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Tuesday, November 22, 2016

2016 Match Notes: vs Kentucky and at Missouri
  • UT is 29-47 all-time vs Kentucky. The Wildcats have a seven-match winning streak, the last five of which were sweeps. This is Tennessee’s longest drought in the series since UK’s 12 match run from 1985-1992. It’s the longest sweep streak for either team in series history.
  • UT is 2-7 all-time vs Missouri. The Tigers have a five-match winning streak, the last three of which were decided 3-1.
  • While Tennessee may be out of the running, the road to the SEC Championship winds through Knoxville this week. The Vols face two of the four teams still chasing the title.

schedule_kentucky KENTUCKY
SEC: 15-2 REMAINING: Tennessee

schedule_kentucky MISSOURI
SEC: 14-2 REMAINING: Georgia, Tennessee

schedule_kentucky FLORIDA
SEC: 14-2 REMAINING: Auburn, Arkansas

schedule_kentucky TEXAS A&M
SEC: 13-3 REMAINING: LSU, Auburn

  • If a recent pattern holds, the Gators could be taking home their 22nd championship. Every even-numbered year since 2008, Florida has won the title, while another team has won it in odd-numbered years.

SEC CHAMPIONS SINCE 2008
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
schedule_florida schedule_lsu schedule_florida schedule_tennessee schedule_florida schedule_missouri schedule_florida schedule_texasam ?

  • The Wildcats cannot be happy to face Tennessee in their last match of the regular season with a potential conference championship on the line. While Kentucky has appeared in eleven consecutive NCAA tournaments and been a fixture in the polls for some time, they’re still waiting for their first SEC title since 1988. Three of their best most recent chances were thwarted by the Vols in UK’s final regular season game:
    2008: #17 Kentucky was looking to become just the second team other than Florida to win a league title since 1992. A win over the unranked Vols in Lexington in the last match of the season and they would share the trophy with the Gators. Tennessee pulled off the upset with a 16-14 victory in the fifth set.

    2009: Either LSU or Kentucky were going to win or share the title. All the #10 Wildcats had to do was defeat the unranked Vols in the last match of the season. UT went up 2-0 but UK fought back to tie it. In the fifth set, Kentucky led 14-10, giving them four championship points — before Tennessee scored the last six in a row to once again dash their title hopes.

    2011: #15 Tennessee came into the final match with a guaranteed share of the conference championship. With a victory over the Vols, #16 Kentucky would get a share of the elusive title. For the third time in four years, the Vols broke the Wildcats’ hearts at the end of the season, this time in a 3-1 decision.

  • The Vols are 27-53 vs ranked opponents since 2001. 15 of those wins came with Tennessee themselves unranked.
  • The last time UT played back to back ranked teams was October 2015, when they went 1-1.

22-6 (15-2) // 11/23 @ 9:00pm ET // Knoxville TN // ESPNU // Stats

23-5 (14-2) // 11/26 @ 7:00pm or 7:30pm ET // Columbia MO // SEC Network+ // Stats

Note: Missouri and Tennessee list different start times for Saturday’s match.
Also, Missouri says the game will stream on SECN+, but ESPN’s site isn’t listing it yet.