The Lady Vols were victorious this afternoon over South Carolina 3-2 (30-28, 30-17, 27-30, 33-35, 15-11). After winning the first two games, Tennessee came up just short in the third. In the fourth the Lady Vols had three match points before the Gamecocks were able to force a match deciding fifth.
The team set the school record for most total block assists in a single match with 39.
• Nikki Fowler had 28 kills on 69 attacks for a .377 hitting percentage – all personal bests. Fowler is just the 22nd player in UT history to record at least 28 kills in a match. Along with her 13 digs, she completes her 8th double-double of the year (not including last weeks’ triple double.)
• Chloe Goldman had 31 digs – only 7 other times in Lady Vol history has a player had more in a single match.
• Leah Hinkey had career high numbers with 39 attacks, 13 blocks assists, and 14 total blocks. Add in her 14 kills and she gets her 3rd double double of the year.
• Jena Berg had career highs with 62 assists and 7 block assists/total blocks. With 12 digs she notched her 15th double double of the year.
• Farren Powe tied her career highs with 14 kills and 37 attacks.
• Kylie Marshall had 24 digs.
• Yuliya Stoyanova had 7 blocks and 9 digs.
• Jaye Loyd added 10 digs.
Story and box score should be available soon.
UPDATES: Nothing from Tennessee yet, but here are the story and stats from South Carolina.
Tennessee has their story and stats up now. According to their press release we can add another record to the above list: Leah Hinkey tied the second-highest single match block total in school history!
The Lady Vols take on the Gamecocks this afternoon at 1:30pm ET at Stokely Athletic Center. Tickets are just $5 for adults, $3 for children, and UT students are free with their student ID. If you can’t make it to the match be sure to check out the live score and stats online.
If you are coming to the match be sure to note that the Tennessee women’s basketball team is playing at 3pm. So traffic may be an issue and parking may not be free or as easy to find.
Florida wins the SEC tonight with a 3-0 (30-20, 30-18, 30-27) win over Tennessee. The score and stats later tonight.
UPDATES: Tennessee has the box score up. Nikki Fowler led the team with 10 kills and also added 8 digs. Jena Berg led the team with 29 assists and completed the double double with 12 digs. Chloe Goldman led the team with 18 digs and had the team’s only service ace. Leah Hinkey led the team with both 3 blocks and a .333 hitting percentage. Other noteworthy performances: Yuliya Stoyanova hit .316; Milan Clarke hit .250; Farren Powe had 8 kills and 2 blocks; Kylie Marshall had 9 digs and 2 blocks.
Tennessee and Florida have posted stories about the match.
Coach Patrick: “I thought we played hard today, but we made the match more difficult for ourselves because we were undisciplined defensively. I was proud of the way our hitters were able to get their feet to the ball and take some big swings, but our offense is still only running at about half of its efficiency… Nikki did a great job of taking some big, aggressive swings from the back row tonight. That was the most aggressive that I’ve seen her play. As great as she has been all year, this match shows that she has only beginning to reach her full potential.“
Pictures from tonight’s match are now posted.
The Lady Vols take on #8 Florida tonight. With Alabama’s loss last night the Gators are guaranteed at least a share of the SEC title for the 17th season in a row. They could win the title outright tonight with a win over Tennessee. If you want to cheer on the team as they try to ensure Florida has to win the championship on someone else’s court, then head down to Stokely Athletic Center tonight at 7pm ET! Tickets are just $5 for adults, $3 for children, and UT students are free with their student ID. Can’t make it to the match? You can follow the score and stats live or listen to Florida’s radio coverage over the internet.
The Daily Beacon, UT’s student newspaper, talks with Coach Patrick and junior Milan Clarke about this weekends’ matches with Florida and South Carolina.
Coach Patrick, on Florida: “I think we can match up in a lot of different ways with them… but they serve very tough and they can hit a lot of different shots so we have to be ready to control them.“
Milan Clarke, on what need to be turned around this weekend: “Sustaining play is a weakness for our team because we can play great for a game, and then lose it.“
Tennessee’s Jena Berg was named to the 2007 College Sports Information Directors of America/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District IV second team it was announced today. CoSIDA’s Academic All-America program recognizes the nation’s premier college scholar-athletes for their ability to achieve excellence on the playing field and in the classroom. Berg is a sport management major with a 3.49 GPA. So far this season she is averaging 10.22 assists per game. Congratulations Jena!
UPDATE: Tennessee has the story.
The Lady Vols have their longest home-stand of the season, playing three matches over six days at Stokely Athletic Center. On Friday they’ll take on #8 Florida, who can clinch a share of the SEC title with a win (if my math is not off). On Sunday, South Carolina comes to town, followed by Kentucky on Wednesday.
• Florida (22-1, 15-1): website | match notes
In their last match this season
Florida won 3-0 (30-27, 30-18, 30-18).
Game time is Friday, November 9th at 7pm ET.• South Carolina (12-13, 5-11): website | match notes (PDF)
In their last match this season
South Carolina won 3-1 (23-30, 30-27, 30-23, 30-22).
Game time is Sunday, November 11th at 1:30pm ET.• Tennessee match notes (PDF).
UPDATE: Tennessee is apparently going to run match notes for Wednesday’s game vs Kentucky with next week’s games.
As I’ve mentioned previously, I moved back to Knoxville late last year after about a decade long absence. While away I didn’t get to follow the team very closely, so creating this website was kind of my way to (1) make it easier for others outside Knoxville to follow the team, and (2) reconnect with the team now that I was going to be able to follow them more closely. When I started this site, the official Lady Vols site had not yet been completely updated for the 2007 season. For example, all the career highs and other stats had not been updated with the 2006 info. So one of the first things I did was recompile those stats by pulling up all the box scores from 2006 and adding them to the 2004 and 2005 information. Tennessee ended up finally updating their site about a week after I had done all this work! But digging into 3 years worth of stats was very informative and gave me a view of the team that I didn’t have previously while I was absent. And the one name that jumped out over and over was Yuliya Stoyanova.
In the very first game of her freshman year
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The NCAA website is continuing their weekly listing of national Division I statistical rankings. Only the top 500 individuals and top 325 teams are tracked in each category. Stats are for games played through November 4th. See where Tennessee ranks in the nation and in the conference here:
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While the win-loss column took a two match hit this weekend as Tennessee lost to both Mississippi and LSU, the Lady Vols did manage to light up the stats sheet. One player on the Lady Vols roster earned a school first triple-double while another broke a school record; six tied or exceeded career highs in the same match (at Mississippi).
• Tennessee is 31-6 vs Mississippi (0-2 this season).
• Tennessee is 16-28 vs LSU (1-1 this season).• Mississippi swept the season series against Tennessee for the first time and won their first match ever at home against the Lady Vols.
• With this past weekend’s two match road trip out of the way Tennessee thankfully only has one more away game on the schedule. The Lady Vols are 1-9 as the visiting team this year. With a season long three matches in a row at home next up on the schedule, things look brighter for the team who are 6-4 in the friendlier confines of Stokely Athletics Center.
• The Lady Vols lost their 14th and 15th matches of the season this weekend, the most in any season since Coach Rob Patrick’s first year when the team dropped 19 matches.
• Records: With her 61 digs over the weekend Chloe Goldman took over first place on the single season digs list with 510. Her 40 digs vs Mississippi were the second most in any match in UT history. Nikki Fowler scored the first triple double by a Lady Vol ever. The team had 37 block assists against the Rebels, which was just one shy of the school’s all time single match record. Yuliya Stoyanova took over the 10th place spot on Tennessee’s career kills chart, where she now stands with 1,295 putaways.
Career bests matched or exceeded this weekend:
• Milan Clarke: block assists and total blocks
• Nikki Fowler: attacks, assists, digs, block assists, and total blocks
• Chloe Goldman: digs
• Jaye Loyd: assists and aces
• Kylie Marshall: digs, block solos, and total blocks
• Farren Powe: digs, block assists, and total blocksTriple-double this weekend:
• Nikki Fowler: kills, assists, and digs
Congratulations to Nikki Fowler who picked up the University of Tennessee’s Lady Vol Athlete of the Week award today in part, no doubt, due to her scoring a school first triple double in the match against Mississippi Friday night.
• Played significant role in all facets of the game this weekend, serving as an invaluable contributor in the passing game, defensively, offensively and even setting.
• Recorded the first triple-double in school history with 19 kills and career-high totals of 19 assists and 18 digs. Finished a mere two blocks away from the first quadruple-double in the nation this season with eight putbacks in the match.
• Continued solid play at LSU, posting team highs with 11 kills and 33 attacks. Added seven digs, four assists and two blocks as well.
• For the weekend, finished as the team’s top performer in kills (30), kills per game (3.75), attacks (87), points (36.5) and aces (one), while claiming second on the squad with a .218 hitting percentage, 23 assists, 10 blocks and 1.25 blocks per frame and third on the team with 25 digs, 3.12 digs per game and 2.88 assists per game.
Congratulations to Chloe Goldman who was (finally!) named the Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Week today.
• Averaged 7.62 digs per game as she recorded a career high, 40 digs in match against Ole Miss
• Her 40 digs leads the league this season and marks the second highest single-match total in school history
• Took over the top spot on the UT single-season digs chart as her 61 digs in two matches give her 510
• Leads the league in digs per game in conference matches only with 5.65
Tennessee was swept by LSU this afternoon 3-0 (30-17, 30-22, 31-29). Chloe Goldman had 21 digs in the match, enough to make her the record holder at Tennessee for most digs in a single season with 510 – with five matches still to go! Jena Berg had 20 assists, nine digs and three blocks. Nikki Fowler had 11 kills and 7 digs. Leah Hinkey hit .304 and had 11 kills and five blocks. Kylie Marshall had 12 digs. Stats and the story when available.
UPDATE: The press release from Tennessee is now online.
Going into LSU this afternoon, Tennessee libero Chloe Goldman is just 18 digs away from beating the school record for total digs in a single season. After each game of today’s match I’ll post her updated totals.
1. Chloe Goldman 510 digs 2007
2. Amy Morris 506 digs 2005
3. Stephanie Ehlers 445 digs 1988
4. Amy Morris 435 digs 2004
5. Kristy Dobson 412 digs 1991
6. Amy Morris 397 digs 2003
7. Kristy Dobson 384 digs 1990
8. Kristy Dobson 367 digs 1989
8. April Chapple 367 digs 1984
10. April Chapple 356 digs 1983UPDATES (3:00pm ET): Tennessee lost game one 30-17. Goldman got 4 digs. Her total above has been updated.
(3:23pm ET): Tennessee lost game two 30-22. Goldman had 5 digs. Her total above has been updated.
(3:58pm ET): Congratulations to Chloe Goldman for setting Tennessee’s single season record for most digs!
(4:01pm ET): Tennessee lost game three 31-29. Goldman had 12 digs. Her total above has been updated.
Tennessee tries to keep up their stellar play from Friday night but turn it into a win this afternoon against LSU. To follow the match live at 2:30pm EST you can get scores and stats here (scroll way down to the bottom). If you get the local station Pelican Sports Television the match will be broadcast tape delayed at 6:30pm EST/5:30pm CST (an internet feed may be available as well).