- UT is scheduled to face four fellow Tennessee teams this season, two of them this weekend. The Lady Vols have played another state school every season since 1973 except 2006, 2011, and 2012.
- Chattanooga will be the first team from their home state that the Lady Vols have played since 2010. That’s the longest gap between such games in school history.
- UT is 131-26-4 (.826) vs other Tennessee schools. Coach Rob Patrick is 20-1 (.952). Check out the table below to see every one of those 161 matches.
- Tennessee’s last loss to another state team was 16 seasons ago in 1997, vs Tennessee Tech.
- The Lady Vols are on an 18 match winning streak vs other Tennessee squads. That’s the second longest run in program history, behind the 27 matches in a row they won between 1981 and 1989.
- ETSU and Tennessee Tech are the two state schools UT has played the most with 33 matches each.
- Tennessee is 14-3-1 all-time vs Chattanooga. UTK won the previous meeting in 2010. The team currently holds a 14 match winning streak over UTC, with their last loss coming in 1976. The Lady Vols have only lost two sets in that time.
- Tennessee is 8-0 all-time vs UNC Ashville. The first meeting was in 1973 and the last was in 2000. UT has only lost three sets in that time.
- Tennessee is 4-3 all-time vs UT Martin. UTK won the last meeting in 2004. All the prior match ups were in the 1970s. The Lady Vols have won the last three in a row.
- Tennessee will face Charlotte for the first time in program history.
- Three assistant coaches on opposing sidelines this week also faced Tennessee during their playing careers: Chattanooga’s Savanah Stansell at Ohio in 2005 and Taylor Wittmer at Indiana in 2007 and 2010; and Charlotte’s Bethany Byers at USC in 2006. They were 3-1 combined vs UT.
- The team had two memorable trips the first times they faced UNC Ashville on the road after Coach Patrick came on board:
- In 1997, the Lady Vols defeated the Bulldogs in a four-set, two-and-a-half hour slugfest. Tennessee put up 262 attacks while UNCA had 257, at the time the 11th and 12th best four-set performances in NCAA Division I history. UT also had the then 11th highest ever digs total with 134. The Bulldogs topped that with 145 — then the 4th best tally and still the 8th in the NCAA record book in four-sets. Both digs totals are also UT team match records to this day. Four Lady Vols dug up 20 or more balls each. And despite Tennessee saying that Nikki Fowler was the first person at UT to do it 2007, it appears Christy Warren recorded a triple double with 64 assists, 10 kills, and 10 digs. The team set 4 top team and 3 individual SEC high marks, 7 players set or matched 17 career personal best totals, and 6 players notched double doubles.
- Their next road trip to play the Bulldogs was memorable for a completely different reason. The bus got stuck and the team had to walk several miles to their match!
More information:
- Chattanooga: Friday 9/5 at 7:00pm ET | website | match info from UTC | live stats | live video $
- UNC Asheville: Friday 9/6 at 12:30pm ET | website | match info from UNCA | live stats | live video $
- UT Martin: Saturday 9/7 at 10:00am ET | website | match info from UTM | live stats | live video $
- Charlotte: Saturday 9/7 at 6:00pm ET | website | match info from UNCC | live stats | live video $
- Tennessee: website | match info from UT (FLASH)
Match Notes 2013: Country Inns & Suites Invitational