Tennessee defeated Mississippi in their 8th(!) five set match of the season (25-18, 25-15, 19-25, 23-25, 15-11). Lots to talk about later tonight!

UPDATE: Tessa Grubbs led the team in kills with 21. Danielle Mahaffey and Lily Felts were next with 16 and 14 respectively. Addisyn Rowe hit .600 on 15 attacks while Morganhn Fingall averaged .417 on 12. Rowe had the most blocks with 5. Alyssa Andreno and Mahaffey had 4 each. Sedona Hansen had 51 assists. She also had a career high 4 aces. Madison Coulter put up 24 digs. Gianna Pellizzon had a career high matching 17 digs. Hansen’s 11 digs (no shock here!) gave her a double double.

This win ends the team’s four-match losing streak, and gives UM one of their own.

With 7 matches still remaining, Tennessee has already played in more five-set matches this year than all but three previous seasons. (12 in 2012, 10 in 1991, and 9 in 2011.

Tennessee led the match 2-0 before eventually getting the win in a fifth set. The team has already lost 2 matches this season after being up two sets. That’s happened 8 times in school history. The win prevented them from becoming the first team to do it three times in a season.

UT had an 8 point lead in the third set and a 6 point lead in the fourth set before the Rebels came charging back to win both. The Lady Vols had a comeback of their own in the fifth set, trailing by 4 before rallying back to win by 4.

Coulter notched 24 digs. She has dug up that many or more balls 7 times in her career — a feat only 5 other Tennessee players have accomplished. That list includes three All-Americans, three All-SEC players, and two SEC Defensive Players of the Year. Drop that threshold to 23 digs and Coulter has done it 10 times, something only 2 other Lady Vols can match.

This was just the second time since Hansen’s freshman season she’s reached 50 assists. The other time came against Mississippi earlier this year.

Tennessee is last in the SEC in aces, but you couldn’t tell from tonight’s game. The team served up 11 total, one shy of the season high. The team had more aces in the second set alone (8) than in all but two total matches all year.

Here’s a cool stat from the official site: “The win over Ole Miss was the 20th SEC victory of the Eve Rackham era. In 29 total conference matches, she is the quickest coach in program history to reach 20 SEC wins.”