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Thursday, November 18, 2021

Lady Vols sweep ‘Bama

UT picked up a 3-0 (25-18, 25-18, 25-13) win over the Crimson Tide this evening. More details coming soon.

UPDATE: Breana Runnels led the match in kills with 17. Morgahn Fingall had 11, Lily Felts had 9, and Danielle Mahaffey had 8. All three players were also extremely effective hitters: Mahaffey hit .800, Felts hit .529, Runnels hit .485, and Fingall hit .435. Ava Bell put up 7 blocks, while Natalie Hayward and Mahaffey added in five more each, and Runnels 4 more. Hayward had 41 of the team’s 47 assists. Felts, Madison Bryant, and Runnels all had double digit digs with 13, 12, and 11 respectively. Runnels now has 10 UT career double-doubles.

Tennessee had their second best hitting match in the rally-scoring era with a .469 — making only 4 attack errors the whole night.

Since 2001, no other match before this one has had 4 players with double digit attacks all hit over .425.

Mahaffey’s .800 average ties for the third best by a Lady Vol (with at least 10 attacks) in the rally-scoring era.

The margin between UT’s hitting percentage and Alabama’s (.469 vs .130 for a .339 difference) was the 16th widest between Tennessee and an opponent since 2001. It’s the second time this season the Lady Vols have had over a .300 point advantage over the other team (.379 margin over ETSU).

While Tennessee ranks 5th in the nation in blocking, they also are having a big year at not getting blocked. For the third time this season, UT held an opponent to 1 or fewer blocks. That’s a record three of the top ten school rally-scoring era low opposing block totals notched this season. In addition, Tennessee has held five opponents to 2 or fewer blocks and seven opponents to less than 3 blocks.