Less than a month to go! I sure hope the team is more prepared than I am, because I have had no time to do anything on the site to get ready for the 2013 season! Hopefully that will change very soon.

I’m actually really looking forward to this season. There’s a lot of things that will be different this year than in the recent past.

• Despite the off season losses, and with only a few players with significant playing time returning, it’s kind of exciting not knowing exactly what to expect from this year’s team. And honestly, as last year’s squad found out, playing with a target on your back is a lot harder than when your opponents may have lowered expectations.

• With 32 of them, UT will be playing the most regular season matches since Coach Rob Patrick’s first season in 1997.

• For the first time since 1987, the Lady Vols will host two home tournaments.

• The SEC season won’t be 20 matches. Unlike every year since 2006, this year a split 18 match schedule has been implemented. We’ll play six conference foes twice (AU, UF, UGA, UM, MSU, SC) and six once (UA, UARK, UK, LSU, MU, TAMU).

• After two years in a row (of only three seasons in Patrick’s tenure) without an in-state rival on the schedule, this year UT will face four of them. The Lady Vols haven’t lost to another Tennessee team since 1997.

• Tennessee will face 16 opponents in the friendly confines of Thompson Boling Arena, where the team is 60-13 (.822). The last time they played that many matches in Knoxville was 1990 — 1985 if you want to talk regular season only.