Congratulations to Natalie Hayward and Danielle Mahaffey on earning SEC honors this week!

“SEC Defensive Player of the Week – Tennessee’s Danielle Mahaffey, a senior middle blocker from Cincinnati, Ohio, averaged 2.57 blocks per set to help UT sweep Arkansas in the conference opener for both teams. Mahaffey registered 12 total blocks in the opening match on Saturday, and added six more total blocks in Sunday’s match.”

“SEC Setter of the Week – Tennessee’s Natalie Hayward, a senior from Bothell, Wash., averaged 9.71 assists, 4.86 digs and 1.86 kills per set and posted a .571 hitting percentage in the two wins over Arkansas. In the series opener on Saturday, Hayward tallied 38 assists, 19 digs and nine kills. She then added another double-double of 30 assists and 15 digs in Sunday’s match against the Razorbacks.”

The Lady Vols sit tied at the top of the conference rankings after the first week of league play. In the AVCA Coaches Poll they have moved up to #20. They’re also at #20 in both the RichKern.com Poll and the Pablo Rankings. And in the Volley Talk Poll they stand at #18.

UT got a 3-0 victory over Arkansas this afternoon (25-19, 25-19, 25-17). More info coming soon.

UPDATE: Breana Runnels and Lily Felts led the offense with 9 kills apiece. Danielle Mahaffey and Morgahn Fingall were just behind them with 8 each. Mahaffey was the match leader in blocks with 6. Ava Bell had 5 and Fingall added in another 4. Natalie Hayward picked up 14th career double-double with 30 assists and 15 kills. And Madison Bryant earned career double-double #1 with 16 digs and 10 assists.

The Lady Vols earned their tenth win in their 12th match of the season. That’s the fastest to ten wins since 2015. It ties for the fifth best UT start since 1978.

The Lady Vols got the “W” in their conference opener, defeating the Razorbacks in four (31-33, 25-19, 25-21, 25-14). More tonight.

UPDATE: Breana Runnels had a team-leading 15 kills. Ava Bell followed with 11 while hitting .688. Natalie Hayward had 9 kills, 38 assists, 6 blocks, and 19 digs, while hitting .750. Danielle Mahaffey and Morgahn Fingall had career highs in blocks with 12 and 9 respectively. Madison Bryant’s 22 digs were just 4 off her best.

Tennessee lost a set to an unranked team for the first time this season.

The Lady Vols put down 26 block assists and 8 block solos, for a total of 21 total team blocks. That’s good for the 5th most in the rally-scoring era.

UT won the match while hitting .195, just the 45th time in the rally-scoring era they’ve earned a win while hitting under .200.

Natalie Hayward was one stat away from two rarities on Rocky Top. The first: she was one kill from a triple double. It’s only happened here twice since 2001, and possibly just once in the side-out scoring era. The second: she was one dig away from a 20/20, with 38 assists and 19 digs. Only seven Lady Vols since 2001 have ever earned 20+ in two different double-double stats.

After a successful out-of-conference warm-up, Tennessee starts the SEC portion of their schedule this weekend vs Arkansas.

UT is 23-21 all-time vs Arkansas. The Lady Vols are 6-4 in their last ten meetings and 7-3 in their last ten meetings in Knoxville.

UT hasn’t swept Arkansas since 2012.

Statistically, Tennessee and Arkansas are fairly similar in most categories. The one glaring exception is aces per set. The Razorbacks lead the conference and are in the top 50 nationally with 1.89 per set. UT is last in the SEC and 323rd out of 332 teams nationally.

Tennessee will be playing their first televised match of the season on Sunday. The team is 38-56 in those matches since 2001. UT is 9-4 on TV when outranking their opponent.

Coach Eve Rackham Watt talked with the voice of Lady Vol volleyball Brian Rice (and also Erik Ainge!) earlier today.

RECORD WATCH

With about a third of the season over, here is where some UT players might end the season extrapolating out their current stats. (Apologies if I forgot anyone!)

• SEASON RECORDS

Morgahn Fingall could end the season with about 370 kills, which would be the 18th most in a season in the rally-scoring era. Her 4.26 kills per set would be just outside the top ten all-time at UT.

Ava Bell is hitting .427 this year, which if she can keep going would be the best average in school history in a season. Bell is sitting at 1.35 blocks per set, which would be in the school’s all-time season top ten.

Danielle Mahaffey’s 1.20 blocks per set would be a top twenty performance.

Natalie Hayward is on pace to reach 1,075 assists, which would be right on the cusp of a top twenty all-time season for a Lady Vol.

• CAREER RECORDS

With 20 career double-doubles, Lily Felts is ranked 9th at UT in rally-scoring era matches. She could probably finish career at around #7. She currently has 820 career kills. She is on pace to score 182 more this season. If Felts could do that, she’d be just the 22nd member of the UT 1,000 kills club. With the 21 digs she stated this past weekend, Felts moved into the UT top thirty all-time digs chart with 736. She could potentially hit the top twenty. And she is just 49 attack attempts away from the all-time school top twenty. The top fifteen is within her reach.

Natalie Hayward could also end her career with several spots on the school’s stat lists. She’s in the top twenty for assists, and could possibly reach as high as #10. She’s currently 6th in assists per set. Her .335 hitting percentage is currently 5th best all-time. And she might crack the top twenty for career digs per set.

Bell has a .379 career hitting percentage. Even if that drops .012 more, she would still become the all-time program hitting leader. Bell’s 1.02 blocks per set average is in the UT career top ten.

Mahaffey’s .247 hitting percentage would tie for the 30th spot on Tennessee’s career chart.

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	0.82 323 13	13.38 4 1	2.82 13 1	14.97 115 4	14.85 4 1	.289 12 2	.167 59 3
	STAT NCAA SEC	1.89 49 1	12.87 19 4	2.13 122 9	14.76 176 5	14.09 17 4	.262 17 7	.168 66 4

Tickets are available online for $5.

Tennessee is running several promotions for Sunday’s home match. Kids 12 and under get free admission. The first 100 kids will receive an ice cream sundae. And the first 100 fans will receive… pancakes and syrup?!

Be sure to look over Thompson Boling Arena’s clear bag policy.

Parking and other gameday information can be found online as well.

Knoxville TN
ARKANSAS
10-2, 1-0
Saturday, September 25th, 4:00pm ET	Stats | SEC Network+
Sunday, September 26th, 12:00pm ET	Stats | SEC Network (TV and online)

Against Purdue Fort Wayne, no Tennessee player notched more than 8 kills. That ties one other match for the fewest number of kills by the team leader in a win since 2001. Only 13 victories in that time have seen the kills leader in single digits.

Tennessee has had ten or less hitting errors in three matches this season so far: vs Morehead State, ETSU, and Jacksonville State.

Three players vs JSU with at least 5 attacks hit over .500: Bell with .714, Mahaffey with .600, and Felts with .542. That ties for the second most Lady Vols to do that in a rally-scoring era match.

Tennessee’s .210 hitting percentage vs Purdue was their 15th highest of the rally-scoring era in a three set loss.

Natalie Hayward became just the 18th member of the Lady Vols 1,000 assists club. With her current total of 1,099, she stands at #16 all-time on Rocky Top having just passed Callie Williams, a transferred UT setter Tennessee faced vs Baylor earlier this season.

Hayward picked up two double-doubles this weekend: vs PFW with 35 assists and 15 digs; vs PU with 31 assists and 10 digs

UT went 8-2 in their out-of-conference schedule, their best record over the last six years. It’s the second best record since 2001 in seasons where they played three top 25 OOC teams in the regular season.

UT VS OOC IN THE REGULAR SEASON
YEAR	W-L	RECORD	TOP 25 OPPS
2021	8-2	.800	3
2020	0-0	.000	0
2019	6-4	.600	3
2018	9-3	.750	3
2017	7-2	.778	1
2016	10-3	.769	0
2015	14-1	.933	0
2014	7-7	.500	0
2013	8-6	.571	0
2012	7-2	.778	3
2011	8-2	.800	2
2010	9-1	.900	1
2009	7-3	.700	1
2008	7-4	.636	1
2007	5-4	.556	2
2006	9-1	.900	1
2005	7-4	.636	3
2004	12-1	.923	3
2003	11-2	.846	1
2002	12-2	.857	0
2001	9-3	.750	0

Tennessee dropped the last match to the home team at Purdue’s tournament (25-19, 25-22, 25-23). I’ll have a full recap of the three matches being played this weekend soon.

The Lady Vols won two matches today vs Purdue Fort Wayne (25-22, 25-20, 25-19) and Jacksonville State (25-23, 25-21,25-17). On the year so far, Tennessee has swept every unranked team they’ve played. I’ll have a full recap of the three matches being played this weekend soon.

The Lady Vols head to West Lafayette, Indiana this weekend for their last out-of-conference matches before SEC play begins. They’ll take on Purdue Fort Wayne, Jacksonville State, and home-standing and 9th ranked Purdue.

UT will be facing Purdue Fort Wayne for the first time. The school was created in 2018 when Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne (also known as IPFW) split into two different colleges.

UT is 2-1 all-time vs Jacksonville State. Tennessee swept the first two meetings in the early 2000s, while JSU won the last meeting in 2013.

UT is 1-6 all-time vs Purdue. Tennessee lost the first five meetings from 1980 to 1991, before getting their first win in the series in 2004. The last meeting was a UT loss in 2005.

In the rally-scoring era, Tennessee is 2-1 vs the Horizon League, 12-1 vs the Atlantic Sun Conference, and 8-17 vs the Big Ten Conference.

The Big Ten is one of only three conferences to have a winning record over Tennessee since 2001.

TENNESSEE VS CONFERENCES
	American Athletic Conference	24-5	.828
	Atlantic Coast Conference	17-8	.680
	ASUN Conference	12-1	.923
	Atlantic 10 Conference	9-2	.818
	Big East Conference	0-2	.000
	Big Sky Conference	1-0	1.000
	Big South Conference	6-1	.857
	Big Ten Conference	8-17	.320
	Big 12 Conference	7-5	.583
	Big West Conference	2-0	1.000
	Colonial Athletic Association	3-0	1.000
	Conference USA	12-2	.857
	Horizon League	2-1	.667
	Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference	1-0	1.000
	Mid-American Conference	11-4	.733
	Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference	3-0	1.000
	Missouri Valley Conference	5-2	.714
	Mountain West Conference	4-1	.800
	Northeast Conference	1-0	1.000
	Ohio Valley Conference	13-2	.867
	Pac-12 Conference	2-3	.400
	Patriot League	3-0	1.000
	Southeastern Conference	212-161	.568
	Southern Conference	18-2	.900
	Southwestern Athletic Conference	1-0	1.000
	Summit League	3-1	.750
	Sun Belt Conference	6-2	.750
	West Coast Conference	4-2	.667
	Western Athletic Conference	2-2	.500

Jacksonville State’s three matches vs the Lady Vols were all memorable for different reasons: one because of a player, one because of the road it led to, and one because of a rain delay! The first meeting in 2000 was at a tournament in Knoxville that featured current UT head coach Eve Rackham as a player on one of the other teams. The second was in the first round of the 2005 NCAA Tournament that would see Tennessee reach the Final Four. The third in 2003 saw the match delayed due to a leak in the roof of Thompson Boling Arena raining down on to the court.

Purdue’s coaching staff — head coach Dave Shondell, associate head coach John Shondell, and assistant head coach Kathy Jewell — have all served in their roles in West Lafayette for the last 18 years.

Tennessee is 36-74 (.327) in the rally-scoring era vs ranked opponents and 11-39 (.220) vs top ten teams.

The Lady Vols will have faced three different top ten teams in just their tenth match of the season. There have been only six full seasons where Tennessee matched or beat that number.

TENNESSEE VS THREE OR MORE DIFFERENT TOP TEN TEAMS IN A SEASON
1982	#1 Hawaii #5 USC #6 Stanford #7 Arizona
1983	#1 Hawaii #2 Pacific #6 Kentucky #9 Arizona State #10 Texas
1984	#1 Pacific #6 Nebraska #8 Texas #9 Hawaii
2005	#2 Penn State #3 Washington #4 Florida #6 Louisville #7 Notre Dame #8 Missouri
2009	#5 Florida #7 Kentucky #7 Michigan
2017	#1 Florida #2 Minnesota #6 Kentucky
2021	#7 Pitt #9 Baylor #9 Purdue
highest ranking shown for teams played multiple times in a season

West Lafayette IN
STACEY CLARK CLASSIC
PURDUE FORT WAYNE Friday, September 17th, 12:30pm ET	Live Stats | Big Ten Network+ Video
JACKSONVILLE STATE Friday, September 17th, 5:00pm ET	Live Stats | Big Ten Network+ Video
#9 PURDUE Saturday, September 18th, 12:30pm ET	Live Stats | Big Ten Network+ Video

Note that Big Ten Network+ access is NOT included if you subscribe to the Big Ten Network with your cable/satellite/streaming provider. A separate fee is required.

The Lady Vols are moving up in most polls this week. They’re up one spot to #22 in the Coaches Poll, two spots to #23 in the RichKern.com poll, and up two spots to #18 in the Volley Talk poll. They dropped one spot to #23 in the Pablo Rankings.

Tennessee won the second match in the series with Morehead State 3-0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-16). While I’ll have much more later when I see the box score, there is one cool stat I can tell you off the top of my head. UT didn’t allow a single block in the match. That’s only the second time they’ve ever done that in the rally-scoring era (since 2001)!

UPDATE: Morgahn Fingall was UT’s match kills leader with 16. Breana Runnels had 12 and Lily Felts had 10. Danielle Mahaffey led the team with 5 blocks, with Natalie Hayward right behind at 4, and Fingall and Ava Bell with 3 each. Hayward had 38 assists. Madison Bryant got 16 digs up. Felts earned a double-doube with 10 digs.

Felts now has 20 career double-doubles. Only eight other Lady Vols have a bigger total than that in rally-scoring era matches.

Twenty years ago today, every American life was touched and changed by the terrorist attacks on September 11th. Today we remember.

Ten years ago, I posted a piece about how the Tennessee volleyball team (who were actually on a plane in the air at the time) was affected.

Tennessee got a 3-0 (27-25, 25-15, 25-13) victory over Morehead State in their first away game of the season. Morgahn Fingall led the match with 10 kills. Ava Bell had 8, and Danielle Mahaffey 7. Bell added 6 blocks to her stat sheet, while Mahaffey and Fingall had 5 apiece. Natalie Hayward put up 24 assists. And Madison Bryant dug up 12 balls.

Morehead State’s .009 hitting percentage was the 19th lowest by a UT opponent in the rally-scoring era.

Tennessee’s 12 team blocks was the 16th most by the team in a three-set rally-scoring era match.

Tennessee hits the road for the first time this season with a home and home series vs Morehead State.

UT is 5-4-2* all-time vs MSU. Their first meeting was a 1-1 tie in 1976. The last was 3-2 win in 2013.

The Lady Vols are 11-2 since 2001 vs the Ohio Valley Conference.

In the first match of the series, the Lady Vols will take on the Eagles in their hometown of Morehead KY. This will be the first time in the rally-scoring era that Tennessee has played a match in the state of Kentucky outside of Louisville and Lexington.

Morehead State has played two opponents similar to Tennessee this season. One was fellow SEC member Georgia. The other was a team also ranked in the 20s in the coaches poll, Pepperdine. They lost both matches 3-0.

In their last three seasons, the Eagles are 23-4 when playing on their home court.

For whatever reason, there are 3 seasons since 1973 that are missing match data according to the UT record book: 1974, 1976, and 1977. For 1976, Tennessee does have the two matches with Morehead State played that year in their records (though they might have the date wrong). But UT’s information for 1977 (seen on the right) is missing a lot. According to the record book, Tennessee played 21 known matches in ’77, going 7-11-3, including one match vs Morehead State. No information on dates or locations are available for any of the games…

Unless you’re a stats nerd who likes challenges! The following is a still incomplete but much fuller look at over 40 games from the 1977 season, including the revelation that UT played another match vs Morehead State that season and lost, making the record between the teams 5-5-2. (I tried hard to make sure this was as accurate as I could get, but it still may contain errors.)

1977 Overall Record: 18-19-5 Coach: Bud Fields THE RESULTS BIG ORANGE INVITATIONAL* 9/30 Eastern Kentucky W, 2-0 15-9, 15-6 or 15-6, 15-11 9/30 Duke L, 0-2 15-6, 15-9 or 15-6, 15-10 10/1 Eastern Kentucky L, 1-2 15-10, 10-15, 16-14 10/1 Duke L, 1-2 15-11, 12-15, 15-1 ————————————————————————————————— 10/4 UT Chattanooga L, 0-2 3-15, 15-12, 15-4 10/4 Carson-Newman W, 2-0 15-8, 15-8 10/8 at Northeastern Kentucky L, 0-3 15-7, 15-9, 15-12 10/8 at Kentucky L 10/11 Tennessee Tech W, 3-1 15-8, 10-15, 15-12, 16-14 ————————————————————————————————— CINCINNATI INVITATIONAL N/A Eastern Kentucky T, 1-1 N/A Indiana State T, 1-1 10/14 vs Indiana T, 1-1 18-16, 13-15 10/15 vs Southern Illinois L 10/15 at Cincinnati L, 0-2 ————————————————————————————————— LADY VOL INVITATIONAL Finish: 4th 10/21 Alabama L, 0-2 10/21 Northern Kentucky T, 1-1 15-10, 15-15 10/22 UT Martin L, 1-2 15-11, 9-15, 15-13 10/22 Wake Forest W, 2-0 15-1, 15-5 10/22 Virginia Tech W, 2-0 15-5, 15-4

10/22 Morehead State L, 0-2 15-10, 16-14

————————————————————————————————— SEC TOURNAMENT Finish: 2nd 10/28 Mississippi T, 1-1 15-9, 10-15 10/28 Auburn W, 2-0 15-7, 15-7 10/29 Kentucky W, 2-0 15-10, 15-6 10/29 LSU L, 0-2 15-11, 15-4 10/29 Mississippi W, 2-0 15-9, 15-10 10/29 LSU L, 0-2 15-3, 17-15 ————————————————————————————————— 11/1 at UT Chattanooga W, 2-0 15-7, 15-6 11/1 vs Tennessee Tech W, 2-1 8-15, 15-1, 15-11 ————————————————————————————————— ILLINOIS INVITATIONAL 11/4 vs Southern Illinois L, 0-2 15-10, 15-12 11/4 vs Chicago State W, 2-0 15-11, 15-9 11/5 vs DePaul L, 1-2 15-13, 15-17, 15-3 ————————————————————————————————— TCWSF STATE TOURNAMENT Site: Johnson City TN Finish: 1st 11/11 vs Memphis State W, 2-0 15-1, 15-8 11/11 vs Tennessee Tech W, 2-1 9-15, 15-2, 15-8 11/12 vs MTSU W, 2-0 15-0, 15-9 11/12 at ETSU W, 2-0 15-7, 15-3 ————————————————————————————————– AIAW REGION II CHAMPIONSHIPS Site: Harrisonburg VA Finish: 4th 11/18 vs Virginia Commonwealth W, 2-1 15-6, 11-15, 15-10 11/18 vs Northern Kentucky L, 0-2 15-12, 15-5 11/18 vs North Carolina State W, 2-0 15-7, 15-11

11/19 vs Morehead State L, 0-2 15-5, 15-10

11/19 vs North Carolina L, 1-2 15-1, 14-16, 15-9 ————————————————————————————————– N/A# ETSU L, 1-2 N/A# Eastern Kentucky W, 2-0 >> Records for the season are incomplete >> Matches may not have occurred on a day in the order listed * Covenant was at this tournament and is recorded playing everyone but UT # Not sure where this match came in the season

Tickets are available online for $5.

Tennessee is running several promotions for Sunday’s home match. Kids 12 and under get free admission. The first 100 kids will receive an ice cream sundae. And admission is free with your Pittsburgh football ticket.

Be sure to look over Thompson Boling Arena’s clear bag policy.

Parking and other gameday information can be found online as well.

MOREHEAD STATE
Morehead KY Friday, September 10th, 7:00pm ET	Stats | ESPN+
Knoxville TN Sunday, September 12th, 4:00pm ET	Stats | SEC Network+

After defeating one top ten team and being a three point switch away from sweeping another, the Lady Vols were ranked #23 in the nation by the AVCA Coaches Poll voters. It’s the first time UT has officially been in the poll since September 2019.

Three upcoming Tennessee opponents remain in the top ten: #6 Purdue, #7 Florida, and #8 Kentucky. The team Tennessee took to five sets yesterday is now #4. And along with #24 South Carolina, four SEC teams are in the top 25.

The Lady Vols once again looked like they belonged on the court with a top ten team, but this time couldn’t finish them off, falling to #7 Pitt 3-2 (25-23, 16-25, 28-26, 20-25, 15-10). More tonight.

UPDATE: Several players got or came close to various double digit accolades. Morgahn Fingall led both teams with 21 kills. She was one dig away from a double-double and 3 blocks from a triple-double. Breana Runnels had 18 kills and did pick up a double-double with 10 digs. Natalie Hayward put up 51 assists and got the double-double with 11 digs. She just missed out on a triple-double by 3 kills and a quadruple-double with by 3 blocks. And Lily Felts barely missed out on a double-double with 9 kills and 10 digs.

Danielle Mahaffey led UT with 8 blocks. Ava Bell had 7. Madison Bryant was the digs leader with 14.

Despite the L, Tennessee outhit the Panthers .240 to .175. It was just the 4th time in the rally-scoring era they’ve done that in a loss vs a ranked opponent.

The Lady Vols held Pitt to the second lowest hitting percentage by a top ten UT opponent since 2001.

Tennessee has been a serve receive machine this season so far. In three of their five matches they’ve held their opponent to one or less aces. Pitt only notched a single ace over five sets, something that has only happened in extra long matches in the rally-scoring era 11 times.