I have moved around a lot in my life. My father was in the Air Force so we never lived in one place for more than a few years. From 1st to 12th grades I attended nine different schools! All told I lived in six different states before dad retired to his hometown of Knoxville, where I finished high school and started college at the University of Tennessee.

Since leaving college I have continued to be on the move. I’ve changed addresses six times between three states in the 13 years since then. I moved back to Knoxville in late 2006. One of the main reasons I started this website was because I was so thrilled that I was finally going to be able to really follow my favorite team that I wanted to throw myself into my fanaticism in a big way!

Is there a point to this post? Yes!

First of all, I had always planned for this blog to be a lot more personal than it ended up being. I didn’t want just facts, figures, and links. I wanted more of a conversational dialogue along with it. Unfortunately, I have not done a great job of getting that tone down. Maybe I’ll do better from now on!

But the real reason I bring this up is to admit that during all my moves around the country I have actually picked up five favorite college teams. Luckily for me, during all the conference upheavals in the 1990’s and 2000’s all of them ended up in different conferences. Which means I rarely have to worry about them playing each other! This week brings one of those rare match-ups. Tuesday Tennessee travels to the town I lived in from 2002-2006 (and where my son was born!) – Louisville, Kentucky – to take on the Cardinals. So I can’t miss this chance to follow the Lady Vols up and watch both teams play!

As a true college sports fanatic I obviously have a pecking order for my five favorites for just such moments. And Tennessee is far and away at the top of that list! But it will be great to see another team I like that I don’t get to see much anymore.

I hope this personal aside didn’t bore you too much! I’ll get back to dry facts and figures soon enough!

(PS: I know you’re just dying to know the full list of my favorite college teams! ;) So here they are in the order in which I root for them: Tennessee, East Carolina, Baylor, Louisville, Air Force.)

For the second match in a row Tennessee took a team to a fifth game but this time they couldn’t pull out the win. Mississippi won this afternoon 3-2 (30-19, 25-30, 30-25, 24-30, 15-5). The story and stats when they are online.

UPDATES: The story and stats are available (read the PDF version of the stats – the text version is not correct – FIXED!). You can also check out the story from Mississippi.

Jena Berg, Nikki Fowler, and Farren Powe got double-doubles. Five players were in double digits with digs with Chloe Goldman leading the way with 23. Leah Hinkey hit .379. Tennessee and Mississippi were competitive with each other in every statistical category except service aces and blocks. The Rebels led the Lady Vols in aces 10-2. Tennessee led in total blocks 18-9.

Come cheer on the Lady Vols this afternoon as they try to build on the momentum of their last big victory. After taking down the top team in the SEC West on Friday night, Tennessee will take on the number two team in that division, Mississippi, at Stokely Athletic Center today at 1:30pm. Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for children, and UT students are free with their student ID. If you can’t make it to the match you can watch online for free (click the “Video Streaming” link), or just follow the score and stats.

Tennessee’s five game losing streak is over as the Lady Vols upset the #18 LSU Tigers in a thrilling 3-2 match (30-28, 24-30, 30-24, 29-31, 16-14). The win evens up the overall record at 8-8 and improves the SEC record to 3-6. Tennessee is now 2-2 vs top 25 teams this season, losing to #1 Nebraska and #6 Florida and defeating #21 Utah and #18 tonight. The (huge!) story and stats when they are available.

UPDATES: The box score is now online. Three players (Jena Berg, Kylie Marshall, and Nikki Fowler) had double-doubles! Yuliya Stoyanova hit over .500, Leah Hinkey and Berg hit .300, and Fowler (who had over 50 total attacks) just missed that mark with .294. Five players were in double digits with digs – Chloe Goldman, Berg, Marshall, Fowler, and Jaye Loyd.

Tennessee has the story with plenty of quotes from Coach Patrick. LSU has the story from their point of view as well.

If you weren’t able to watch the match be sure to check out the box score linked above and look at the play-by-play summary to see just how exciting this match was!

There will be several ways to follow the Lady Vols as they return home to Stokely Athletic Center tonight to take on LSU. The best way, of course, is to come to the game! 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 you can watch online for free (click the “Video Streaming” link), or just follow the score and stats.

Tennessee will try to end their five game losing streak as they continue SEC play this weekend. The Lady Vols, #18 LSU and Mississippi have posted match notes on their websites. The notes include rosters, team information, statistics, and other interesting tidbits.

• LSU (15-2, 7-1): website | match notes (PDF)
game time is Friday, October 12th at 7pm ET

• Mississippi (15-4, 5-3): website | match notes (PDF)
game time is October 14th at 1:30pm ET

• Tennessee match notes (PDF)

Using the stats from the NCAA website, here is a listing of individual and team Southeastern Conference statistical rankings. Stats are for games played through October 21st.

Aces per game
• 16th – Kylie Marshall (0.38 aces per game)
• 21st – Nikki Fowler (0.36 aces per game)
• Tennessee is ranked 11th in the conference as a team with 1.29 aces per game.

Assists per game
• 7th – Jena Berg (11.13 assists per game)
• 17th – Nikki Fowler (0.84 assists per game)
• Tennessee is ranked 10th in the conference as a team with 13.18 assists per game.

Blocks per game
• 5th – Leah Hinkey (1.38 blocks per game)
• 9th – Mindy Flynn (1.22 blocks per game)
• 20th – Nikki Fowler (0.88 blocks per game)
• Tennessee is ranked 5th in the conference as a team with 2.86 blocks per game.

Digs per game
• 5th – Chloe Goldman (4.98 digs per game)
• 15th – Jena Berg (3.29 digs per game)
• Tennessee is ranked 4th in the conference as a team with 16.91 digs per game.

Hitting percentage
• 12th – Leah Hinkey (.297 hitting percentage)
• Tennessee is ranked 11th in the conference as a team with a .189 hitting percentage.

Kills per game
• Tennessee is ranked 10th in the conference as a team with 14.18 kills per game.

The NCAA website is continuing their weekly listing of national statistical rankings. Tennessee placed in the top 100 in the nation in several categories. Stats are for games played through October 7th.

Blocks per game
• 50th – Leah Hinkey (1.38 blocks per game)
• 96th – Mindy Flynn (1.22 blocks per game)
• Tennessee is ranked 40th in the nation as a team with 2.86 blocks per game.

Digs per game
• 69th – Chloe Goldman (4.98 digs per game)
• Tennessee is ranked 93rd in the nation as a team with 16.91 digs per game.

Tennessee lost two more matches to SEC teams this week dropping their conference record to 2-6. Jena Berg got her tenth career double-double. An impressive eight players on the Lady Vols roster matched or exceeded career highs.

• Tennessee is 25-24 vs South Carolina.
• Tennessee is 9-36-1 vs Florida.

• During Coach Rob Patrick’s time at Tennessee the team has only lost five or more games in a row three times: in 1997 (his first year) the team lost eight in a row; in 1999, the team lost five in a row; and now the current streak of five losses. The Lady Vols’ longest losing streak on record is eleven in a row during the 1995 season.

• The Lady Vols are a very young team. Nine of the fourteen players on the roster are freshmen or sophomores. This weekend marked the first time this season that Tennessee’s two seniors, Joselyn Johnson and Yuliya Stoyanova, played in the same matches.

Career bests matched or exceeded this weekend:
• Milan Clarke: block solos
• Nikki Fowler: aces
• Chloe Goldman: kills and attacks
• Joselyn Johnson: block solos
• Lauren LaFlamme: assists
• Jaye Loyd: assists
• Kylie Marshall: block assists and total blocks
• Farren Powe: hitting percentage, block assists, and total blocks

Double-doubles this weekend:
• Jena Berg: assists and digs vs South Carolina

Tennessee was swept by #6 Florida this afternoon (30-27, 30-18, 30-18). The loss was the Lady Vols’ fifth in a row, the longest losing streak since a five game skid in September 1999. Story and stats when they are online.

UPDATE: Tennessee and Florida have posted stories and stats on today’s game.

There are three online options for following today’s match against Florida. You can follow the score and stats for free using GameTracker. You can listen to the game for free with the internet audio stream of WRUF. Or you can subscribe to Gatorvision ($9.95 /month) to watch the match.

Tennessee lost their fourth match in a row tonight, this time to South Carolina 3-1 (23-30, 30-27, 30-23, 30-22). The Lady Vols fall to 7-7 overall and 2-5 in the SEC. Stats and more when they come online.

UPDATE: The stats and the story from Tennessee’s point of view and South Carolina’s.

CSTV XXL subscribers (more info here) can watch tonight’s match at South Carolina online. Or you can follow the score and stats for free with GameTracker. The game starts at 7pm ET.

Tennessee hopes to end their three game losing streak as they continue SEC play this weekend. The Lady Vols and opponents South Carolina and sixth ranked Florida have posted match notes on their websites. The notes include rosters, team information, statistics, and other interesting tidbits.

• South Carolina (8-7, 1-5): website | match notes (PDF)
games time is Friday, October 5th at 7pm ET

• Florida (13-0, 6-0): website | story – Match notes (PDF) for Florida’s Friday night game against Kentucky are currently available. I’ll update when notes for the Sunday game with Tennessee are posted.
games time is October 7th at 1:30pm ET

• Tennessee match notes (PDF)

UPDATE: Here is Florida’s match notes (PDF) for Tennessee.

I apologize for my absence the past few days. My computer died this week and I’ve been stuck with only an iPhone for online access. I’ve got my laptop up and running now and am in the process of copying over all the files from my desktop computer’s hard drives. I hope to be all set up by the end of the weekend. I’ll still be updating the site but may be a little slower than usual!