#20 Kentucky got a hard fought four set win over a feisty Lady Vols squad in Knoxville this afternoon (25-17, 20-25, 25-22, 25-23).

Tennessee had three players hit over .300 (with double digit attacks): Erica Treiber at .364 with 9 kills, Rocky Perinar at .346 with 11 kills, and Tessa Grubbs at .316 and 15 kills. (UK had no player match that.) Treiber had 5 blocks, Lily Felts added 4, and Addisyn Rowe contributed 3 more. Callie Williams put up 24 assists. Sedona Hansen had 21 while picking up a double double with 10 digs. Madison Coulter smashed her career high with 25 digs — the 28th most at UT all-time in a four-set match.

The teams were almost even in every stat: 55-55 in kills (UT – UK), 25-24 in attack errors, .184 to .185 in hitting percentage, 53-49 in assists, 66-68 in digs, and 10 to 11 in blocks. The only stat that was not evenly matched were serving: 2-6 in aces.

In three of their four losses this season, Tennessee has been up by 6 points in a set only to allow the other team to come back and win it.

UT STORY // UK STORY

The Lady Vols picked up a win in their first conference match of the season, defeating Auburn 3-1 (22-25, 25-12, 25-21, 25-13).

The team had a season high .404 hitting percentage and 70 kills. Their kill total was the 13th most in the rally-scoring era at UT in a four set match. And their hitting number was the 18th highest in any match during that time.

Three players reached double digit kills: Tessa Grubbs with 17, Addisyn Rowe with 13, and Alyssa Andreno with 12. Two other players were one kill short of that threshold with 9: Lily Felts and Erica Treiber. (If those two had had one more kill each, Tennessee would have had their first match since 2012 with five players in double digits.)

Four players hit over .400 (with at least 10 attacks): Rowe with .571, Andreno with .550, Treiber with .421, and Grubbs with .414. Only three matches in the rally-scoring era at UT have had more players hitting that high.

Treiber and Rocky Perinar led the team with 4 blocks each. Four players had double digit digs: Madison Coulter with 16, Felts with 15, Giana Pellizzon with 13, and Sedona Hansen with 10. Hansen earned her 6th double-double of the year with 27 assists. Callie Williams was just behind with 25.

For the second time this season UT held an opponent to just 2 team blocks — the 10th lowest number in matches since 2001.

Tennessee made it to 10 wins in 13 matches this year. That’s the best they’ve done since 2015. The team has only reached that milestone faster 9 times since 1978.

UT STORY / AU STORY / POST-GAME INTERVIEW WITH RACKHAM

The Lady Vols start conference play with a weekend on the road at Auburn and at home vs #20 Kentucky.

MATCH NOTES

Tennessee is 30-20-1 all-time vs Auburn. UT is 3-7 in their last ten meetings, and 5-5 in their last ten at Auburn.

Tennessee is 30-48 all-time vs Kentucky. UT is 2-8 in their last ten meetings, and 4-6 in their last ten in Knoxville.

Since 1978, the Lady Vols are 17-16 in their first SEC game of the year. They’ve lost their last 6 conference openers in a row.

Sophomore Madison Coulter will face her former Maryville High School and K2 teammate Chesney McClellan when the Lady Vols take on Auburn.

Prior to this season, Tennessee had won 2 of their last 20 matches vs ranked opponents. In 2018, the team has matched that total, winning 2 out of 3 matches vs ranked opponents.

By the time the team hit the court at Thompson-Boling Arena this Sunday, they will not have played at home in 22 days. This is just the 5th time in program history UT will have had over three weeks between home matches.

The Lady Vols are 3-5 since 2001 in televised matches vs Kentucky. They are 2-3 when the Wildcats are ranked higher.

MATCH NOTES

Tennessee is receiving votes in the latest Coaches Poll, coming in at an unofficial #39. UT is #41 in PrepVolleyball’s Top 64 ranking. They’re #36 in the RichKern.com Poll. The Lady Vols are #38 in the Pablo Ranking. And they’re receiving votes in the VolleyTalk Poll.

Volleyball Magazine lists Tennessee as one of their “SEC surprises”.

Check out the UT promotions page for info on free tickets and autograph offers at the Sunday match.

MATCH SCHEDULE

	AUBURN TIGERS 2018: 7-3 // 2017: 15-12, 8-10 SEC
	Friday, September 21, 8:00pm ET Auburn AL // Online Stream // Live Stats

	#20 KENTUCKY WILDCATS 2018: 6-4 // 2017: 29-4, 17-1 SEC
	Sunday, September 23, 1:00pm ET Knoxville TN // TV: SEC Network // Online Stream // Live Stats

NATIONAL & CONFERENCE STATISTICAL RANKS

		aces per set	assists per set	blocks per set	digs per set	kills per set	hitting percent	opp hit percent
	STAT NCAA SEC	1.25 188 9	12.00 131 9	1.89 192 9	13.92 231 7	12.75 136 11	.234 85 9	.213 225 12
	STAT NCAA SEC	1.07 273 13	12.41 82 6	2.40 53 4	13.82 239 8	13.52 60 4	.248 59 7	.165 44 3
	STAT NCAA SEC	1.10 255 12	12.43 80 5	1.73 240 11	12.98 283 11	13.55 58 3	.296 9 1	.226 255 13

The Lady Vols improved to 9-3 this weekend with wins over Ohio State and Evansville and a loss to Dayton.

at Dayton
Tessa Grubbs had 23 kills. Erica Treiber had 11, while hitting .550 with no errors; she led the team with 4 blocks and also had a career high 4 aces and a career high matching 9 digs. Breana Jeter had 10 kills. She and Addisyn Rowe had 3 blocks each. Sedona Hansen earned a double-double with 32 assists and 11 digs. Callie Williams added 19 assists.

Since 2001, only 12 opposing players have scored a triple double vs Tennessee. Dayton’s Brooke Westbeld is the second Flyer to join that list, and the first player since 2011 to do so.

All three matches between these teams in the rally scoring era have gone to five sets.

vs Ohio State
Grubbs led UT’s attack with 15 kills. Treiber had 12 again with no errors for a .600 hitting percentage. She matched her career high set the night before with 4 more aces. Rowe had 7 blocks. Madison Coulter had 10 digs. Hansen put up 31 assists.

In the final set Tennessee ended the match with 9 points in a row, the last 3 of which were aces by Treiber.

With 8 losses and not a single win over the Buckeyes in program history, UT ended one of their current longest losing streaks.

The win was the team’s second over a Big Ten opponent this year. Prior to 2018, the team had lost their last 10 in a row against the conference. They hadn’t won twice in a single year since the 2005 Final Four season.

vs Evansville
Rocky Perinar had 13 kills, hit .500, and put down 5 blocks. Grubbs had 10 kills. Treiber had 5 blocks and Rowe added 4 more. Hansen had 33 assists and 11 digs for the double-double. With 5 kills, she matched her career high.

According to the official stats, Tennessee had their first ball handling error of the year during this match — though I’m assuming that has to be wrong!

Weekend Totals
Treiber was impressive with just 2 errors over 53 attacks this weekend. With 29 kills, she hit .509. She also notched 9 aces over the three matches.

Grubbs had 48 kills on 102 attacks with just 12 errors for a .353 hitting percentage.

Rowe had 14 blocks while also hitting .349.

Hansen was a single dig shy of picking up a double-double in all three matches this weekend.

Tennessee wraps up the out of conference portion of their schedule with a 3-0 (25-14, 25-15, 25-18) win over Evansville. More tomorrow.

The Lady Vols bounced back from yesterday’s loss, defeating Ohio State this afternoon 3-1. More tomorrow.

Tennessee fell to Dayton tonight 3-2 (25-12, 20-25, 25-23, 15-25, 15-13). More Sunday.

The Lady Vols are on the road for the second weekend in a row, this time heading to Ohio for the Flyer Invitational hosted by the University of Dayton.

MATCH NOTES

Tennessee is 2-2 all-time vs Dayton. Their first meeting was a loss back in 1974. UT has won the last two meetings, five-set matches in 2008 and 2011.

Tennessee is 0-8 all-time vs Ohio State. Their first meeting was in 1974. Their last meeting was a 3-2 loss in 2011.

Tennessee is 2-0 all-time vs Evansville. Both meetings were 3-1 wins, in 2014 and 2015.

Since 2001, UT is 9-1 vs the Atlantic 10 Conference, 6-15 vs the Big Ten, and 4-2 vs the Missouri Valley Conference.

Tennessee faced both Dayton and Ohio State for the first time at the Dayton Invitational in 1974. They finished the tournament in third place among the five teams.

Dayton has played 3 ranked opponents already this season, losing them all but coming within two points of knocking off #12 Washington.

Ohio State has faced 3 SEC opponents this year, going 2-1 with wins over Texas A&M and Missouri and a loss to Mississippi.

Evansville has already played 3 other matches vs Tennessee teams so far this season, going 2-1 with wins over Tennessee Tech and Tennessee State and a loss to Austin-Peay.

The Lady Vols’ last two meetings vs OSU were also the only times the teams have met in the NCAA Tournament. The Buckeyes knocked UT out both times and both in 15-12 five-set matches, in the first round in 2011 and in the Sweet Sixteen in 2004.

UT’s 8 match losing streak vs Ohio State matches their current longest run of losses to a team. The Lady Vols also currently have 8 match losing streaks vs Texas and Texas A&M.

Dayton will be the 5th different Ohio city Tennessee has played in in the last 10 years. They visited Cincinnati in 2009 and 2013, Athens in 2010, and Cleveland and Kent in 2016.

That last stat shouldn’t be a surprise, considering the volleyball talent in the state that UT wants to recruit. In the last 10 years, 6 Lady Vols have come from Ohio. Of those, 4 were Senior Aces, 2 were All-America honorees, and 3 are currently on the roster (Breana Jeter, Danielle Mahaffey, and Stephanie Spencer).

Tennessee freshman Rocky Perinar and Dayton’s Ali Papesh were high school teammates and co-captains at Minooka Community High School in Illinois.

LINKS OF INTEREST

Tennessee is receiving votes in the latest Coaches Poll, coming in at an unofficial #34. UT is also #34 in PrepVolleyball’s Top 64 ranking. They’re #36 in the RichKern.com Poll. And the Lady Vols are #45 in the Pablo Ranking.

Sophomore Madison Coulter headlines an article in the Blount County Daily Times about how area athletes are faring in the college ranks.

MATCH SCHEDULE

	DAYTON FLYERS 2018: 6-4 // 2017: 23-8, 13-1 A-10
	Friday, September 14, 7:00pm ET Dayton OH // Online Stream // Live Stats

	OHIO STATE BUCKEYES 2018: 8-1 // 2017: 15-16, 8-12 Big Ten
	Saturday, September 15, 10:30am ET Dayton OH // Live Stats

	EVANSVILLE PURPLE ACES 2018: 6-5 // 2017: 10-20, 4-14 MVC
	Saturday, September 15, 4:30pm ET Dayton OH // Live Stats

The Lady Vols get their second win over a ranked opponent this season after defeating #16 San Diego in four sets (22-25, 25-20, 25-22, 25-22). Much more soon!

UPDATE: Rocky Perinar, who hadn’t played a point prior to this road trip, had another impressive night leading the team with 15 kills. She hit .387 on the match. Tessa Grubbs was just behind her with 14 kills. Erica Treiber had 11 kills while hitting .474. Breana Jeter led the team in blocks with 7. Addisyn Rowe hit .353 and had 6 blocks. Sedona Hansen put up 26 assists and had 9 digs. Callie Williams had 21 assists. And Madison Coulter back in the libero jersey had 12 digs.

Tennessee cleaned up their service, going from 3.33 errors per set yesterday to 1.5 today.

The Lady Vols held the Toreros to 6 team blocks. Only #17 Washington had held them to fewer this season.

The last time Tennessee defeated two ranked opponents in a season was 2012.

UT STORY / USD STORY

There seems to be some confusion when it comes to this weekend’s opponent — San Diego. I’ll be honest I don’t think anyone knows what it means anymore. Scholars maintain that the translation was lost hundreds of years ago. But that’s not what I’m talking about!

In my notes I mentioned that UT and San Diego were meeting for the first time. In UT’s official notes, they say UT and San Diego played once before — a 3-1 win (15-9, 15-5, 12-15, 15-12) on October 11, 1980. And San Diego’s notes say that they are 0-1 all time vs the Lady Vols with the single meeting occurring on October 11, 1980.

So I’m wrong, right? Well, first of all, being right or wrong isn’t the point. Secondly, I don’t think I’m wrong!

Something important you need to know is that there are three different NCAA Division I schools with “San Diego” in their name. There is the team we are playing this weekend, the University of San Diego (USD). Then there is the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or UCSD). And lastly there is San Diego State University (SDSU).

According to the UT record book, they played at the San Diego Invitational at San Diego State on September 19th & 20th of 1980. At the tournament they lost to SDSU. The day after the tournament, again according to UT, the team played UC San Diego and won 3-1 (15-9, 15-5, 12-15, 15-12). Finally, according to the record book, UT was at a tournament at Florida State on October 11th.

I double checked all this info with other sources to confirm. San Diego State’s record book has Tennessee at their tournament on those dates. UC San Diego’s record book has UT there on the right date. And the University of San Diego record book says the Lady Vols never played them. One last check with the local newspaper archives also confirms the information as listed here.

It’s completely understandable why Tennessee mistakingly said we’ve played San Diego before, because of the confusion with the names. What I don’t understand at all is why USD thinks we’ve met when their own record book says otherwise! Agree to disagree, San Diego.

Tennessee played the #16 team in the country close, but couldn’t avoid the sweep, losing to San Diego 25-19, 25-21, 25-18.

Erica Treiber led the team with 9 kills and hitting .571. Tessa Grubbs had 7. Freshman Rocky Perinar impressed in her collegiate debut, leading the team in blocks with 5. Treiber and Addisyn Rowe added 3 more each. Sedona Hansen had 14 assists; Callie Williams had 13. Brooke Schumacher had 9 digs.

San Diego’s Kaity Edwards hit .750 (10-1-12) for the match — the fourth highest hitting percentage by a UT opponent with double digit attacks since 2001.

This was the first match since 2015 where no Tennessee player reached double digits in kills and digs.

UT STORY / USD STORY

The Lady Vols make just about one of the longest road trips you can make this weekend, heading to California to face the University of San Diego in two matches in successive days.

• Tennessee and San Diego are meeting for the first time.
• The Lady Vols are 3-1 vs West Coast Conference teams since 2001.
• The team is heading to California for the first time since 2006. Their last match in the state was a 3-1 loss to USC. However, in the rally-scoring era UT is 7-2 in matches played in the state.
• Tennessee will play San Diego in back to back matches. The last time the Lady Vols played a non-conference opponent twice in the same year was 2005, when they lost to Missouri in the first month of the season before defeating them in the NCAA Tournament on their way to the Final Four. The last time the team scheduled a non-conference opponent twice in the same regular season was 1995, when they played both St. Mary’s (CA) and Arizona State in back to back days.
• Like UT head coach Eve Rackham, San Diego coach Jennifer Petrie is a former North Carolina assistant coach, serving from 1994 to 1997.
• San Diego is 1-3, but Tennessee will be the first unranked team the Toreros have faced this year. They lost to #10 UCLA and #17 Washington twice, and defeated #12 Baylor.
• After losing to the last five ranked teams they played (all in sweeps), the Lady Vols finally ended that streak earlier this season with a 3-1 win over #22 Michigan State. The last time UT had a two win winning streak against ranked opponents was 2012.

	#16 SAN DIEGO TOREROS 2018: 1-3 2017: 25-5, 17-1 WCC
	Friday, September 7, 10:00pm ET Saturday, September 8, 10:00pm ET San Diego CA // Online Stream // Live Stats

The Lady Vols led ETSU 1 set to 0, then 2 sets to 1, and finally 7-0 in the fifth set. But the Buccaneers rallied back each time finally earning a hard fought win over UT (21-25, 25-15, 20-25, 25-19, 15-12). More tomorrow.

UPDATE: Tessa Grubbs carried the Tennessee offense with a career high 25 kills — the only player on the team with double digits. Her performance also ranks as the 58th most kills in a match all time at UT. Madison Coulter and Erica Treiber had 8 kills. Addisyn Rowe had 7 while hitting .600. Treiber had 9 blocks and Danielle Mahaffey added 7 more. Brooke Schumacher dug up 23 attacks. Callie Williams had 28 assists. Sedona Hansen picked up career double-double #35 with 23 assists and 14 digs. That moves her in to 5th place in rally-scoring era double-doubles.

ETSU has now won two matches in a row over the Lady Vols for the first time since 1975.

Going back to last season, UT has now lost the last 4 five-set matches they’ve played.

This was just the 4th loss to a fellow state school the team has had in the past 20 years.

UT STORY / ETSU STORY

The Lady Vols are taking a drive up I-81 this Tuesday to Johnson City to face in-state rival ETSU.

• UT volleyball started 60 years ago, in 1958, when a team of women from Tennessee traveled to Johnson City to compete in a tournament held at ETSU.
• Tennessee is 28-6 all time vs the Buccaneers. Their first recorded meeting was in 1973. Their last meeting was a 3-1 loss for UT — the team’s first loss in the series since 1978.
• UT has no recorded loss to ETSU when playing in Johnson City.
• The Lady Vols are 16-1 vs the Southern Conference in the rally-scoring era.
• Against other schools from the state of Tennessee, UT is 138-29-4 all time.
• ETSU is playing the Vols three times in three different sports this week: volleyball on Tuesday, soccer on Thursday, and football on Saturday.
• A win over ETSU on Tuesday would mark the 900th win in program history. But there is one major caveat: the Tennessee record book is missing a lot of games. This is no secret. In the year-by-year results section, three of the five years from 1973 to 1977 explicitly say “records for the season are incomplete”. Also, if you look at the year-by-year coaching results page you’ll notice there are no records listed at all for any year between 1958 and 1972.

  Some of these missing matches are known. In a previous article, I wrote about those first missing 15 years and listed around 40 games the team played prior to 1972 — probably just a sliver of the actual matches they competed in. In a more recent year, the UT record book has the team 7-11-3 in 1977 with the “incomplete” note added. I have (also probably incomplete) results that have them around 18-19-5 that year. This isn’t meant to criticize the UT record book at all! (This site wouldn’t be here without it!) When the school started compiling it way back when, they rightly listed the results they had the best, most solid information on.

  It’s great to be able to celebrate milestones, to remember the past and look how far you’ve come. And to do that you need a set foundation of historical matches to base the numbers on. That’s what the record book provides. So please, let’s celebrate the 900th recorded win in school history, and keep in mind all the Lady Vols it represents and those that represented Tennessee before the count started as well.

• Notes from Tennessee and ETSU are online.

	ETSU BUCCANEERS 2018: 5-1 // 2017: 19-12, 12-4 SoCon
	Tuesday, September 4, 7:00pm ET Johnson City TN // Online Stream // Live Stats

UT earned victory number six of 2018 with a sweep of Indiana State (25-19, 26-24, 25-20). More tonight.

UPDATE: Danielle Mahaffey was the only Lady Vol with double digit kills, with 11 on 20 attacks for a .450 hitting percentage. Tessa Grubbs had 9, Addison Rowe had 8, hitting .500. Erica Treiber had 5 blocks, while Breana Jeter, Rowe, and Mahaffey had 3 each. Sedona Hansen led the setter with 22 assists; Callie Williams had 10. Brooke Schumacher scooped up 14 digs, while Giana Pellixxon had 10, and Williams added 9.

Tennessee won the tournament, with three Lady Vols getting awards. Treiber and Schumacher were named to the tournament team. Lily Felts was named tourney MVP.

UT is 6-0 for the first time since 2015. Since 1978, the team has started 6-0 just five other times: 1979, 1986, 2004, 2010, 2015.

Felts is the first Lady Vol to earn MVP honors at at regular season tournament since Yuliya Stoyanova in 2004.

UT STORY / ISU STORY