Been a busy week for me so lighter and later notes for the South Carolina and Florida matches in Knoxville this weekend.

MATCH NOTES

Tennessee is 37-30 all-time vs South Carolina. UT is 5-5 in their last ten meetings, and 8-2 in their last ten at home. The visitors have a three-match winning streak vs Tennessee. The Vols lost a four-set match in Columbia earlier this season, despite leading in hitting, blocks, and points, and matching them in aces and digs. Tennessee hit .306 in the match, their 3rd highest percentage in a loss in the rally scoring era.

Tennessee is 13-49-1 all-time vs Florida. UT is 3-7 in their last ten meetings, and 3-7 in their last ten at home. The Lady Vols are hoping to snap a seven-match losing streak. The Vols were swept by the Gators earlier this season when they were the #1 team in the country. Tennessee held UF to a .252 hitting percentage in the match — only (currently ranked) #3 Texas, #6 Kentucky, and #7 Nebraska have done better this year.

After defeating the Vols and earning his 101st win in seven seasons at South Carolina, Scott Swanson was dismissed as head coach of the Gamecocks. Since that match, Dottie Hampton has been promoted to interim head coach and the team is 1-6.

Tennessee will face two big servers this weekend. South Carolina’s Aubrey Ezell is 11th in the nation with 0.48 aces per set, while Florida’s Carli Snyder is #9 with 0.51.

Sunday’s match will be the 4th time this season UT has faced a top-ten opponent.

This will be the 34th time in program history that the Vols have faced a top-five team. They’ve won twice: #2 Penn State and #4 Florida in 2005.

Tennessee is a respectable 28-57 (.329) vs ranked opponents in the rally-scoring era when they themselves are unranked. They’ve won such a match each of the last two seasons.

Tennessee is near the top and bottom of two stats nationally. The Lady Vols rank 16th in the country in blocks per set. But the team is the 5th worst team in Division I in aces per set.

Brooke Schumacher is 51 digs away from becoming the 15th member of UT’s 1,000 digs club.

Erica Treiber is 3 blocks away from UT’s top-ten career blocks list.

Rob Patrick is 2 wins away from his 200th career SEC regular-season victory.

UT dropped one spot to #58 in the latest RPI.

MATCH SCHEDULE

	SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS 10-12, 3-7 SEC
	Friday, November 3, 7:00pm ET Knoxville TN // SEC NETWORK+ // LIVE STATS

	FLORIDA GATORS 19-1, 11-1 SEC
	Sunday, November 5, 1:30pm ET Knoxville TN // SEC NETWORK+ // LIVE STATS

NATIONAL & CONFERENCE STATISTICAL RANKS

		aces per set	assists per set	blocks per set	digs per set	kills per set	hitting percent	opp hit percent
	STAT NCAA SEC	1.21 185 7	11.19 232 12	2.30 79 7	13.35 279 11	11.90 238 12	.224 98 7	.205 183 10
	STAT NCAA SEC	0.86 325 13	11.53 201 9	2.82 16 3	15.26 136 5	12.45 187 9	.224 100 8	.182 85 3
	STAT NCAA SEC	1.29 143 3	13.00 37 3	3.11 4 1	15.59 114 4	13.91 33 3	.284 14 2	.131 3 1