After starting the season on the road the past three years, the Vols kick things off in Knoxville! The 2016 season begins tomorrow when UT meets Cincinnati in the Tennessee Classic. The next day they’ll face ULM and MTSU.

• Rob Patrick is starting his 20th season as head coach of the Vols. With a really good year he can reach a couple of milestones. He’s 20 wins away from career #400 and 13 away from SEC win #200.
• Since 1978, when complete season records are available, the Vols are 30-8 in season opening matches. In the opening week of the season the team is 83-33. Under Patrick the team is 15-4 in season opening matches and 49-9 in the opening week of the season.
• Coincidentally, Tennessee is also 30-8 in home opening matches and 15-4 under Patrick.
• When the Lady Vols open a season at home they are hard to beat — they’re 11-2 and have only lost once since 1978.
• Tennessee has fared well in August matches, going 40-7 all-time and 16-1 at home.
• The Vols face MTSU on Saturday. Against fellow state schools Tennessee is 136-29-4 all-time. Under Patrick the team is 25-4.
• UT is 6-3 all-time vs Cincinnati. The teams have met only twice in the past quarter-century with Tennessee winning in 2012 and 2013.
• UT is meeting ULM for the first time.
• UT is 14-0 all-time vs MTSU. Tennessee won the first 12 meetings in the minimum number of sets, but in their last two matches in 2001 and 2002, MTSU pushed the Vols to four and five sets.
• Cincinnati was chosen as the American Athletic Conference preseason champion by their league coaches.
• Tennessee is 22-4 vs American Athletic Conference teams, 3-2 vs the Sun Belt Conference, and 9-2 vs Conference USA and since 2001.
• Molly Alvey is very familiar with the Vols having coached against them almost every year since 2005: as the assistant and then associate head coach at Mississippi from 2005-2009, two seasons as head coach at Houston from 2010-2011, and in 2012 and 2013 as head coach of Cincinnati.
• Another face on the Cincinnati coaching staff is even more familiar with Tennessee volleyball. Assistant coach Kayla Jeter has been with the Bearcats for three years. Before that she was an All-American playing in Knoxville from 2008 to 2012. Her sister, Breana Jeter is a Vol redshirt freshman whose first time on the court could be against her sibling’s team.