PrepVolleyball.com (paid subscription required) has named Tennessee’s recruiting class as a High Honorable Mention in their Top College Recruiting Classes of 2012 list. Last year’s class was ranked 8th in the country, the 2010 class was 4th, and the 2009 class was a High Honorable Mention.

Things look to get tougher in the Southeastern Conference in the coming years as 10 of the 13 volleyball playing schools made the list. Those in the top 30 include #9 Florida, #15 Kentucky, #20 Texas A&M, #26 Arkansas, and #29 LSU. Alabama and Missouri received Highest Honorable Mention, while Georgia and Mississippi State joined the Lady Vols on the High Honorable Mention list.

Like the stats pages I made last year, I’ve added a new section to the site that might be of interest to you guys but was really created so I can use it! The new page contains facts, figures, and links about the other SEC schools. After the 100th time Googling “Arkansas volleyball” to find their webpage now I’ve finally just added the link (and a bunch of other info) here. Also like the stats pages I’ll be updating the SEC section with more info eventually so check back occasionally for more.

To use the new page just mouse over the map and click an icon to view the team information below it. Click the icon again to go back or just click another school. Feel free to let me know of any issues.

GoVolsXtra.com notes that 2011-2012 has been a down year for Tennessee athletics. No men’s sport won a title this year. And while the women’s basketball team won the SEC Tournament and the rowing team took the Conference USA crown, the volleyball team earned the only regular season SEC championship for Tennessee this year.

A couple of fellow SEC member schools have recently posted about some of their facility updates. South Carolina has a 5 minute video on YouTube showing off their volleyball suite. While over on Twitter you can see updates on the new floor being painted for Missouri — complete with a new SEC logo.

UPDATE: MU has posted a video of the SEC logo being painted — the first SEC logo to be placed at any sports facility at the school so far.

We’re just 100 days away from Tennessee’s first match of the 2012 season! And it will be a big one! The defending SEC champions will face Florida State, winners of the ACC, who made their first Final Four appearance in 2011. Both teams finished the season with 28 wins and both were ranked in the final AVCA Poll — FSU at #7 (with a 28-7 record) and UT at #19 (with a 28-4 record).

Tennessee opens the season at home with the Lady Vol Classic. Along with the Seminoles, UT will also host Cincinnati and Iowa State. The team has a stellar record in season opening matches, going 27-7 since 1978. In home openers the team is an equally amazing 28-6. The Lady Vols haven’t lost a season opener at home in 33 years.

There are a few topics I shy away from on this site unless someone else reports on them first. After following these players for 5-6 years (if you count high school recruiting in some cases) and getting to know their families it’s not hard to want to help keep their private life private. Things like personal problems, transfer decisions, and off the court medical information might be fodder for fans around a water cooler but they are real life issues for the players.

One of those stories I haven’t mentioned until now is about redshirt freshman Stephanie Stoll. While it was certainly no secret that the Washington state native temporarily left the team mid-season 2011 after being diagnosed with lymphoma (the team wore green ribbons and had her number written on their hands during matches) I wasn’t comfortable writing about it publicly until the family or school had released something first.

Over the past few months updates have started coming out publicly and the news looks good! UT has posted a video clip from her local NBC affiliate about her and how she reached out to help children in Africa with the same affliction. And more recently the school posted an article which has the great news that Stoll will be returning to Knoxville later this month and plans to go through summer training with the team! I have no qualms saying I’m sure we all look forward to seeing #3 back on the court this fall!

Just a heads up that I’m in the process of applying a redesign to the website. During the next few days you may notice errors and some styling issues as I update each section. Apologies for any problems. And I hope you like the new look! (UPDATE: If the page looks really wrong, force a reload/refresh.)

The East Tennessee Volleyball Association is holding a “Volley for a Wish” tournament on May 19th-20th. All proceeds raised from the event will be given to the Make-a-Wish Foundation for a local child named Jessie whose wish is to ride across the country on a train. In addition to signing up to play, you can also support the cause with donations at their sponsor Brixx Wood Fired Pizza (they’ll match them), or by participating in a silent auction being held with the event, or by coming out to watch and buying some concessions. More info is available on the ETVA website.

Congratulations to the volleyball team on winning 4 Volscars at the Tennessee athletics department’s annual recognition program. The squad won Lady Vol Team of the Year, while Kelsey Robinson was named Female Athlete of the Year, Mary Pollmiller Female Rookie of the Year, and Rob Patrick Lady Vol Coach of the Year. Photos and more info on the winners is available at the official site.

Congratulations to Mary Pollmiller and Tiffany Baker on being named to the US Women’s National A2 Program. Training begins June 26th with matches held June 30th to July 4th. Unlike the format in previous years, after the 48 players selected to participate are split into 4 teams of 12 they will play one another in a tournament held during the Girls’ Junior National Championships.

The SEC and Tennessee released their volleyball schedules for the upcoming season today. I’m recuperating from a surgery I had less than a week ago but will have more to say soon. (Tennessee and Florida only play each other once? Has the SEC East/West race been scrapped since teams don’t play every one in their division twice? Is the 8 years in a row rivalry with Louisville over or just not scheduled yet?)

SEC conference schedules | Tennessee’s (almost complete) schedule

While there are way too many alumni out there for me to even try to keep track of, three former Lady Vols have been in the news in the last 90 days.

In December, Ann Mullins (2003-2004) was named the 2011 Volleyball Coach of the Year by the Daily News Journal. Coaching Siegel High School in Murfreesboro TN, Mullins has taken the team to the state tournament every year since taking the job in 2009, and has won the Coach of the Year award three years running as well.

In February, Amy Morris Williamson (2003-2005) accepted the assistant coaching position at Nevada after three years at Tulane.

This week, acting head coach Jaye Loyd (2006-2008) led Tulane’s sand volleyball team in their first match in program history, a 5-0 loss to Florida State.

UPDATE (3/21/2012): Jasmine Fullove (2002-2005) has been named an assistant volleyball coach at Youngstown State University.

I’ve posted the first part of the 2011 record book update. This half features individual records while part two will mostly deal with team records.

A few interesting notes:

Kelsey Robinson is the first Lady Vol to break into the single season kills top ten list in the past decade, and just the second person to do so since 1997.

Robinson notched more attacks than any other Tennessee player besides Tanya Haave who had 162 more in 1980, the year Lady Vol records begin. Her 11.84 attacks per set is also second all time.

Mary Pollmiller is third all time in single season assists. She’s the highest freshman on the chart and the first freshman since Julie Knytych (who took the 8th spot her first season in 2002). Pollmiller also made the career assists list — an amazing feat in just her first season.

Ellen Mullins is fifth in single season digs and digs per set. The only names in front of her are UT’s two SEC Defensive Players of the Year, Amy Morris and Chloe Goldman.

While she still has another season to go, as of right now DeeDee Harrison is one of only five Lady Vols to have a career blocks per set average over 1.00.

Congratulations to assistant coach Rachel Cooper who was named to the 2012 AVCA Thirty Under 30 class. The award was created to “honor thirty of the up-and-coming volleyball coaches under 30 years old in the sport at all levels of the game”. Tennessee has more including quotes from head coach Rob Patrick, while the full list can be seen at the AVCA website.

I’ve spent the last month and a half taking care of one of my other websites (an entertainment news site) that suffers a lack of my attention during volleyball season. (Luckily we have a staff over there so I can spend a few months here at the end of the year without too much guilt!) On top of getting myself caught up, we’ve got the Oscars this week (always a busy time for us) and an iPhone app about to launch next week. After that I’ll need to take some time to focus on another website I run that mostly only needs attention once every four years (a political history site). And of course that time is now. And just for good measure let’s take an unscheduled week of time to deal with hackers messing with my server!

Obviously, I’m busy! But I just wanted to check in and say I haven’t forgotten about this site. I’m going to try to get in a few more updates here after the big updates are over on one site and before starting the updates on the other.

Here are a few of the things that have been happening over the last few weeks:

The most beautiful volleyball sight I’ve seen since starting this website in 2007 was posted on Twitter a few weeks ago along with its sibling.

The Facebook page has a bunch of pictures including: some of the team working with Special Spaces, DeeDee Harrison in a promotional shot, and players modeling some of their new Adidas gear.

Several Lady Vols represented Tennessee at the US Women’s National Team tryouts at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs: Tiffany Baker, Ellen Mullins, Mary Pollmiller, and Kelsey Robinson. Four photo galleries from the event are online.

Volleyball Magazine listed UT recruit Bianca Arellano on their anual Fab 50 list honoring the top 50 high school seniors in the nation.