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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

National and SEC statistical rankings – 9/19/2012

The NCAA and the SEC have updated their weekly statistical rankings of players and teams for the 2012 season. The national ranks go up to 328 teams and 250 players. Tennessee’s rank in the polls are also included. Click the underlined links to see the rankings charted week-to-week.

moved UP from last weekstayed EVEN with last weekmoved DOWN from last week

AVCA Poll21st 42nd
RichKern.com Poll20th 62nd
Volleyball Magazine Poll20th 42nd
Pablo Ranking16th 71st
RKPI16th 51st

ACESASSISTSBLOCKSDIGSHIT%KILLS
222nd 1617th 735th 10159th 2533rd 322nd 3

ACESASSISTSBLOCKSDIGSHIT%KILLSOPP HIT%
9th 23rd 12nd 9th 24th 14th 8th 2

ACESASSISTSBLOCKSDIGSHIT%KILLSOPP HIT%
4th 2nd 4th 3rd 4th 3rd 3rd

ACESKelsey Robinson153rd 26
ASSISTSMary Pollmiller43rd 18
BLOCKSLeslie Cikra177th 46
DIGSKelsey Robinson224th NR
DIGSEllen Mullins226th 20
HITTING PERCENTAGELeslie Cikra141st 16
KILLSKelsey Robinson3rd 1
POINTSKelsey Robinson3rd 1

ACESKelsey Robinson5th 1
ASSISTSMary Pollmiller3rd 2
BLOCKSLeslie Cikra8th 3
BLOCKSMercedes Vaughn13th 4
DIGSKelsey Robinson10th 2
DIGSEllen Mullins11th 2
HITTING PERCENTAGELeslie Cikra12th
KILLSKelsey Robinson1st
KILLSLeslie Cikra19th 5
KILLSTiffany Baker20th 1
POINTSKelsey Robinson1st
POINTSLeslie Cikra15th 4

ACESNikki Brice4th
ASSISTSMary Pollmiller1st
BLOCKSLeslie Cikra8th
BLOCKSDeeDee Harrison19th
DIGSKelsey Robinson8th
DIGSEllen Mullins16th
HITTING PERCENTAGEKayla Jeter3rd
HITTING PERCENTAGEMercedes Vaughn18th
HITTING PERCENTAGEDeeDee Harrison20th
KILLSKelsey Robinson3rd
POINTSKelsey Robinson1st



Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Tennessee down to #21 in poll

After a heartbreaking five-set loss to Missouri and a win over Alabama, the Lady Vols fell four places in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll to #21.

Ballots for 55 of the 60 voters were released. Tennessee’s highest placement was #13 on Rice head coach Genny Volpe’s ballot. Thirteen coaches left the Lady Vols completely off their list. Below is a breakdown of where UT placed on each ballot followed by Tennessee coach Rob Patrick’s ballot this week.

[ click to continue article… ]



Monday, September 17, 2012

Weekly Recaps 2012: at Missouri and Alabama
  • Tennessee is now 1-2 all-time vs Missouri and 32-12 all-time vs Alabama. Since 1983, the Lady Vols are now 16-14 in SEC openers. Under Coach Rob Patrick they are 9-7.
  • With her performances over the past eight days, Kelsey Robinson has passed the 900 kills and 900 digs mark. She needs 52 more kills to become just the 18th Lady Vol to reach 1,000. She needs 90 more digs to become only the 12th UT player to reach 1,000. When she reaches both milestones, she will join an even more exclusive club — she’ll become one of only five Lady Vols in school history with both 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs, joining Stephanie Ehlers (1985-88), Kristy Dobson (1988-91), Sonja Thomas (1991-94), and Nikki Fowler (2007-10).
  • With 112 assists this past weekend, Mary Pollmiller moved past Kelsey Mahoney (2008-11) to claim the #7 spot on the school’s all-time assists chart. She can become the 7th Lady Vol to hit the nice, round number of 2,000 assists with just 36 more.
  • The tough Missouri loss was the eighth time in the past decade the team has lost a match after going up 2-0, and the first match since 2003 that they were within two points of a sweep win but lost.
  • While the team is still an impressive 13-4 in their last seventeen games on the air, they’ve now lost two of the last three, both times in five-set matches.
  • The Lady Vols ended Alabama’s 11 match winning streak, their longest run in seven years.
  • Tennessee hit a .373 percentage vs the Crimson Tide. That’s the fifth time this year they’ve hit over .300. The defense has held UT opponents to under .300 not only this entire season, but in all but 2 of the 139 matches since 2008.
  • UT has continued their season long run of not allowing any other team to get more kills, assists, aces, or points than the Lady Vols.
  • Robinson had 23 kills and 24 digs vs Missouri. While it isn’t an “official” stat, the 20/20 seems rare enough to make special note of when it happens. Since 2001, 6 different players have reached 20 in two stats in a single match just 13 times. Counting just 20+ kills and digs, only 3 players have done it — and Robinson is the only player in that time to do it more than once.

Julie Knytych vs Western Carolina (9/6/2002) 39 assists 21 digs
Julie Knytych vs Arizona State (9/6/2003) 47 assists 22 digs
Julie Knytych vs Georgia (10/3/2003) 60 assists 24 digs
Julie Knytych vs Georgia (11/21/2003) 55 assists 20 digs
Amy Morris vs Georgia (11/21/2003) 21 kills 26 digs
Chelsea Noble vs Mississippi (10/29/2006) 51 assists 21 digs
Yuliya Stoyanova vs Kentucky (11/1/2006) 25 kills 22 digs
Chelsea Noble vs Duke (12/1/2006) 57 assists 22 digs
Jena Berg vs Georgia (9/23/2007) 56 assists 24 digs
Kelsey Robinson vs Maryland (8/27/2011) 24 kills 24 digs
Kelsey Robinson vs Mississippi (10/9/2011) 20 kills 20 digs
Kelsey Robinson vs BYU (9/1/2012) 24 kills 22 digs
Kelsey Robinson vs Missouri (9/12/2012) 23 kills 24 digs

DOUBLE DOUBLES

  • vs MU: Kelsey Robinson (23 kills & 24 digs – 35th career, 8th season)
  • vs UA: Mary Pollmiller (46 assists & 12 digs – 12th career, 4th season);
    Kelsey Robinson (20 kills & 14 digs – 36th career, 9th season)

MATCH HIGHS

  • Nikki Brice: assists (matched with 2 vs UA), digs (was 14, now 15 vs MU), aces in a five-set match (matches with 3 vs MU), points in a five-set match (matched with 3.0 vs MU)
  • Jasmine Brown: assists (matched with 2 vs MU)
  • Leslie Cikra: block assists (was 6, now 7 vs UA), total blocks (matches with 7 vs UA), digs in a five-set match (was 3, now 4 vs Missouri)
  • Kayla Jeter: digs in a five-set match (matched with 9 vs MU)
  • Shealyn Kolosky: digs (was 3, now 4 vs UA), block assists and total blocks in a four-set match (was 5, now 8 vs UA)
  • Ellen Mullins: assists in a four-set match (matched with 4 vs UA)
  • Kelsey Robinson: solo blocks in a four-set match (matched with 2 vs UA)

MILESTONES

  • Tiffany Baker: 1,000 career attacks, 200 career digs, 300 season attacks
  • Leslie Cikra: 100 career matches, 1,800 career attacks
  • Shealyn Kolosky: 100 career blocks
  • Mary Pollmiller: 100 career kills, 1,900 career assists, 400 season assists
  • Kelsey Robinson: 2,400 career attacks, 900 career digs, 200 season kills, 400 season attacks, 200 season points
  • Mercedes Vaughn: 100 career attacks


Sunday, September 16, 2012

Lady Vols turn back Tide

Alabama won their first set over Tennessee since 2009, but the Lady Vols got the next three to win (19-25, 25-17, 25-15, 25-15). I’ll have more (including photos) late tonight or tomorrow morning.

UT STORY & VIDEO | BOX SCORE | UA STORY



Friday, September 14, 2012

Match Notes 2012: at Alabama

  • Tennessee is 31-12 all time vs Alabama, 8-2 in their last ten meetings, and 6-4 in the last ten meeting in Tuscaloosa. The team has an 8 match winning streak going and are on a 5 match sweep streak.
  • Tennessee and Alabama played the first recorded volleyball match between two SEC teams. While Tennessee played volleyball before 1973, records aren’t available until then. In fact, no other SEC team has game info published further back than the Lady Vols. According to UT’s data, Tennessee played Alabama midway through that season at the West Georgia Invitational. The Lady Vols won 2-0.
  • The Lady Vols have been excellent on serve receive vs the Crimson Tide, allowing only 3 aces over the last five matches dating back to November 2009.
  • In the entire 43 game history between the two teams there have been only 5 five set matches played. The Lady Vols are 3-2 in those matches, but the last win was over two decades ago.
  • Lady Vol Nikki Brice and Alabama’s Sierra Wilson were teammates at Troy High School in Fullerton CA, where they went 35-3 in 2010.
  • This match in Tuscaloosa AL is the eighth match on the road for the Lady Vols. Tennessee’s next longest road trip is a four match stretch starting in November.

MATCH INFO

TEAMSACESASSISTSBLOCKSDIGSHIT%KILLS
UT238th24th25th184th36th25th
UARK51st41st241st99th30th37th


ACESKelsey Robinson
126th (0.38)
Kryssi Daniels
12th (0.57)
ASSISTSMary Pollmiller
61st (10.63)
Sierra Wilson
14th (11.73)
BLOCKSMercedes Vaughn
186th (1.00)
Katherine White
NR (0.86)
DIGSEllen Mullins
206th (3.80)
Cristina Arenas
NR (3.14)
HITTING %Leslie Cikra
125th (.345)
Andrea McQuaid
201st (.314)
KILLSKelsey Robinson
4th (5.00)
Pricilla Duke-Ezeji
96th (3.72)
POINTSKelsey Robinson
4th (5.80)
Pricilla Duke-Ezeji
148th (3.97)

higher ranked teamlower ranked team



Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Mizzou stuns UT

With the score 19-13, the Lady Vols were just six points away from a sweep, and as close as two by the end of the third set, but lose a stunner to Missouri in five. It’s almost midnight and I just finished watching the game on my DVR. I’ll have much more in the morning. 

Tennessee had a dominating two and a half sets, but that’s not enough to win. This is the eighth time in the past decade the team has lost a match after going up 2-0, and the first match since 2003 that they were within two points of a sweep win but lost.

Despite the loss UT out-stated Mizzou in every category but blocking, continuing the team’s season long streak of not letting an opponent get more kills, assists, aces, or points than them. Four Lady Vols had double digit kills: Kelsey Robinson with 23, Tiffany Baker with 18, and DeeDee Harrison and Leslie Cikra both with 11. Robinson also had 24 digs for a double double and her fourth career 20/20 match, Robinson also had 3 blocks, while Harrison had 4 and Cikra had 3. Ellen Mullins had 17 digs. Nikki Brice had a career high 15. Mary Pollmiller had 66 assists, the second most she’s had at UT.

UT STORY | BOX SCORE | MU STORY



Quick Notes: preview videos, viewing options
  • Just a reminder that if you’re not regularly checking out the official website, you are missing a lot of good stuff! The media department over there, or whoever is in charge, has upped their game every year and this season they are really knocking it out of the park. Here’s the latest, including this week’s edition of their new series “This Week in Tennessee Volleyball”.
  • So you don’t have to fumble around as the game is starting here is the viewing information for tonight’s match as I understand it. If you have ESPNU, congrats, you’re good! Online things are more complicated. Your best bet is to just go to the website early and see what it tells you. Originally the site said the game would be blacked out to some people who have access to ESPN3. It no longer has that warning. So even if you don’t subscribe to ESPNU, and you are a subscriber to one of the approved cable companies, you may be in luck. Even so you may be required to validate your subscription using your cable company username and password. Don’t know them? Another reason to go to the site now and figure this all out before the match!
  • UPDATE: Here are some links of interest about tonight’s match:


NCAA commends Cikra performances

The attention keeps rolling in for Leslie Cikra after her impressive performances this past weekend. The most recent is from the NCAA itself who named her one of their national Players of the Week!



Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Tennessee’s Senior Aces

PrepVolleyball has posted their annual list of the best 250 seniors in the country, the top 100 ranked plus the next 150 listed in no particular order. The Lady Vols have four recruits on the list this year: #31 Ashley Mariani, a 6’1 MB from Arlington TX; #37 Jamie Lea, a 6’2” OH from Hillsborough NC; #45 Raina Hembry, a 6’3” MB from Portland OR; and Bridgette Villano, a 5’8” libero from Ft. Lauderdale FL, who made the #101-250 list.

Congratulations to these future Lady Vols! They’ll soon be joining the 12 other current Tennessee players that made the Senior Aces list when they were in high school: #4 Tiffany Baker, #11 Leslie Cikra, #19 Kelsey Robinson, #24 Olivia Okoro, #30 Bianca Arellano, #63 DeeDee Harrison, #67 Kayla Jeter, #83 Shealyn Kolosky, #93 Mary Pollmiller, Nikki Brice, Whitney Heeres, and Ellen Mullins.



Cikra gets national recognition

In addition to her conference award yesterday, Leslie Cikra got some national recognition today as a player of the week nominee earning Top Performer honors from CVU.com.



Match Notes 2012: SEC opener vs Missouri

  • Despite being one of the eight states Tennessee borders, UT has only faced Missouri twice, both times in the same season.

    In 2004, the Lady Vols had their most successful season in program history. They had gone 32-3, won the SEC Championship for the first time in two decades, and made their furthest run in the NCAA Tournament, reaching the Sweet Sixteen. The team started off 2005 ranked #9, their first time opening the year in the top ten. After quickly brushing aside Lipscomb and Utah, the Lady Vols were set to face their first test of the season in #19 Missouri. The Tigers were coming off one of their best seasons as well, having gone 20-9 the previous year. They started 2005 off with a bang, defeating the Lady Vols 30-27, 30-23, 30-20 and getting their first ever sweep of a top ten team. Missouri was relentless — not counting the setter and defensive specialists, every player on the team had double digit kills.

    Both teams went on to have great seasons. Tennessee didn’t quite match their best from a year ago. After the Missouri loss they would lose seven more matches, more than double their 2004 total. They also lost the conference and were knocked out in the second round of the SEC Tournament. But the team had gotten stronger as the season progressed and the setbacks only seemed to strengthen their resolve. The Lady Vols matched their historic 2004 NCAA Tournament run winning the first two rounds over Jacksonville State and #17 Minnesota. Going past the Sweet Sixteen didn’t look probable with the home-standing #2 Penn State squad standing in the way. But Tennessee upset the Nittany Lions 3-1, putting themselves in the Regional Finals for the first time.

    Missouri was having a record year. Going into the tournament they were 22-4 and ranked in the top ten. In the first round they met in-state rival Missouri State and got the sweep. In the second round it was Arkansas. The Tigers had made it to the second round twice before but had never gone on. This time they dominated their opponent to get into their first ever Sweet Sixteen, sweeping Arkansas 30-25, 30-16, and 30-11, hitting a stellar .505, and adding 14 service aces in the three-set match as well. Next up was tournament veteran and sixth ranked Hawaii. The Tigers handled them like tourney pros 3-1 to make their deepest run in the NCAA in school history, the Regional Finals.

    Roles were reversed when Tennessee met Missouri for the second time in 2005. In the first match UT was #9 and MU was #21. This time the Tigers were the favorite at #8 and the Lady Vols were the underdog at #17. Despite more kills and taking more swings than Tennessee, the dominating Lady Vol block and Missouri’s own hitting and serving errors ended the Tigers’ run and gave UT the 3-1 victory — 30-28, 30-27, 25-30, 30-17 — and propelled Tennessee to the Final Four.

  • Missouri assistant coach Lindsey Hunter played for the Tigers in both previous meetings against Tennessee.
  • MU is playing their inaugural match in the Southeastern Conference after having competed previously in the Big 12 where they went 149-167 over 16 years in the league against some tough volleyball competition.
  • Tennessee is facing a new SEC competitor for the first time since 1993 and 1994. In their first conference match against newcomer South Carolina in 1993, UT won 3-1. In the first league game vs Arkansas a year later Tennessee won 3-1.
  • Since 1983, the Lady Vols are 16-13 in their SEC openers. Under Coach Rob Patrick they are 9-6. The team is on a two match winning streak in conference openers.
  • Tennessee has won the SEC five times, but has only successfully defended that title the next season once.
  • The Missouri match will be televised by ESPNU. Since 2001, UT is 21-18 in televised matches and is on an impressive 13-3 run in their last sixteen games on the air.
  • The match in Columbia MO is the seventh match on the road for the Lady Vols. After an eighth one on Sunday, Tennessee won’t be away from home for more than four matches for the rest of the season.
  • In UT’s nine matches so far, including the losses, no team has had more kills, assists, aces, or points that the Lady Vols.
  • Tiffany Baker and MU setter Molly Kreklow played together this past summer in the USA Volleyball A2 program.

MATCH INFO

TEAMSACESASSISTSBLOCKSDIGSHIT%KILLS
UT238th24th25th184th36th25th
UARK57th66th66th151st10th67th


ACESKelsey Robinson
126th (0.38)
Jade Hayes & Lisa Henning
185th (0.33)
ASSISTSMary Pollmiller
61st (10.63)
Molly Kreklow
52nd (10.73)
BLOCKSMercedes Vaughn
186th (1.00)
Whittney Little
108th (1.13)
DIGSEllen Mullins
206th (3.80)
Jade Hayes
230th (3.70)
HITTING %Leslie Cikra
125th (.345)
Whittney Little
13th (.446)
KILLSKelsey Robinson
4th (5.00)
Lisa Henning
20th (4.39)
POINTSKelsey Robinson
4th (5.80)
Lisa Henning
18th (5.11)

higher ranked teamlower ranked team



National and SEC statistical rankings – 9/11/2012

The NCAA and the SEC have updated their weekly statistical rankings of players and teams for the 2012 season. The national ranks go up to 328 teams and 250 players. Tennessee’s rank in the polls are also included. Click the underlined links to see the rankings charted week-to-week.

moved UP from last weekstayed EVEN with last weekmoved DOWN from last week

AVCA Poll17th 22nd
RichKern.com Poll14th 22nd
Volleyball Magazine Poll16th 12nd 1
Pablo Ranking23rd1st
RKPI21st1st

ACESASSISTSBLOCKSDIGSHIT%KILLS
238th 24th 25th 184th 36th 25th

ACESASSISTSBLOCKSDIGSHIT%KILLSOPP HIT%
11th 2nd 52nd 111th 15th 54th 310th 1

ACESKelsey Robinson127th
ASSISTSMary Pollmiller61st
BLOCKSMercedes Vaughn186th
BLOCKSLeslie Cikra223rd
DIGSEllen Mullins206th
HITTING PERCENTAGELeslie Cikra125th
KILLSKelsey Robinson4th
KILLSLeslie Cikra242nd
POINTSKelsey Robinson4th
POINTSLeslie Cikra212th

ACESKelsey Robinson6th 3
ASSISTSMary Pollmiller5th 3
BLOCKSMercedes Vaughn9th
BLOCKSLeslie Cikra11th 2
DIGSEllen Mullins9th 4
DIGSKelsey Robinson12th 1
HITTING PERCENTAGELeslie Cikra12th NR
KILLSKelsey Robinson1st
KILLSLeslie Cikra14th NR
KILLSTiffany Baker19th 5
POINTSKelsey Robinson1st
POINTSLeslie Cikra12th NR



Monday, September 10, 2012

UT falls a spot despite weekend sweeps

Despite sweeping the weekend and seven losses by teams ranked above them, Tennessee dropped in the latest AVCA poll one spot to #17. More soon.

Ballots for 57 of the 60 voters were released. Tennessee’s highest placement was #10 on Northern Illinois head coach Ray Gooden’s ballot. Four coaches (twice as many as last week) left the Lady Vols completely off their list: Shaun Kupferberg of Howard, Steve Opperman from Duquesne, Hawaii’s Dave Shoji, and Mary Tendler of Elon. Below is a breakdown of where UT placed on each ballot followed by Tennessee coach Rob Patrick’s ballot this week.

[ click to continue article… ]



Cikra gets SEC honor

Congratulations to Leslie Cikra, who was today named the SEC Offensive Player of the Week! Incredibly, this is the very first weekly conference award for the senior All-SEC and All-American honoree.



Weekly Recaps 2012: Maryland Invitational
  • Let’s start with a reminder that it’s a short week, with the next match coming in just two days. So posts may be a bit rushed!
  • I posted a ton of stats after each match this weekend so I won’t repost them here, but be sure to check them out if you missed them because there was a lot of good stuff!
    GWU | BC | UMD
  • Since 2001, only one Lady Vol prior to this weekend had scored three hitting percentages of .692 or better in their entire career. Farren Powe notched a .692 in 2008 and a .692 and .700 in 2009. Leslie Cikra put up a .692, another .692, and .765 over two days this weekend!
  • With all the hoopla over Cikra’s big numbers, the other big hitting percentages this weekend were somewhat overlooked. Tiffany Baker hit over .400 in all three matches. For the first time since 2008 and just the third time since 2001, 5 players hit over .400 in a single match. Redshirt freshman Mercedes Vaughn had the third highest hitting percentage since 2001. Kelsey Robinson and Stephanie Stoll had career highs.
  • The Lady Vols hit a combined .639 against Boston College, breaking the school record of .607 set in 1980. The Eagles were held to just .104 — that’s the widest margin between UT and an opponent since at least 2001.
  • This past weekend saw the second highest set score and the second lowest set score by UT opponents in the 25 point era: 36-34 vs Maryland and 25-9 vs Boston College.
  • Kelsey Robinson had 4 solo blocks vs Boston College and 3 vs Maryland. No UT player since 2001 has ever had 7 solo blocks combined in back to back matches. And only one person in that time (Sarah Blum) ever had 7 solo blocks during any two matches in their career.
  • Mary Pollmiller had 50 assists vs Maryland, the most in a three-set match since 2005 (Julie Knytych).
  • With almost all SEC teams done with their non-conference slate, how did we do? Against all opponents the conference went 93-31 (.750). Against ranked opponents things weren’t as impressive, with the SEC going 2-15 (.118). Both wins were from Tennessee.
TEAM WINS LOSSES
#22 Michigan
#2 Texas
#9 Stanford
#8 Florida State
#1 Nebraska
#17 Oregon
#2 Texas
#7 Purdue
#12 Washington
#19 San Diego
#5 USC
#23 Northern Iowa
#23 Michigan
#10 Iowa State
#24 Colorado State
#12 Florida State
#5 USC
OVERALL 2 15

DOUBLE DOUBLES

  • vs BC: Kelsey Robinson (18 kills & 12 digs – 33rd career, 6th season)
  • vs UMD: Kelsey Robinson (18 kills & 11 digs – 34th career, 7th season)

CAREER HIGHS

  • Tiffany Baker: kills in a three-set match (matches with 15 vs UMD), attacks in a three-set match (was 27, now 29 vs UMD)
  • Leslie Cikra: kills in a three-set match (was 13, now 19 vs UMD), attacks in a three-set match (was 23, now 26 vs UMD, hitting percentage (was .636, now .765 vs GWU), points in a three-set match (was 14.5, now 20.0 vs UMD)
  • Kayla Jeter: solo blocks (matched with 2 vs GWU)
  • Ellen Mullins: assists (matched with 5 vs UMD), digs in a three-set match (was 15, now 22 vs UMD)
  • Mary Pollmiller: assists in a three-set match (was 42, now 50 vs UMD), block assists in a three-set match (was 2, now 3 vs GWU), total blocks (matched with 3 vs GWU)
  • Kelsey Robinson: hitting percentage (was .452, now .586 vs BC), solo blocks (was 2, now 4 vs BC), total blocks in a three-set match (matched 4 vs BC), points in a three-set match (was 21.0, now 23.0 vs BC & UMD)
  • Stephanie Stoll: kills (matched with 4 vs BC), attacks (was 6, now 7 vs GWU), hitting percentage (was .333, now .667 vs BC), points (was 4.5, now 5.0 vs BC)

MILESTONES

  • Tiffany Baker: 900 career attacks, 400 career points, 100 season kills, 200 season attacks, 100 season points
  • Leslie Cikra: 100 season kills, 200 season attacks, 100 season points
  • Ellen Mullins: 100 career assists, 30 career aces, 100 season digs
  • Mary Pollmiller: 1,800 career assists, 300 season assists
  • Kelsey Robinson: 900 career kills, 100 career blocks, 10 season aces, 100 season digs
  • Mercedes Vaughn: 25 career blocks