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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

2014 Match Notes: Lady Vol Classic

Tennessee finally gets to play to the home crowd, taking on Austin Peay, Memphis, Mercer, and Montana State at the annual Lady Vol Classic.

  • The Lady Vols are 29-7 in home openers since 1978. Under coach Rob Patrick the team is 14-3 and have won 11 of their last 12. In their opening week at home UT is 76-22 since 1978, and 40-12 under Patrick.
  • Coach Patrick is 38-10 in Lady Vol Classic matches.
  • UT is meeting two of their opponents this week for the first time in program history. They’ve already faced five such opponents this year.
  • Tennessee is 3-0-1 vs Austin Peay, winning the 2013 meeting in three. Last year the Lady Govs went 13-22, and were fourth in the OVC with a 9-7 record. This year the team is 3-9 with wins over Binghamton, Bryant, and Evansville.
  • Tennessee is 22-7 vs Memphis. UT is 8-2 in the last ten matches, but the teams haven’t met since 2000. Last year the Tigers went 15-17, and were seventh in the American with a 7-11 record. This year the team is 6-4 with wins over Saint Louis, UT Martin, Nicholls State, Northwestern State, South Alabama, and Mississippi State.
  • Tennessee is meeting Mercer for the first time. Last year the Bears went 1-27, and were last in the Atlantic Sun with a 0-18 record. This year the team is 3-6 with wins over Kent State, College of Charleston, and Alabama A&M.
  • Tennessee is meeting Montana State for the first time. Last year the Bobcats went 6-25, and were ninth in the Big Sky with a 4-16 record. This year the team is 3-6 with wins over New Mexico State, Canisius College, and Bethune-Cookman.
  • Since 2001, UT is 8-1 vs the OVC, 1-0 vs the American (22-3 including matches vs its predecessor), and 10-1 vs the SoCon. Tennessee is playing a Big Sky team for the first time since 1996.
  • The Lady Vols started the season way back on August 29th, and have spent the last three weekends on the road. There are 20 days between that first match of the season and the first home match of the year. That’s the second longest amount of time Tennessee fans have had to wait to see the team play in Knoxville.

    LONGEST WAIT FOR FIRST HOME MATCH
    1981 9/15 – 10/13 (21 days) 7-7
    2001 8/31 – 9/21 (21 days) 4-3
    1996 8/31 – 9/20 (20 days) 6-5
    1997 8/30 – 9/19 (20 days) 3-8
    2014 8/29 – 9/18 (20 days) 5-5
    The 1981 stretch included a home exhibition match vs a Brazilian team.
    The 2001 stretch originally included a home tournament
    that was cancelled after the terrorist attacks.

  • UT is facing the last two of the three fellow Tennessee teams it will play season. The Lady Vols have played another state school every year since 1973 except 2006, 2011, and 2012.
  • The Lady Vols are 135-27-4 (.825) vs other Tennessee schools. Coach Rob Patrick is 24-2 (.923).
  • UT has only lost two matches to in-state rivals since 1991: Tennessee Tech in 1997 and ETSU last year.
  • In their four previous meetings with UT, Austin Peay has only won a single set: during a 1-1 tie in 1976.
  • Memphis and Tennessee have played 29 matches since 1973, but only one has ever gone to five sets: a Lady Vol win in 1980.
  • A couple of Austin Peay freshmen have local connections. Peyton Walker attended Knoxville’s West High School. And Ashley Slay played high school volleyball at Ensworth School for head coach — and former Lady Vol — Ann Mullins.
  • Austin Peay head coach Taylor Mott played volleyball in the SEC from 1992-1995 with Mississippi.
  • Memphis head coach April Jauregui was the starting outside hitter for the Tigers the last time Tennessee played them in 2000. UT assistant coach Erica Lear also started in that match.
  • Lear served as an assistant coach under Jauregui at Memphis last year.
  • Mercer head coach Damian Elder was an associate head coach at SEC rival South Carolina. And somewhat similarly to UT coach Patrick, he got his start in Division I volleyball at Stanford where he was a volunteer assistant coach during a national championship season.

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