• Tennessee is 2-0-1 vs Austin Peay. The team has won the last two in a row with the most recent meeting occurring in 1990.
• Tennessee is 1-0 vs Wichita State. The team won the previous meeting last year.
• Tennessee is 28-5 vs ETSU. The team is on a 19 match winning streak dating back to 1979. The last meeting was in 2008.
• Tennessee is meeting VCU for the first time.
• The Lady Vols are an impressive 28-7 since 1978 in home opening matches. Under Coach Rob Patrick they are 13-3. The team lost their first match in Knoxville last year to Florida State. UT has never lost home debuts in back to back seasons.
• Coach Patrick teams are 36-7 in Lady Vol Classic matches.
• After wins over Chattanooga and UT Martin, the Lady Vols take on fellow Tennessee schools Austin Peay and ETSU. The team previously faced 4 state squads in 1997. The last time UT defeated 4 state teams in once season was 1986.
• With this week’s 34th match-up, ETSU is the state school the Lady Vols have faced the most often. ETSU is also the out of conference school Tennessee has played the second most.
• UT’s 19 wins in a row over ETSU is the school’s longest active winning streak. It’s the second longest winning streak in program history after a 23 match run vs Tennessee Tech from 1978 to 1996.
• There have been three known triple-doubles in school history. Tennessee plays all three teams they were earned against this season: Christy Warren did it in 1997 vs UNC Asheville. Nikki Fowler did it in 2007 vs Mississippi. And Mary Pollmiller did it last year vs Wichita State.
• There might be some sibling rivalry in the Mullins household this week. UT Libero Ellen has a sister, Ann, who also was a Lady Vol volleyball player and another sister who was a member of the Austin Peay volleyball team.
• Two coaches coming to Rocky Top this week played agasint the Lady Vols during their collegiate careers: Austin Peay head coach Taylor Mott (Mississippi 1992-1995) and ETSU assistant coach Lauren Baufield (ETSU 2008).
• ETSU and VCU have already played each other this season — last week. The Rams defeated the Bucs 3-2.
• Austin Peay is touring the state. Last weekend they played a tournament in central Tennessee at MTSU. This week they’re in east Tennessee. And next week they’ll hit west Tennessee for a tournament in Memphis.

LINKS:

• Patrick Ready for Season 17 on Rocky Top
• No more tears for UT setter Lexi Dempsey
• The Weekly Spike: Episode 3
• Info for UT students on joining “Rob’s Mob”

PROMOTIONS:

• AUSTIN PEAY: Chalk Talk with Coach Patrick – 45 minutes prior to match in the Ray Mears Room.
• WICHITA STATE: Fan Site Friday – Watch for special offer on Twitter/Facebook; First 400 receive free schedule cup – includes voucher for one free drink; Chalk Talk with Coach Patrick – 45 minutes prior to match in the Ray Mears Room.
• ETSU, VCU: Kids Day – Free admission for all kids 12 and under. Be sure to visit Kids Korner; Chalk Talk with Coach Patrick – 45 minutes prior to VCU match in the Ray Mears Room.

MORE INFORMATION:

• Austin Peay (2-6): Thursday 9/12 at 7:00pm ET | website | notes from APSU | live stats | live video
• Wichita State (5-1): Friday 9/13 at 7:00pm ET | website | notes from WSU | live stats | live video
• ETSU (4-4): Saturday 9/14 at 12:30pm ET | website | notes from ETSU | live stats | live video
• VCU (5-1): Saturday 9/14 at 7:00pm ET | website | notes from VCU | live stats | live video
• Tennessee (6-1): website | match notes from UT
• See what these teams are saying on Twitter…

The NCAA has started their weekly statistical rankings of players and teams for the 2013 season. The SEC is in the second week of updating theirs. The national ranks go up to 334 teams and 150 players. Tennessee’s rank in the polls are also included. The arrows and colors indicate movement from last week. Click the underlined links to see the rankings charted week-to-week.

moved UP from last week

stayed EVEN with last week

moved DOWN from last week

POLLS (National & SEC Ranks)

AVCA Poll	NR ↔	NR ↔
RichKern.com Poll	NR ↔	NR ↔
Volleyball Magazine Poll	NR ↔	NR ↔
Pablo Ranking	59 ↓29	9 ↓5

NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS

Aces	Assists	Blocks	Digs	Hit %	Kills
221	132	94	1	227	151

SEC TEAM RANKINGS (All Matches)

Aces	Assists	Blocks	Digs	Hit %	Kills	Opp Hit %
9 ↑3	12 ↔	5 ↑2	1 ↑1	12 ↑1	12 ↔	2 ↑2

NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS

Assists	Lexi Dempsey	77
Digs	Ellen Mullins	1
Kills	Jamie Lea	83
Points	Jamie Lea	69

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS (All Matches)

Aces	Nikki Brice	14 ↑NR
Aces	Lexi Dempsey	14 ↑NR
Assists	Lexi Dempsey	7 ↑2
Blocks	Raina Hembry	9 ↑3
Blocks	Shealyn Kolosky	11 ↑1
Blocks	Jamie Lea	15 ↑NR
Digs	Ellen Mullins	1 ↑1
Digs	Nikki Brice	14 ↓6
Kills	Jamie Lea	10 ↑NR
Kills	Ashley Mariani	15 ↓4
Points	Jamie Lea	8 ↑NR
Points	Ashley Mariani	15 ↓2

Tennessee has finished the away portion of their pre-confernece schedule. Over the next two weeks they will play two tournaments in Knoxville before beginning SEC play. But first here’s a very quick recap of some of the things they’ve done so far.

NOTES

• Tennessee is 6-1. They’ve only started the season off better 4 times in program history: in 1973, 1979, 1986, and 2004, the team was undefeated after their first 7 matches.
• The team is off to their best start since 2010.
• This is the first year since 2002 that Tennessee has started off the season with 7 road matches.
• The Lady Vols have accumulated 526 total team digs so far this season. In the rally scoring era, only the 2006 and 2007 squads ever scored as many in a seven match stretch — and matches back then were played to 30 points.

DOUBLE DOUBLES

Lexi Dempsey	vs Cincinnati	27 assists, 11 digs
Jamie Lea	vs Butler	10 kills, 11 digs
Lexi Dempsey	vs Chattanooga	33 assists, 10 digs
Lexi Dempsey	vs UNC Asheville	47 assists, 14 digs
Lexi Dempsey	vs UT Martin	45 assists, 11 digs

CAREER RECORDS MATCHED OR EXCEEDED

Nikki Brice

attacks, digs

Shealyn Kolosky

attacks, aces, digs, block assists (4-sets), total blocks (4-sets), points (4-sets)

Ellen Mullins

attacks, aces (4-sets), digs (3-sets, 4-sets), points (4-sets)

SEASON LEADERS

Kills	Jamie Lea
Attacks	Jamie Lea
Hit %	Shealyn Kolosky
Assists	Lexi Dempsey
Aces	Nikki Brice & Lexi Dempsey
Digs	Ellen Mullins
Solo Blocks	Jamie Lea
Block Assists	Raina Hembry
Total Blocks	Raina Hembry
Points	Jamie Lea

Tennessee defeated Charlotte in three (25-17, 25-12, 25-20) to be named the Chattanooga Country Inns & Suites Invitational champions. Ellen Mullins was named MVP and Lexi Dempsey and Jamie Lea made the All-Tournament team.

Jamie Lea had 15 kills and Ashley Mariani had 13. There were some big hitting percentages: Lea hit .480 (15-3-25), Raina Hembry .400 (5-1-10), and Mariani .385 (13-3-26).

Ellen Mullins had 19 digs. Over the tournament she had a total of 98, a per set average of 7. Bridgette Villano had 10. Lexi Dempsey had 46 assists. Lea added in 3 blocks.

The team had their best match of the season hitting at .355, easily besting their previous season high of .209.

UT STORY | UNCC STORY | BOX SCORE

The Lady Vols go to 5-1 on the season and 2-0 vs other schools in the University of Tennessee system with a 3-1 win over UT Martin (27-29, 25-20, 25-20, 25-17).

Jamie Lea led both squads with 17 kills. Ashley Mariani had 12. And Shealyn Kolosky had 8, hitting .350.

The team went on a 10 point run with Nikki Brice serving in the second set. She, Lexi Dempsey and Ellen Mullins, had 2 aces each. Dempsey picked up her 3rd double double in a row and 4th of the year with 45 assists and 11 digs. Ellen Mullins had 20 digs. Megan Hatcher had a career high 13. and Bridgette Villano had 10.

Tennessee had 15 team blocks. Six players had 3 or more: Kolosky with 8, Raina Hembry with 7, Whitney Heeres with 5, Dempsey with 4, and Lea and Mariani with 3 each.

UT STORY & VIDEO | UT MARTIN STORY | BOX SCORE

Several future Lady Vols were named to PrepVolleyball’s annual Senior Aces list of the top 250 volleyball recruits in the Class of 2014. Congratulations to the following players!

• Kelsey Bawcombe. 6-1 OH, Temecula Valley (Temecula, California), 951 Elite
• Olivia Bin, 6-1 OH, LaSalle (Pasadena, California), San Gabriel Elite
• Toni Rodriguez, 6-1 MB, St. Amant (Louisiana), Louisiana Volleyball
• Claudia Coco, 5-4 Libero, Chattahoochee (John’s Creek, Georgia), A5

The Lady Vols got the win in their first four-set match of the season, defeating UNC Asheville (16-25, 25-18, 25-21, 30-28).

Jamie Lea had 23 kills on 66 attempts — in a four-set match at UT that stands as the 10th most kills and the most attack attempts since 2001. Ashley Mariani put down 12 kills, Whitney Heeres had 10, and Shealyn Kolosky 8. Raina Hembry and Lea had 3 blocks a piece.

As a team, the Lady Vols scooped up 103 digs, 4th most by the school in the rally scoring era and the most in a four-set match. Four players notched double digit digs. Ellen Mullins led the match with 31, the 9th most since 2001 and the 2nd best in a four-set match. Nikki Brice set a career high with 23 digs. Bridgette Villano had 17. And Lexi Dempsey scored another double double with 14 digs along with 47 assists.

Coming into the match Tennessee had 9 aces on the season. They topped that number in a single match with 10 — the 9th most since 2001 and the 2nd most in a four-set match. Dempsey had 3, Kolosky matched a career high with 2, and team ace leader Brice added two to her season tally.

UT STORY | UNCA STORY | BOX SCORE

The Lady Vols kept their streak over in-state rivals alive by sweeping Chattanooga tonight (25-11, 25-22, 25-21). More later.

UPDATE: Jami Lea hit .400 with 12 kills on 24 attacks. Shealyn Kolosky hit .421 with 9 kills on 19 attacks. Ashley Mariani had 8 kills, and Whitney Heeres had 7.

Ellen Mullins had a three-set career high 28 digs — the second most by a Lady Vol since 2001. Bridgette Villano picked up 11 digs. Nikki Brice had 8. Lexi Dempsey earned another double double with 33 assists and 10 digs.

Lea put back 4 blocks, Raina Hembry had 3, and Kolosky and Mariani had 2 each.

The team’s hitting percentage has increased every match so far this season, passing the .200 mark for the first time against the Mocs. They held Chattanooga to 11 points in the first set, which matches the 7th lowest the team has held an opponent in the rally scoring era.

I forgot my camera, so no photos from this match. Sorry!

UT STORY & VIDEO | UTC STORY | BOX SCORE

• UT is scheduled to face four fellow Tennessee teams this season, two of them this weekend. The Lady Vols have played another state school every season since 1973 except 2006, 2011, and 2012.
• Chattanooga will be the first team from their home state that the Lady Vols have played since 2010. That’s the longest gap between such games in school history.
• UT is 131-26-4 (.826) vs other Tennessee schools. Coach Rob Patrick is 20-1 (.952). Check out the table below to see every one of those 161 matches.
• Tennessee’s last loss to another state team was 16 seasons ago in 1997, vs Tennessee Tech.
• The Lady Vols are on an 18 match winning streak vs other Tennessee squads. That’s the second longest run in program history, behind the 27 matches in a row they won between 1981 and 1989.
• ETSU and Tennessee Tech are the two state schools UT has played the most with 33 matches each.
• Tennessee is 14-3-1 all-time vs Chattanooga. UTK won the previous meeting in 2010. The team currently holds a 14 match winning streak over UTC, with their last loss coming in 1976. The Lady Vols have only lost two sets in that time.
• Tennessee is 8-0 all-time vs UNC Ashville. The first meeting was in 1973 and the last was in 2000. UT has only lost three sets in that time.
• Tennessee is 4-3 all-time vs UT Martin. UTK won the last meeting in 2004. All the prior match ups were in the 1970s. The Lady Vols have won the last three in a row.
• Tennessee will face Charlotte for the first time in program history.
• Three assistant coaches on opposing sidelines this week also faced Tennessee during their playing careers: Chattanooga’s Savanah Stansell at Ohio in 2005 and Taylor Wittmer at Indiana in 2007 and 2010; and Charlotte’s Bethany Byers at USC in 2006. They were 3-1 combined vs UT.
• The team had two memorable trips the first times they faced UNC Ashville on the road after Coach Patrick came on board:
• In 1997, the Lady Vols defeated the Bulldogs in a four-set, two-and-a-half hour slugfest. Tennessee put up 262 attacks while UNCA had 257, at the time the 11th and 12th best four-set performances in NCAA Division I history. UT also had the then 11th highest ever digs total with 134. The Bulldogs topped that with 145 — then the 4th best tally and still the 8th in the NCAA record book in four-sets. Both digs totals are also UT team match records to this day. Four Lady Vols dug up 20 or more balls each. And despite Tennessee saying that Nikki Fowler was the first person at UT to do it 2007, it appears Christy Warren recorded a triple double with 64 assists, 10 kills, and 10 digs. The team set 4 top team and 3 individual SEC high marks, 7 players set or matched 17 career personal best totals, and 6 players notched double doubles.
• Their next road trip to play the Bulldogs was memorable for a completely different reason. The bus got stuck and the team had to walk several miles to their match!

More information:

• Chattanooga: Friday 9/5 at 7:00pm ET | website | match info from UTC | live stats | live video $
• UNC Asheville: Friday 9/6 at 12:30pm ET | website | match info from UNCA | live stats | live video $
• UT Martin: Saturday 9/7 at 10:00am ET | website | match info from UTM | live stats | live video $
• Charlotte: Saturday 9/7 at 6:00pm ET | website | match info from UNCC | live stats | live video $
• Tennessee: website | match info from UT (FLASH)

Congratulations to Tennessee 2014 recruit Claudia Coco who broke the Georgia state career digs record! According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the old high was 1,930 which Coco surpassed in the eighth match of her senior season at Chattahoochee High School. With over 700 digs last season, and another month of volleyball at least to go, Coco should extend the record even further and become the first player in Georgia to notch 2,000 digs!

Congratulations to Ellen Mullins on picking up the first weekly SEC honors of the season. She was named the conference Defensive Player of the Week. This is the fifth time she’s won the award in her career. Ashley Mariani was listed by the SEC as another weekly top performer.

Forty photos from the UC Invitational are online. As I warn every year, I don’t necessarily have the best camera or the best skills using one, but if you can’t be at the games the pictures are better than nothing. And thanks to the fellow Tennessee fan who shared two of her photos with us!

Tennessee falls to Butler in the de facto championship game of the UC Invitational 3-0. I’ll have more tomorrow when I get back to Knoxville.

UPDATE: Ashley Mariani put down 14 kills. Jamie Lea picked up her first double double with 10 kills and 11 digs. Shealyn Kolosky had 8 and hit .316, while Whitney Heeres had 6 kills.

Lexi Dempsey had her highest output of the weekend in the final match with 37 assists and just missed the double double with 9 digs. Ellen Mullins reached 20 digs in all three matches.

The team went from one of their best days blocking Friday morning to one of their worst Saturday afternoon. Their two team blocks vs the Bulldogs tied for the lowest amount ever notched in the rally-scoring era. They also matched another team low, with no aces in a match for just the 17th time since 2001.

Ellen Mullins and Ashley Mariani were named to the All Tournament team.

I normally try to keep to statistical analysis, but since this is such a young team I know fans are curious about how they look. Despite the loss, I think over the course of three matches they actually showed improvement. During the first match you could tell they had talent, but they just weren’t working together well yet. By the third match you could see signs that they were starting to gel against real opponents. I saw lots of promise and am looking forward to seeing how the team progresses.

UT STORY | BU STORY | BOX SCORE

Tennessee recorded their first sweep of the season over the homestanding Bearcats (25-21, 25-22, 25-19). The Lady Vols start the season at 2-0 for the 12th time on Coach Rob Patrick’s watch.

Ashley Mariani led the match with 14 kills, hitting .316. Jamie Lea and Whitney Heeres had 6 each, and Shealyn Kolosky had 5.

Lexi Dempsey earned her first double double with Tennessee with 27 assists and 11 digs. Ellen Mullins was one dig shy of her three set personal best with 21 digs. Nikki Brice bested her three set high with 14 digs. Lea added in 12 more digs.

Jamie Lea’s 3 block solos tied for the third most at UT in the rally-scoring era. Raina Hembrey and Mariani had two block assists each.

UT STORY & VIDEO | UC STORY | BOX SCORE

It was a nail biter, but the Lady Vols start the season off right at 1-0 with a five set win over defending OVC Champion Morehead State (14-25, 25-23, 25-22, 17-25, 15-12). More soon.

UPDATE: Despite Morehead State leading the Lady Vols in kills, attacks, hitting percentage, aces, assists, digs, and points, Tennessee was able to do what it took to lead where it counts — the scoreboard. It was an especially impressive achievement because Tennessee only scored 63 statistical points and 96 actual points in the match. Both those totals are easily the lowest numbers of points scored by the team in a five set win in the rally-scoring era. In fact the 63 statistical points is the lowest amount scored by UT in any five set match, win or lose, since 2001.

Freshmen Jamie Lea and Ashley Mariani had 10 kills a piece. Shealyn Kolosky had 7, Raina Hembrey and Whitney Heeres had 5 each, and Carly Wishlow had 4.

Lexi Dempsey led the team with 25 assists, while Abby Brewer added in 10 more. Ellen Mullins was just 3 short of her career high with 31 digs. Nikki Brice broke her personal record with 17. Megan Hatcher and Dempsey contributed 9 digs each.

The squad had a spectacular morning at the net with 17 total blocks, the 17th most by the team since 2001. Kolosky put back 9 block assists, Hembrey had 8, and Lea 5.

UT STORY & VIDEO | MSU STORY | BOX SCORE