Hurricane Irma may be on the way but it looks like the Vols will be able to safely make their matches this weekend vs #20 Florida State, Florida A&M , and Kennesaw State before it gets too close.

MATCH NOTES

Tennessee is 7-10 all-time vs Florida State. Their first meeting was in 1975, a 2-0 loss to the Seminoles. Their last meeting was in 2012, a 3-0 loss to FSU. Tennessee is 16-7 vs the Atlantic Coast Conference since 2001.

Tennessee is meeting Florida A&M for the first time in program history. Tennessee is 3-0 vs the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference since 2001.

Tennessee is 1-0 all-time vs Kennesaw State. Their only meeting was in 2014, a 3-1 win for the Vols. Tennessee is 10-1 vs the Atlantic Sun Conference since 2001.

The last time the Vols played back to back matches vs ranked opponents was last season when they ended the year vs #23 Kentucky and #22 Missouri. The team went 1-1 in those games.

While the Vols and Seminoles have faced off 17 times over the years, all but two of those matches took place in the 1970s and 1980s. The other games took place over two decades later, in 2010 and 2012.

This is the first of those recent UT/FSU matches where both teams aren’t ranked.

Both Florida matches this weekend take place in Tallahassee, but not in the same arena. The Vols will face both Florida State and FAMU on their home courts.

UT has played 37 matches in the state of Florida vs teams not the University of Florida since 1978. They are 23-14 in those games.

UT IN FLORIDA BUT NOT VS UF
Tallahassee	29	19-10
Gainesville	3	2-1
Orlando	2	1-1
Pensacola	2	0-2
Jacksonville	1	1-0

Somewhat surprisingly, the Vols have only played 6 matches in the state of Georgia vs teams not the University of Georgia since 1978. Tennessee is 4-2 in those matches.

UT IN GEORGIA BUT NOT VS UGA
Athens	4	2-2
Atlanta	2	2-0

Florida State head coach Chris Poole has a major legacy at one SEC school. He helped found the Arkansas volleyball program in 1994. In his 14 seasons at the helm of the new team, the Razorbacks won the SEC West 11 times, went to the NCAA Tournament 9 times, and were the only team other than Florida and Tennessee to win an SEC Tournament.

Florida A&M might possibly be the most international team in NCAA Division I volleyball. Of the twelve players on their roster, only one lists her hometown as being in the United States. The countries represented on the squad: three from Peru, two from Bulgaria, two from the Dominican Republic, two from Turkey, and one each from Argentina and Columbia. The coaching staff, too, hails from abroad with Tony Trifonov from Bulgaria while his assistants are originally from Turkey and Peru.

Kennesaw State head coach Keith Schunzel has some indirect UT connections. He faced the 2005 Vol team that advanced to the Final Four in his very first volleyball job, an assistant coach at Purdue. He joined the Indiana volleyball staff and their head coach — former Tennessee assistant coach Sherry Dunbar. While there the Hoosiers made their first-ever Sweet Sixteen appearance by knocking off the Vols in 2010. And he was an assistant at Kentucky when UT defeated the Wildcats to clinch the outright SEC Championship in 2011.

LINKS OF INTEREST

PrepVolleyball is announcing their annual Senior Aces piecemeal over the next week. The list recognizes the top 250 volleyball recruits in the class of 2018. I’ll write up a full report after the entire list has been released. So far three future Vols have made an appearance.

Tennessee is not ranked (yet!) but you can keep track of the AVCA Coaches Poll online.

The local Tallahassee newspaper has an article about the Florida State volleyball team, their season so far, and their key players.

You can keep up with the players’ latest stats on two different sections of this website. The Roster page has total season stats as well as each players career highs. The Stats page has game by game data for each player that can be sorted in many different ways. There are also sections for program records and other interesting facts as well. One just-for-fun area even lets you see how each player might end the season in specific stats at their current pace.

MATCH SCHEDULE

	FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES 2017: 5-1 // 2016: 26-6, 17-3 ACC
	Friday, September 8, 6:00pm ET Tallahassee FL

	FLORIDA A&M RATTLERS 2017: 1-6 // 2016: 17-12, 10-0 MEAC
	Saturday, September 9, 1:00pm ET Tallahassee FL

	KENNESAW STATE OWLS 2017: 5-1 // 2016: 18-11, 12-2 ASUN
	Sunday, September 10, 3:00pm ET Kennesaw GA // Live Video // Live Stats