After a wild third set, the Lady Vols get a hard fought sweep over Maryland (25-19, 25-12, 36-34). The third sweep of the weekend also gave them the tourney crown.
Leslie Cikra was again stellar with 19 kills, 1 error, and 26 attacks for another impressive .692 hitting percentage. On the weekend, Cikra was an incredible 42-2-56 (.714). If that’s not good enough for her first ever SEC Player of the Week award I don’t know what is! In fact maybe we need to lobby for an AVCA National Player of the Week award… More soon.
Kelsey Robinson also had a huge tournament with 18 kills tonight and 11 digs for yet another double double, her seventh in a row. She also had 3 solo blocks, giving her an incredible 7 over the two matches today! Tiffany Baker had 15 kills giving her her third match in a row hitting over .400. Ellen Mullins had 22 digs. And Mary Pollmiller had 50 of the team’s 57 assists.
Cikra was named the tournament MVP, while Robinson and Pollmiller made the All-Tournament Team.
The Lady Vols put on a dominating team performance against Boston College today, sweeping the Eagles (25-9, 25-11, 25-18). In the rally scoring era that’s the second fewest points allowed in a match and the second fewest points allowed in a set. Tennessee hit .639 — an all-time school record. And with just 2 attack errors in the match, they set a rally scoring era record there as well! More soon.
Kelsey Robinson had 18 kills, 12 digs, and hit a career high .586. She also put up 4 solo blocks, tying Sarah Blum for the most since at least 2001 — but Robinson did it in three 25 point sets while Blum did it in four 30 point sets. Leslie Cikra hit .692, had 10 kills, and 3 blocks. Mercedes Vaughn had a huge .875 with 7 kills on 8 attacks, the third highest hitting percentage since 2001. She also had 4 blocks. Tiffany Baker added in 5 kills while hitting .417 and Stephanie Stoll added 4 hitting .667. Mary Pollmiller had 36 assists. Ellen Mullins had 6 digs.
Some other stats of note, all since 2001: the first match with 4 players hitting over .500 (with at least 5 attacks); the second fewest total team blocks from an opponent with 1.0; the most solo blocks from UT with 6; the fourth lowest attended match with 56 people; the fourth shortest match at just 72 minutes.
The Lady Vols earn their first sweep of the season vs George Washington (25-20, 25-22, 25-16). This is the longest the team has gone without a sweep after opening the season since 1985, when it took them until their eighth match of the year to get it. More soon.
Leslie Cikra had a huge night, leading the team with 13 kills on 17 attacks with no errors for an amazing .765 hitting percentage. In the rally scoring era (since 2001) that’s the sixth most kills with no errors and the fifth highest hitting percentage with ten or more attacks. She also had 3 blocks. Tiffany Baker had 10 kills and hit .450. Kayla Jeter had 8 kills and 2 solo blocks. Mercedes Vaughn led the match with 6 blocks, 2 of which were solos. Stephanie Stoll added in 4 more blocks. Ellen Mullins dug up 10 balls while Nikki Brice had 7 more. Mary Pollmiller put up 35 assists and 8 digs along with 3 blocks.
- Senior Kayla Jeter and freshman Ashlyn Sunseri were featured in the news recently — Jeter in Cleveland’s Plain Dealer and Sunseri in UT’s Daily Beacon.
- Tennessee has posted some new videos online, the continuation of the This Week in Tennessee Volleyball series and an interview with Coach Patrick on the coming weekend tournament.
- The Tennessee Sports Writers Association has started a new Player of the Week award and their first honoree is Kelsey Robinson after her performances in Wichita. UT has the details.
- PrepVolleyball is in the process of counting down their annual list of the top 100 seniors in the country. Currently in the 40s (with the rest to follow in the coming days), congratulations to the first future Lady Vol to make an appearance on the list: Raina Hembry, a 6’3” MB from Portland OR who comes in at #45. Follow the above link for the details — subscription required, but definitely worth it!
- Tennessee will finish off their regular season non-conference slate this weekend with the trip to College Park MD. In the 2000s, the Lady Vols are an impressive 112-32 (.778) in such matches. This season matches 2007 for having the fewest scheduled non-conference games in that time frame.
Regular season non-conference games 2012 4-2 2011 8-2 2010 9-1 2009 7-3 2008 6-4 2007 5-4 2006 9-1 2005 7-4 2004 12-1 2003 11-2 2002 12-2 2001 9-3 2000 13-3 - The Lady Vols are 4-2 all-time vs George Washington. The teams have not faced each other since 1995, when the Colonials got a sweep over UT.
- Boston College and Tennessee are meeting for the first time.
- Tennessee is 3-1 all-time vs Maryland. After losing the first match of the series in 1990, UT has won the last three in a row including a 3-2 victory last season in Knoxville.
- The Lady Vols are making their second appearance at the Maryland Invitational, previously going 2-1 at the tournament in 2003.
- There might be some familiar faces from their club days across the court for two Lady Vols starters this weekend. Nikki Brice went to TCA SoCal with three Boston College and George Washington players. Kelsey Robinson went to Sports Performance, as did a Maryland and Boston College player.
- The opposing sidelines will be familiar with Tennessee. George Washington head coach Amanda Ault previously coached against the Lady Vols as associate head coach of Xavier in 2005 and as an assistant coach at Michigan in 2009. GWU assistant Erin Moore faced Tennessee as a player for Michigan in 2003. Boston College head coach Chris Campbell was previously the assistant and then associate head coach at Auburn from 2008-2009. BC assistant coaches Edgard De Gama E Silva and Patrick Johnston both spent time at Auburn as assistants. Maryland assistant Christie Landry began her coaching career at Kentucky in 2004.
- The Lady Vols are 14-5 vs the Atlantic Coast Conference and 6-0 vs the Atlantic 10 in the rally scoring era.
Match information:
- George Washingon: Friday 9/7 at 5pm ET
overall record: 2-6 | last week: beat Bethune Cookman & UMKC, lost to FGCU, Wyoming, & UMKC
website | match info from GWU | live stats- Boston College: Saturday 9/8 at 11am ET
overall record: 4-3 | last week: beat Mississippi State, lost to Northern Iowa & USC
website | match info from BC | live stats- Maryland: Saturday 9/8 at 7:30pm ET
overall record: 4-2 | last week: beat Binghamton, lost to Seton Hall & Ohio State
website | match info from UMD | live stats | video stream- #16 Tennessee:
overall record: 4-2 | last week: beat Colorado State & Wichita State, lost to BYU
website | match info from UT- You can follow the Twitter feeds of all the teams in the tournament right here.
The SEC has updated their weekly statistical rankings of players and teams for the 2012 season. The NCAA will begin updating theirs next week. 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 week stayed EVEN with last week moved DOWN from last week
POLLS NATIONAL SEC AVCA Poll 16th ↓2 2nd ↔ RichKern.com Poll 16th ↓5 1st ↔ Volleyball Magazine Poll 17th ↓2 1st ↑1
SEC TEAM RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES ACES ASSISTS BLOCKS DIGS HIT% KILLS OPP HIT% 11th ↔ 7th ↓1 3rd ↔ 10th ↑2 10th ↓5 7th ↓3 11th ↓1
SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES ACES Kelsey Robinson 9th ↔ ASSISTS Mary Pollmiller 8th ↔ BLOCKS Leslie Cikra 9th ↑8 BLOCKS DeeDee Harrison 9th ↓3 BLOCKS Mercedes Vaughn 9th ↑1 DIGS Ellen Mullins 13th ↑4 DIGS Kelsey Robinson 13th ↑7 KILLS Kelsey Robinson 1st ↑1 KILLS Tiffany Baker 14th ↑NR POINTS Kelsey Robinson 1st ↑1 POINTS Tiffany Baker 17th ↑NR
The Lady Vols defeated the previous #24 team in the country and lost to the new #21 team in the country this past weekend, resulting in a drop of just 2 spots in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll to #16. Other SEC teams in the poll include #15 Florida, #19 Kentucky, and unofficial #31 Texas A&M and #33 Arkansas. More soon.
Ballots for 54 of the 60 voters were released. Tennessee’s highest placement was #10 on Northern Illinois head coach Ray Gooden’s ballot. Two coaches, Mary Tendler of Elon and Joe Getzin of Mississippi, 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… ]
- Tennessee is now 2-2 all-time vs Colorado State, 1-1 vs BYU, and 1-0 vs Wichita State.
- Half of the Lady Vols’ matches this year have gone to five sets. Going back to 2011, UT has played 12 five-set matches, and is 9-3 in them.
- Almost 40% of the team’s sets so far this season (10 out of 26) have been decided by two or three points.
- With an attendance of 2,576, the match vs Wichita State had the 13th largest crowd to see a Lady Vol match since at least 2000.
- The loss to BYU was the team’s first to a West Coast Conference team since San Francisco defeated the Lady Vols in 1999.
- With wins over #10 Iowa State and #24 Colorado State, Tennessee has two wins over ranked teams after just their first four matches. In the past 30 years, since the inception of the coaches poll, the team has matched that total in an entire season just six times.
- Mary Pollmiller’s triple double was just the second in school history. Nikki Fowler first accomplished the feat in 2007. Both players were underclassman at the time of their achievement (Pollmiller a sophomore and Fowler a freshman). And both are the only UT players to ever win the SEC Freshman of the Year award. Pollmiller is just the second Tennessee setter since 2001 to get double digit kills in a match. Julie Knytych did it in 2002 and 2003 — both times also as an underclassman.
DOUBLE DOUBLES
- vs CSU: Kelsey Robinson (24 kills & 18 digs – 30th career, 3rd season)
- vs BYU: Mary Pollmiller (45 assists & 14 digs – 10th career, 2nd season),
Kelsey Robinson (24 kills & 22 digs – 31st career, 4th season)- vs WSU: Mary Pollmiller (11 kills & 49 assists & 14 digs – 11th career, 3rd season),
Kelsey Robinson (21 kills & 17 digs – 32nd career, 5th season)CAREER HIGHS
- Tiffany Baker: kills (matched with 19 vs CSU), attacks (was 45, now 56 vs CSU), aces (was 2, now 3 vs CSU), points (was 21.5, now 24.0 vs CSU)
- Nikki Brice: assists (matched with 2 vs WSU)
- Jasmine Brown: digs (matched with 10 vs WSU)
- Leslie Cikra: solo blocks (was 2, now 3 vs WSU), block assists (matched with 6 vs CSU), total blocks (was 6, now 7 vs CSU)
- Kayla Jeter: block assists and total blocks in a four-set mach (was 3, now 4 vs BYU)
- Mary Pollmiller: kills (was 6, now 11 vs WSU), attacks (was 11, now 17 vs WSU), hitting percentage (was .571, now .588 vs WSU), aces (matched with 2 vs BYU), digs in a four-set match (was 13, now 14 vs BYU), points (was 7, now 12 vs WSU)
- Kelsey Robinson: assists (was 5, now 6 vs WSU), block assists in a four-set match (matched 3 vs BYU), total blocks in a four-set match (matched 4 vs BYU)
MILESTONES
- Tiffany Baker: 300 career kills, 75 career blocks
- Leslie Cikra: 700 career kills, 200 career blocks, 800 career points
- Kayla Jeter: 300 career sets played, 1900 career attacks, 175 career blocks
- Ellen Mullins: 700 career digs
- Mary Pollmiller: 1700 career assists, 300 career digs
- Kelsey Robinson: 2300 career attacks, 800 career digs, 1000 career points
STREAKS
- double doubles: Kelsey Robinson (5), Mary Pollmiller (2)
- 20+ kills: Kelsey Robinson (4)
- 15+ kills: Kelsey Robinson (4)
- 15+ digs: Ellen Mullins (4), Kelsey Robinson (3)
- 3+ blocks: Leslie Cikra (9), Kayla Jeter (4), Mercedes Vaughn (2)
- service aces: Bianca Arellano (2)
- sets played: coming soon
After winning the first two sets, Tennessee fought off a comeback attempt from Wichita State finally getting a five-set victory (25-19, 28-26, 22-25, 24-26, 15-9). Sophomore Mary Pollmiller earned just the second triple double in school history. More later.
The Lady Vols finish the Shocker Classic in second place after tournament champion BYU. Kelsey Robinson and Mary Pollmiller were named to the All-Tournament Team.
Pollmiller destroyed her previous career high of 6 kills with 11 vs Wichita State. She also set career highs in attack attempts, hitting percentage, and points. With 49 assists and 14 digs she picked up just the second triple double in school history after Nikki Fowler’s 2007 effort. For the second time in her career Kelsey Robinson is on a four match streak with 20+ kills, this time getting 21. With 17 digs she got yet another double double. Leslie Cikra had 14 kills and 6 blocks, including a career high 3 solos — tying the second highest total of the past decade. Tiffany Baker had 10 kills, hit .333, and had 5 blocks. Kayla Jeter had 7 kills and 4 blocks. Ellen Mullins picked up 21 digs, just the fourth time in her career the junior has reached the 20+ mark. Bianca Arellano added another 2 aces to her total of 7 in six matches.
BYU outplayed the Lady Vols tonight getting a 3-1 upset win over the #14 team in the country (17-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-17). Kelsey Robinson had 24 kills and 22 digs — just the third time in her career and the fifth time in the past decade a Lady Vol has had 20+ in both those stats in a single match. She also had 4 blocks. Tiffany Baker had 15 kills and 8 digs. Leslie Cikra knocked down 11 kills and 3 blocks. Mercedes Vaughn had 5 blocks while Kayla Jeter had 4. Mary Pollmiller picked up a double double with 45 assists and 14 digs. And Ellen Mullins had 15 digs.
The Lady Vols tough out a five set win vs #24 Colorado State (25-22, 23-25, 27-25, 22-25, 15-11). More tonight.
Kelsey Robinson earned her 30th career double double with 24 kills and 18 digs. She also had 3 aces. Tiffany Baker had a career high matching 19 kills along with 8 digs and 3 blocks. After only serving up a single ace all of last year, Baker notched 3 in one match today. Senior Leslie Cikra had a career night with 7 blocks. She was also the third Lady Vol with double digit kills with 10. Kayla Jeter and Olivia Okoro stepped up with a combined 9 blocks. Mary Pollmiller just missed a double double with 50 assists and 9 digs. Ellen Mullins dug up 17 balls.
Notes are a little short this week due to the limited interaction between these teams over the years!
- Tennessee is 1-2 against Colorado State. The Rams won the last match 3-1 in 2009.
- The Lady Vols are meeting BYU for just the second time. Tennessee won the first 2-1 in 1980.
- UT has never faced Wichita State.
- Tennessee and Colorado State are meeting for just the fourth time, but those meetings have been spread over four decades with the teams playing each other once in the 1980s, once in the 1990s, once in the 2000s, and now in the 2010s.
- This will be the first time Tennessee has ever played a match in the state of Kansas. (Assuming my cursory research is correct!)
- In all of school history, the Lady Vols have never faced three ranked opponents in their first ten games of the season. In 2012, Tennessee is facing three ranked opponents in their first four games. By the time they play their fifth game, they’ll have faced three ranked teams and two teams receiving votes.
- UT’s current ranking of #14 matches their highest ranking of the past five years. But Tennessee has not had great luck with that number. In 2010, the Lady Vols were 6-0 and had not dropped a set. But as soon as the team reached #14 they lost their first match of the year and would not reach any higher in the poll the rest of the season. What happened in 2011 was even worse. The squad was 24-3 when they matched their recent poll high of #14. They then put up sweeps against the top two teams in the SEC West — and promptly dropped in the polls!?! They never got higher than #15 the rest of the year.
- To people outside Kansas the Shockers may not seem like the most high profile team in this tournament, but they can make the argument that they have the most fans. For the past several years Wichita State has been in the top 10 nationally in attendance. In 2011, they averaged 2,527 people per home match.
- On a related note, just added to the stats page this week is a section on Tennessee’s annual home attendance.
Match and other information:
- #24 Colorado State: Friday 8/31 at 4pm CT | website | match info from CSU
overall record: 3-0 | last week: swept Virginia, Denver, and Rhode Island at home- BYU: Saturday 9/1 at 7pm CT | website | match info from BYU
overall record: 3-0 | last week: swept Arkansas State, Air Force, and Rice in Houston TX- Wichita State: Sunday 9/2 at 1pm CT | website | tournament info | match info from WSU
overall record: 2-1 | last week: lost to NM State, defeated Northern Illinois and ND State in DeKalb IL- #14 Tennessee: website | match info from UT
overall record: 2-1 | last week: lost to #12 FL State, defeated Cincinnati and #10 IA State at home- Follow the matches: pay video streams | free audio streams | live stats | Twitter
The SEC has updated their weekly statistical rankings of players and teams for the 2012 season. The NCAA will begin updating theirs in two weeks. Tennessee’s rank in the polls are also included. Click the underlined links to see the rankings charted week-to-week.
POLLS NATIONAL SEC AVCA Poll 14th ↑1 2nd RichKern.com Poll 11th ↑1 1st Volleyball Magazine Poll 15th ↑1 2nd
SEC TEAM RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES ACES ASSISTS BLOCKS DIGS HIT% KILLS OPP HIT% 11th 6th 3rd 12th 5th 4th 10th
SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES ACES Kelsey Robinson 9th ACES Bianca Arellano 14th ASSISTS Mary Pollmiller 8th BLOCKS DeeDee Harrison 6th BLOCKS Mercedes Vaughn 10th BLOCKS Leslie Cikra 17th DIGS Ellen Mullins 17th DIGS Kelsey Robinson 20th KILLS Kelsey Robinson 2nd POINTS Kelsey Robinson 2nd
Several potential future Lady Vols are on two AVCA watch lists. Making the Under Armour High School All-America Watch List are senior Raina Hembry, a 6’3” middle from Central Catholic High School in Portland OR, and senior Ashley Mariani, a 6’1” middle from Arlington High School in Arlington TX. Making the AVCA Phenom List is junior Claudia Coco, a 5’5” libero from Chattahoochee High School in Johns Creek GA. I’ll have more about these and a few other recruits in the coming weeks.
UPDATE: You can add senior Bridgette Villano, a 5’8” libero from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale FL, to that list of future Lady Vols on the High School All-America watch list!
For I believe the first time the AVCA has released the votes of the coaches participating in the country’s top volleyball poll. I don’t know how long the coaches will agree to this, but while it lasts we’ll dive into the data!
Ballots for 54 people were released. The poll lists 60 first place votes so I assume the 6 no-shows got their ballots in too late to be included in the listings. Tennessee’s highest placement was #10 on Radford head coach Marci Jenkins’ ballot. Two coaches, Brian Gimmillaro of Long Beach State and Jolene Nagel of Duke, left the Lady Vols completely off their list. The lowest placement in the top 25 was a 24th place vote from Mississippi head coach Joe Getzin — any Lady Vols reading this that want him to reconsider can do so in person on November 9th! Below is a breakdown of where UT placed on each ballot followed by Tennessee coach Rob Patrick’s ballot.
Tennessee’s place on each ballot #10 1 vote #11 3 votes #12 9 votes #13 9 votes #14 11 votes #15 6 votes #16 5 votes #17 1 vote #19 2 votes #20 3 votes #21 1 vote #24 1 vote NR 2 votes
Coach Patrick’s 8/27/2012 AVCA Poll Ballot 1 Nebraska 2 Texas 3 Penn State 4 USC 5 Hawaii 6 Florida State 7 UCLA 8 Purdue 9 Stanford 10 Oregon 11 Tennessee 12 Washington 13 Iowa State 14 Pepperdine 15 Kentucky 16 Florida 17 San Diego 18 Dayton 19 Illinois 20 Michigan 21 Colorado State 22 San Diego State 23 Texas A&M 24 Minnesota 25 Creighton