Tennessee played back-to-back matches this past week against ranked opponents, falling to both #18 Kentucky and #8 Florida.

• Kendra Turner had 12 kills against Kentucky, while Ashley Mariani was just behind with 11. Shealyn Kolosky, Raina Hembry, and Jamie Lea had two blocks each. Lexi Dempsey put up 28 of the team’s 30 assists. Megan Hatcher had ten digs and Bridgette Villano added seven more.
• Against Florida, Turner again led the Lady Vols with seven kills, and Mariani had five. Hembry and Turner had two blocks each. Dempsey had 19 of the team’s 20 assists. And Kelsey Bawcombe had the team lead in digs with eight. The team had a season low 21 kills, while allowing Florida a season high .444 hitting percentage.
• With only seven games remaining on the schedule, Tennessee will end the season with a losing schedule for the second year in a row. But despite that, they still have a chance to finish on a positive note. If they can pull off one more win they’ll at least match last season’s record. Two or more wins and they’ll surpass it.



• The Lady Vols had no aces vs Mississippi or Kentucky, the first time in the rally-scoring era the team had ace-less back-to-back matches.
• I don’t have set-level stats in my files, but according to UT’s official game notes (PDF) the team had six consecutive sets without an ace in the Mississippi and Kentucky matches, which was “the longest such stretch since 2011”. UT didn’t get an ace until the second set vs Florida, so that streak ended at seven sets.
• Tennessee’s 21 kills vs Florida were the second fewest in the rally-scoring era. The UT player with the most kills only had seven — the fourth lowest team high for kills in a match in that time.
• The Lady Vols’ 26 statistical points against Florida were the fewest since 2001. Their 39 total actual scored points were the second fewest.
• Florida held Tennessee to nine points in the first set of their game. That was just the third time in the rally-scoring era Tennessee has been held to single digits in a set.
• UT is 26-48 vs ranked opponents since 2001, and has lost the last eight in a row.
• Tennessee is now 24-30 in televised matches since 2001, and has lost the last ten in a row.

Apologies if these stats seemed a little more dreary than usual! I think it had more to do with the level of competition this week (two ranked teams in a row for the first time this year) than anything else.