UT got a 3-0 win in the last match of the Tennessee Volleyball Classic, securing the tournament victory with a 4-0 record and moving their season record to 8-0. Erica Treiber was named to the All-Tournament team and Bridgette Villano was named MVP. More info soon.

UPDATE: Raina Hembry and Bri Holmes had 10 kills each. Hembry hit .467 Kanisha Jimenez hat 8. Treiber had 7 and also knocked back four blocks. Lexi Dempsey put up 39 of the team’s 42 assists. Villano dug up 20 balls.

BOX SCORE // UT STORY & VIDEO // EKU STORY

UT got a four set win over North Florida this afternoon to improve to 7-0. More soon.

UPDATE: Kanisha Jimenez had 16 kills and four blocks. Bri Holmes was just behind with 15 kills while hitting .414. Erica Treiber had ten kills, hit .562, and had six blocks. While Raina Hembry put back a UT 2015 season high seven blocks. Lexi Dempsey had 45 assists, and ten digs to get her fourth double double of the year and 26th of her career. She also had a career high matching four blocks. Bridgette Villano had 15 digs. Kelsey Bawcombe got three aces in the match — the fifth time she has served up at least that many in her young career.

The win was the 850th recorded program victory in UT history.

BOX SCORE // UT STORY // UNF STORY

Wearing Smokey Gray uniforms for the first time, Tennessee earned a sweep in style over UNC Greensboro this evening to start the season 6-0 for the first time since 2010 (25-13, 25-23, 25-15). Erica Treiber had 11 kills on 14 attacks with no errors for a massive .786 hitting percentage — UT’s fourth highest of the rally scoring era with double digit attacks. Raina Hembry had 8 kills and hit .412. Lexi Dempsey hit .400, got a double double with 30 assists and 10 digs, and became just the eighth Lady Vol to ever put up 2,000 career assists. Bridgette Villano had 18 digs.

BOX SCORE // UT STORY & VIDEO // UNCG STORY

The Lady Vols won their 2015 home opener, defeating Tennessee Tech 3-1 (25-15, 25-19, 22-25, 25-15). Kanisha Jimenez led the match with 15 kills and earned her seventh career double double with 14 digs. Bri Holmes had 13 kills and three solo blocks — only two other UT players put down more solos in a match in the rally scoring era. Raina Hembry had ten kills. Lexi Dempsey put up 45 assists, which puts her just 18 away from career #2,000. Bridgette Villano dug up 17 balls while Brooke Schumacher added in 11 more.

BOX SCORE // UT STORY, VIDEO, & PHOTOS // TTU STORY

Tennessee’s 2015 home opener is tonight! Here are a few last minute things to check out:

• Tickets for tonight’s match are $1. Hot dogs and drinks will be $1 through the intermission. Friday and Saturday matches will be $3 each day, good for all four matches those days. On Saturday, kids 12 and under get in free. The first 100 kids will receive a free hot dog and drink.
• The official site has posted a tournament page with notes, match times, and more info.
• UT head coach Rob Patrick spoke to a local radio station this morning. He discussed the new training facility, the newcomers to the team and what they provide, the recruiting pool available to colleges in the country today, the upcoming home matches, his California connection, the new court and uniforms, and more.
• Junior transfer Bri Holmes was profiled and answered some questions this week with both the school website and the local newspaper.
• The stats pages should be all up to date, except for a few cosmetic changes still to be finished on some of them. One interesting thing to watch during the season is the season records page. The top half shows the all-time single season records at Tennessee. But the bottom half shows the current players and extrapolates where their stats may end up at the end of the season based on the matches played so far. Keep in mind this is just the computer making a guess based on a formula. In other words it’s just for fun and not anything that should be taken too seriously!
• For those following the rest of the NCAA, be sure to check out ESPN’s five things to watch for this week.

Tennessee begins the home portion of their schedule this week hosting Tennessee Tech, UNC Greensboro, North Florida, and Eastern Kentucky.

• The Lady Vols are 29-8 in home openers since 1978. Under coach Rob Patrick the team is 14-4.
• Coach Patrick is 41-14 in home tournament matches.
• UT has played another state school every year since 1973 except 2006, 2011, and 2012.
• Tennessee is 135-29-4 (.815) vs other in-state schools. Coach Patrick is 24-4 (.857).
• UT has only lost four matches to in-state rivals in the last 25 years: Tennessee Tech in 1997, ETSU in 2013, and Austin Peay and Memphis last season.
• Tennessee is 29-4-1 vs Tennessee Tech. They are 9-1 in their last ten meetings, and got sweeps in the only two meetings in the 2000s.
• Tennessee is 1-0 in their only previous meeting with UNC Greensboro back in 1973.
• Tennessee is meeting North Florida for the first time in program history. They’ve already faced four first-time opponents this year, and will meet three more later in the season.
• Tennessee is 27-8-1 vs Eastern Kentucky. They are 9-1 in their last ten meetings, earning a sweep in their last match at the 2004 NCAA Tournament.
• Since 2001, UT is 8-2 vs the Ohio Valley Conference, 11-1 vs the Southern Conference, and 8-1 vs the Atlantic Sun Conference.
• Senior setter Lexi Dempsey is 63 assists away from becoming only the eighth Lady Vol to reach career assist #2,000.
• Two Knoxville natives on the opposing teams will be getting a chance to play in front of the hometown crowd. Tennessee Tech’s Kennedy Wade attended Grace Christian Academy and was a member of the Phoenix Rising volleyball club. UNCG’s Katie Wagner went to Hardin Valley Academy and played for K2 volleyball club.
• Two opposing coaches will face off against Tennessee from the sidelines after previously playing against UT on the court. Eastern Kentucky head coach Lori Duncan was a four time all-confernece player for the Colonels from 1980 to 1983. EKU faced the Lady Vols nine times in those seasons, and went 1-8. North Florida assistant coach Sam Dabbs played for Louisville from 2006 to 2007 and then for LSU from 2008 to 2009, and won four out of six matches.
• The recent name change of the women’s athletics teams at Tennessee has claimed another victim: the “Lady Vol Classic” is now the “Tennessee Volleyball Classic”. A few years ago I wrote a piece on tournament names at Tennessee, but here’s the TL;DR version with the latest updates. There were 19 tournaments played at UT with the name “Lady Vol Classic”, with a 20th cancelled in 2001 due to the terrorist attacks. Several tournaments in the 1990s are listed in the UT record book under sponsor names (“Mazda Classic” or “Hilton Classic” for example) but may have also been called “Lady Vol Classic” as well. Even when UT called a tournament something else, opponents often called it by the more well known name — the 1984 Florida media guide notes that the 1978 team came in second at the “prestigious Lady Vol Classic”. This will be the first tournament called the “Tennessee Volleyball Classic”. However there have been similar names: the “Tennessee Classic” took place in and 1983 and 1988, the “Tennessee Invitational” was held in 1990 and 2013, and the UT Classic was played in 1984 and 1986. Other tournaments without the Lady Vol moniker included the “Smokey Mountain Classic” in 1981, the “Volunteer State Invitational” in 1986, and the “Big Orange Classic” in 1983. Obviously none of this really matters as tournament names are probably chosen not with an eye on program consistency, but at the whims of the marketing department who come and go every few years. Still seeing the end of the name most associated with Tennessee volleyball tournaments is a passing worth noting.

TENNESSEE TECH GOLDEN EAGLES
Thursday, September 3rd 7:00pm ET // Knoxville TN			2015 Record: 0-3 (0-0 OVC) WEBSITE // VIDEO // STATS
UNC GREENSBORO SPARTANS
Friday, September 4th 7:00pm ET // Knoxville TN			2015 Record: 2-1 (0-0 SoCon) WEBSITE // VIDEO // STATS
NORTH FLORIDA OSPREYS
Saturday, September 5th 10:00am // Knoxville TN			2015 Record: 2-1 (0-0 A-Sun) WEBSITE // VIDEO // STATS
EASTERN KENTUCKY COLONELS
Saturday, September 5th 7:00pm ET // Knoxville TN			2015 Record: 0-3 (0-0 OVC) WEBSITE // VIDEO // STATS

UT finished their first weekend of play undefeated after defeating Coppin State 3-0 (25-15, 25-17, 25-14) and Saint Francis (25-19, 25-16, 25-18).

Nora Reed, Stephanie Buss, and Kanisha Jimenez led both teams with nine kills each. Reed hit .692 for the match, the 14th highest percentage with double digit attacks of the rally scoring era, and the most by a UT player since 2012. Buss hit .471 while Erica Treiber hit .455. As a team the Lady Vols hit .385, which is the second highest total of the last three seasons. Their seven hitting errors were the fifth lowest since 2011. Brooke Schumacher had ten digs. Lexi Dempsey had eight to go along with her 36 assists.

BOX SCORE // UT STORY // CSU STORY

Bri Holmes paces the match with kills in the second match of the day vs Saint Francis, with 13. Jimenez had ten. Dempsey picked up a double double with 32 assists and 14 digs, and also topped the team with two blocks. Schumacher had 11 digs.

BOX SCORE // UT STORY // SFU STORY

UPDATE: Lexi Dempsey was named the tournament MVP while Kanisha Jimenez was named to the All-Tournament team.

Tennessee took down the host team of the Towson Invitational, coming back from 2-1 to win in five (20-25, 25-18, 21-25, 25-15, 15-13). Kenisha Jimenez smashed her previous career high 13 kills with 22 tonight. With 19 digs, she was just one shy of matching her personal best and earned her sixth career double double. Bri Holmes had 12 kills and three blocks. Erica Treiber put down eight kills and six blocks while Raina Hembry had eight kills and four blocks. Lexi Dempsey just missed setting a career high with 50 assists but did earn her 23rd double double with 13 digs. Bridgette Villano led the team with 21 digs.

BOX SCORE // UT STORY

The Lady Vols started the season off on the right foot, scoring a 3-0 victory over Delaware State this afternoon (25-12, 25-14, 25-10). Six of Tennessee’s seven newcomers saw action in the match. Erica Treiber led the team with nine kills and a .500 hitting percentage. Kenisha Jimenez had eight kills and Kelsey Bawcombe seven. Jimenez and Stephanie Buss led both teams with three blocks each. Lexi Dempsey put up 24 assists while Bridgette Villano scooped up 9 digs. As a team, UT hit .365 (their best output since 2012) and held Delaware State to -.023. Tennessee also allowed the Hornets only a single team block, the second lowest total by an opponent in the rally scoring era.

BOX SCORE // UT STORY

• Tennessee has posted a story and a video on seniors Lexi Dempsey and Megan Hatcher and how they’ve helped the team prepare for the 2015 season. Coach Patrick: “They’ve been fantastic. They’re some of the reasons why our practices have been so good and the effort has been so high.”
• The official site has also updated the school’s volleyball record book (PDF) for those, like me, that like to delve into the stats.
• Earlier this month the Knoxville News-Sentenel did a story on sophomore hitter Kanisha Jimenez. “I knew this was the right place for me, and I’m still saying right now this is the right place for me.”
• ESPN has written their annual “Five Questions” article about the NCAA volleyball season. The Gators get in a reference for the SEC. The piece mentions Florida’s 376-18 record in regular season conference play since 1991. As an aside, Tennessee has given UF more of those losses than any other team.
  

  FLORIDA’S SEC LOSSES
  TEAM	REGULAR SEASON	POST SEASON
  	6	1
  	3	2
  	3	0
  	2	0
  	2	0
  	1	1
  	1	0

The volleyball drought of 2015 ends this weekend when the Lady Vols head to Maryland for the Towson Invitational where they’ll take on Delaware State, Towson, Coppin State, and Saint Francis.

• Since 1978, the Lady Vols are 29-8 in season opening matches. In the opening week of the season the team is 79-33. Under Coach Rob Patrick the team is 14-4 in season openers and 45-9 in opening week matches. They’ve won six of their last seven annual debuts.
• The Lady Vols have won the last three season openers that took place on the road, and seven of their last eight.
• August matches are a relatively new thing for Tennessee. Prior to the turn of the century the team had only played seven matches before September. Since 2001, they’ve played them every year but one. UT is 36-7 in August.
• Tennessee is 5-1 in the state of Maryland since 2001, with their last loss being against Michigan State in 2003.
• UT is meeting all four of their opponents this weekend for the first time in program history — which is why these opening week notes are a little shorter than usual!
• The Lady Vols have never played a team from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference or the Northeast Conference before, until this weekend when they will play Delaware State and Coppin State of the MEAC and Saint Francis from the NEC. Later this season they’ll face a third member of the MEAC, Hampton.
• UT is facing Towson, from the Colonial Athletic Association, in their first meeting of a team from that conference since 1999. Tennessee is 2-3 vs the CAA. Later this season they’ll face College of Charleston, also from that league.

DELAWARE STATE HORNETS
Friday, August 28th 12:15pm ET // Towson MD			2014 Record: 1-26 (1-11) WEBSITE // VIDEO // STATS
TOWSON TIGERS
Friday, August 28th 7:00pm ET // Towson MD			2014 Record: 27-5 (13-3) WEBSITE // VIDEO // STATS
COPPIN STATE EAGLES
Saturday, August 29th 10:00am ET // Towson MD			2014 Record: 14-14 (8-5) WEBSITE // VIDEO // STATS
SAINT FRANCIS RED FLASH
Saturday, August 29th 2:30pm ET // Towson MD			2014 Record: 12-17 (8-6) WEBSITE // VIDEO // STATS

• I’ve been working hard to get everything on the site ready for 2015. So far the schedule, archives, and stats pages are ready to go. Everything else should be up and running soon!
• The Preseason AVCA Coaches Poll was released about a week ago. Two of Tennessee’s upcoming opponents made the cut and three others are receiving votes: #4 Florida, #15 Kentucky, #30 Texas A&M, #34 Alabama, and #40 LSU.
• The official site has an article about new UT assistant coach Jen Malcom. “I’m here to win. I’m here to make a difference and help get us back on track. That’s what brought me to Tennessee.”
• As I said at the end of last season, Knoxville volleyball is on the rise. More proof? Local high schoolers have been recruited by colleges of all sizes for years now. Recently a few have even been recruited by some of the bigger schools like Louisville, Florida, and Tennessee. But just in the last few months alone, at least five Knoxville-area players have signed to attend big-name Division I schools like Nebraska, Clemson, and South Carolina. Congrats to the players mentioned here and here!
• A few former Lady Vols have left the team during the past year for several various reasons. At least two of them are still playing, so check out these links if you want to continue following their careers: Ashley Mariani (Iowa) and Jamie Lea (Loyola Marymount).
• While I’m still not the sport’s biggest fan, at least they finally got the name right! The NCAA announced recently that their newest (and ninetieth) championship sport will be beach — not sand — volleyball, starting in 2016.
• For those interested in the wider college athletics topic of schools paying full cost of attendance stipends to student-athletes, check out this article from USA Today which breaks down how the new rule is effecting schools around the country. Closer to home, the Knoxville News-Sentinel has details on UT specifically.
• Be sure to follow the new Tennessee social media links listed in the sidebar, as the team is already posting photos, videos, info, and more!
• On a personal note, over the years I’ve been doing this website I’ve occasionally done the proud dad thing and kept you guys up to date on my daughter and her volleyball teams. (And some of you I’ve met have even been polite enough to ask how she’s doing so I can continue to brag in person!) Ever since she started as a third grader I’ve looked forward to hopefully one day seeing her play in high school. And the year has finally come! She just started ninth grade. But there is some good news and some bad news. The good news is earlier this year we found out she was going to be given the opportunity to switch from the high school we thought she was going to attend, to another school with a more demanding academic bent — and which made the just released 2015 Newsweek America’s Top High Schools list. The bad news is they don’t have a volleyball team. Still a proud dad, but for different reasons!

The coaches of the SEC have cast their votes projecting how they think the league teams will fare this year. Florida was picked as the probable champion for the 20th time since the poll was instituted in 1994. (Tennessee is the only other team the coaches have ever predicted will win the title: in 2010 and 2012.) The Lady Vols were picked last, the first time that has happened since 2002.

You can check out the history of the SEC Coaches Preseason Poll on a new section of our stats page!

The coaches also made their picks for the Preseason All-SEC Team. Those players are: Krystal Rivers, Alabama; Chanell Clark-Bibbs, Arkansas; Rhamat Alhassan, Florida; Mackenzie Dagostino, Florida; Alex Holston, Florida; Morgan Bergren, Kentucky; Nakeyta Clair, Ole Miss; Carly Kan, Missouri; and Shelby Sullivan, Texas A&M.

Hello! Tennessee Volleyball is back — both this unofficial website and the team itself, who started fall practice last week!

It’s been a long busy offseason for me. Usually I restart the site a month or two before the season starts, but this season we’re just 16 days away before I’ve finally found the time to get to work! And unfortunately that issue of not having as much time as in previous seasons may stay in play for awhile. Without going too deep into specifics, I have two other websites that I usually ignore during volleyball season that will require me to actually be around this year. And my kids have started high school and middle school this year, and I’m betting their activities will take more time than they did in previous years.

Don’t worry too much! I’m not going anywhere and I plan to continue working hard here. Just maybe don’t expect five or more articles a week every week!

I love having this site as an excuse to get so invested in the Lady Vol volleyball team and dig into the stats and facts without looking like just an overly obsessed fan! Thanks for continuing to visit… so I can keep up that charade!

Volleyball season is just around the corner, with just 50 days until the Tennessee Lady Vols hit the court. While the team was no doubt preparing for the upcoming year, not much news had come out since the last update until the last couple of weeks. Here’s a quick roundup. And look for the site to start updating more frequently as we near the first serve next month!

• Tennessee has announced the schedule for the 2015 season. The team will open the year in Towson MD vs Delaware State. The other non-coherence opponents the Lady Vols will face are Campbell, College of Charleston, Coppin State, Eastern Kentucky, Evansville, Hampton, Jacksonville, North Carolina State, North Florida, Saint Francis U, Tennessee Tech, Towson, UNC Greensboro, and Wofford. Six of Tennessee’s 18 SEC matches will be televised.
• Jen Malcom has been named UT’s new assistant coach after spending the last four years at that position at Virginia Tech.
• Congratulations to Claudia Coco and Kelsey Bawcombe on being named to the 2014-15 First-Year SEC Academic Honor Roll. The join eight upperclass players on the team in being honored by the league for their academic performance this year.
• Tennessee officially began their new partnership with Nike this month. As part of the switch UT has “enhanced their brand across all athletics“. What in the world does that mean? This statement should make it all clear:
  

  Tennessee Athletics and Nike collaborated on a brand evolution program to create consistent marks across all athletics programs, honoring the Volunteer spirit through tradition, pride and integrity, key characteristics and attributes associated with the Volunteer brand. As Tennessee enters a new chapter in their storied history, developing a modern and consistent athletic identity that encompasses the pride of the university is key.

  The most noticeable way the school has honored the Volunteer tradition and entered this new chapter in their storied history is by dropping the name, logo and colors associated with women’s athletics.

• UT has an image slideshow of the new uniforms for every team, including volleyball.
• The name change has also effected social media handles, so be sure to update your bookmarks if necessary.