Tennessee will continue their season on the road this week at Michigan State’s Spartan Invitational in East Lansing. There they’ll face Cincinnati, Miami (OH), and the tournament hosts.

MATCH NOTES

• Tennessee is 7-3 all-time vs Cincinnati. They are on a 3 match winning streak. The first meeting between the teams came in 1973. UT is 23-4 vs American Athletic Conference teams in the rally-scoring era.
• Tennessee is 3-4 all-time vs Miami (OH). They are on a 3 match winning streak. The first meeting between the teams was in 1985. UT is 10-4 vs Mid-American Conference teams in the rally-scoring era.
• Tennessee is 1-1 all-time vs Michigan State. The first meeting was in 2003. UT is 7-17 vs Big Ten Conference teams in the rally-scoring era.
• The Lady Vols fell two spots to #21 in the latest Coaches Poll. The team is 101-15 in the rally scoring era when ranked and playing an unranked opponent.
• Cincinnati is receiving votes in the poll and would be an unofficial #38.
• This is the third time UT has visited Michigan for a tournament since 2001. They previously played in Ann Arbor in 2004 and Kalamazoo in 2016. They went 2-1 during each trip.

COACHING CONNECTIONS

• Miami University is known as the “Cradle of Coaches” for its history of producing coaches over the years. In 1992, the school started formally naming its most successful alumni into the Cradle of Coaches Association. Former Lady Vol volleyball coach Rob Patrick was honored with induction in 2011.
• UC coach Molly Alvey is 1-4 vs the Lady Vols as a head coach. From 2005 to 2013, Alvey faced UT every season — as a coach at three different schools. She was an assistant and then associate head coach at Mississippi from 2005-2009. She spent two seasons as head coach at Houston from 2010-2011. And in 2012 and 2013, played Tennessee as head coach of Cincinnati.
• MU coach Carolyn Condit is 3-4 vs the Lady Vols. She has been a head coach for 40 years, and is in her 36th season with Miami. She was hired in 1984, and faced UT for the first time in her second year, getting a 3-2 victory. She’d win three more matches in a row over the next several meetings before Tennessee picked up their first win over her in 2000.
• MSU coach Cathy George is 0-3 vs the Lady Vols. She was the first woman to coach in the NCAA Division I Final Four, leading UT Arlington within one match of the National Championship game back in 1989. Tennessee faced her squad the very next season, earning a 3-1 win. Later she moved on to Western Michigan, and in 2004, her final season there before being hired by the Spartans, UT defeated the Broncos 3-1. Last season, UT defeated Michigan State 3-1 in the first match of Eve Rackham’s tenure.
• Miami assistant coach Tania Schatow faced the Lady Vols as a player at LSU.