award.
And, oh yeah, let’s not forget they went out and won the SEC Championship too!
This was Tennessee’s 5th overall title. They previously won it 3 times when the SEC Tournament decided the Champion, then shared a title with Florida one year.
It was UT’s 1st Championship in 7 years and just the 2nd in the past 25 years.
The Lady Vols are still one of only three teams to win the conference since 1989.
Their 19-1 record stands as the second best record among all schools in SEC history.
And we’re not done yet! While the games may be over hopefully we’ll have a few more awards coming to Knoxville soon…
Besides potential award announcements, they’ll be a few more updates in the coming weeks before I slow things down around here (more on the UT recruits, a record book update, probably a few more photos to post, etc…).
So more is coming! But before people stop checking in as much during the off-season I want to go ahead and say something.
As some of you know, I had a serious medical problem a few weeks after the 2010 season ended. And I spent most of the offseason making some major lifestyle changes to hopefully prevent any complications or reoccurrences. But another major change that occurs when something like that happens is psychological. I’m enjoying things more, appreciating things more, not taking things for granted as much.
And this amazing Lady Vol team has given me so much to be grateful for. I would have been happy with a lot less — in fact just happy to be at Thompson Boling Arena to watch another season! But an SEC Championship was beyond what I would have dared hope for, especially after those preseason team setbacks. I hope the players know how much I, and their friends, families, and fans appreciate all the hard work they put in every year. No matter the outcome — win or lose, championship or last place — we love you guys, your effort, and how well you represent Tennessee on and off the court. I’m looking forward to being back next year (and a lot longer) covering all the things you do for the team and your fans.
Tennessee’s surprising season ends just short of the Sweet Sixteen as the team falls in 5 to Ohio State (23-25, 25-21, 25-23, 22-25, 15-12). More on this match soon. But we’ll not dwell on it too long as we’ll start recapping the phenomenal year this amazing team gave us.
UPDATES: Despite the score there were some nice individual performances from the team tonight. For just the 5th time in the last decade, and the first time since the 2004 NCAA Tournament, 5 Lady Vols had double digit kills. Kelsey Robinson had 17 kills, 16 digs, and with 59 attacks was just 1 short of the school Tourney record. Tiffany Baker had 13 kills and a career high 8 blocks. DeeDee Harrison put down 12 kills and 6 blocks while hitting .308. Shealyn Kolosky had a huge night earning career highs with 11 kills and 10 blocks for her first double double. She is the only Lady Vol this season to notch double digit blocks. And she hit .391 on the night. Leslie Cikra had 10 kills and 4 blocks. Mary Pollmiller was the third player in the match to pick up a double double with 49 assists and a match and career high 19 digs. She added in a career high 5 blocks as well. Ellen Mullins and Nikki Brice had 13 and 11 digs respectively. The Lady Vols had 20 team digs, just the 2nd time this year they’ve gotten more than 12 in a match. The total of 35 blocks also set a school Tournament record.
This is the 3rd time in the last 4 years that Tennessee has been knocked out of the Tournament in a 5th set match decided by 3 points or less.
I’ve got a couple more weeks of updates before things start to slow down around here so I hope you’ll continue to come back for a while longer. Stay tuned in the coming days for a season recap and record book updates.
Tennessee defeats Duke 3-1 (25-15, 23-25, 25-19, 25-16) to advance to the 2nd Round of the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row. More soon…
UPDATE: Kelsey Robinson led the match with 19 kills. She picked up a double double with 11 digs, and hit .302. Her 53 total attacks was just 7 short of the school NCAA record. Tiffany Baker had 13 kills and 8 digs. Leslie Cikra has 12 kills, hit .333, and added in 5 blocks. DeeDee Harrison had a match leading 7 blocks. Shealyn Kolosky put down 4 more. Mary Pollmiller had 47 assists and 8 digs. Ellen Mullins picked up 18 digs while Nikki Brice contributed a career high 14 more. Mullins and Jasmine Brown each served up two aces.
The Lady Vols held Duke to just 4 team blocks. That’s 1 block per set — tied for the second fewest of the year. They scored 12 team blocks themselves, which is tied for the second most on the season. The 1,552 attendance was the most ever for an NCAA match in Knoxville, topping the last time Duke came to town in 2009.
Tennessee will face Ohio State at 7pm Friday night for a spot in the Sweet Sixteen!
|
