Congratulations to three Lady Vols on winning conference annual awards: Kelsey Robinson was named the SEC Player of the Year, Mary Pollmiller was named the SEC Freshman of the Year, and Rob Patrick was named the SEC Coach of the Year!

Robinson’s award is the first Player of the Year honor for a Lady Vol in school history. Pollmiller is the second UT player to earn the Freshman of the Year prize (Nikki Fowler won it in 2007). Patrick picks up his third Coach of the Year award (he previously won in 2004 and 2008). It’s the 6th Coach of the Year honor awarded to Tennessee (Bob Bertucci earned it in 1984, while Sandy Lynn took it home in 1987 and 1988). Adding in Defensive Player/Libero of the Year Awards (to Amy Morris in 2004 and Chloe Goldman in 2009) and Scholar-Athletes of the Year (Fowler in 2010), the Lady Vols have now won 12 SEC annual awards in program history.

This is the first time since 2000 that a single school has won the Player, Freshman, and Coach awards. Robinson is the first sophomore to win Player of the Year since Florida’s Aury Cruz in 2001.

The other awards went to Kentucky’s Stephanie Klefot for Libero of the Year and Florida’s Kristy Jaeckel and Ann Armes of Kentucky for Co-Scholar-Athletes of the Year.

Five different Lady Vols were named to seven spots on the All-SEC and SEC All-Freshman teams today! Congratulations to Leslie Cikra, Kelsey Robinson, and DeeDee Harrison on being named to the All-SEC First Team, and Tiffany Baker and Mary Pollmiller on being named to the All-SEC Second Team and SEC Freshman Team! Cikra was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team in 2009, while Robinson got the Freshman Team nod in 2010. All the other players are being honored for the first time.

Five different players being named to the All-SEC and Freshman Teams ties the school record set in 1982 and 2009. Tennessee has never had more than five spots total on the squads until this year.

First Team All-SEC
Jasmine Norton, Arkansas
Kristy Jaeckel, Florida
Kelly Murphy, Florida
Whitney Billings, Kentucky
Christine Hartmann, Kentucky
Stephanie Klefot, Kentucky
Leslie Cikra, Tennessee
DeeDee Harrison, Tennessee
Kelsey Robinson, Tennessee

Second Team All-SEC
Kelli Stipanovich, Arkansas
Tangerine Wiggs, Florida
Desiree Elliott, LSU
Madie Jones, LSU
Meghan Mannari, LSU
Ashley Frazier, Kentucky
Regina Thomas, Ole Miss
Caitlin Rance, Mississippi State
Tiffany Baker, Tennessee
Mary Pollmiller, Tennessee

All-Freshmen Team
Taylor Unroe, Florida
Lauren O’Conner, Kentucky
Helen Boyle, LSU
Malorie Pardo, LSU
Lainey Wyman, Mississippi State
Tiffany Baker, Tennessee
Mary Pollmiller, Tennessee

Congratulations to DeeDee Harrison on being selected to the COBRA Magazine All-Southeast Region Team, and to Tiffany Baker on being named an Honorable Mention!

Hopefully these are the first of many awards we’ll be announcing soon…

Tennessee gets the #14 seed in the 2011 NCAA Tournament. They’ll host in Knoxville on Thursday and Friday. They face Duke in the first round. With a win they would face Ohio State or MTSU the next day.

Duke (21-8, 14-5 ACC – 4th)

Ohio State (19-14, 9-11 Big Ten – 7th)

MTSU (21-11, 14-2 Sun Belt – 2nd)

Against the field Tennessee is
     10-10 vs Duke
          (last match: 3-1 win in 2009 NCAA 1st Round)
     0-7 vs Ohio State
          (last match: 3-2 loss in 2004 NCAA Sweet Sixteen)
     14-0 vs MTSU
          (last match: 3-2 win in 2002)

PDF and interactive brackets are now online at the NCAA site.

Other SEC teams in the Tournament: Florida will face future SEC member Missouri in the 1st Round at Northern Iowa. Kentucky goes up against Dayton, with a possible 2nd Round date vs future SEC member #16 Texas A&M in College Station.

Tennessee played 6 teams this year that made the NCAA Tournament. In those matches they went 6-2.

This is the Lady Vols’ 13th NCAA Tournament appearance, and their 7th in the past 8 years. In 1st Round matches they are 8-4.

This is the 8th year Knoxville has hosted. Tennessee is 8-2 in NCAA Tournament matches at home.

This is the 4th year Tennessee has been seeded in the Tournament since it went to 64 teams.
     14th seed – 2011
     11th seed – 2010 (2nd Round)
     15th seed – 2005 (Final Four)
     12th seed – 2004 (Sweet Sixteen)

If the Lady Vols make it out of the 1st and 2nd rounds at home, the Regional rounds would be played in Gainesville FL.

Final regular season RPI numbers are now up:
     #9 Tennessee
     #43 Duke
     #45 MTSU
     #48 Ohio State

The SEC site has a story about the conference teams in the Tourney. Gator coach Mary Wise talks to the SEC about the Tournament as well.

Tennessee, Duke, Ohio State, and MTSU are or have posted stories about their Tournament bids.

The SEC talks with Tennessee’s Rob Patrick about the Tournament.

Series numbers for matches since 2001 can be found in the stats section. Here are direct links to our 1st and 2nd Round teams. Click the dates to see box scores: Duke | Ohio State | MTSU

UT has match times and ticket info online.
     Ohio State vs MTSU: Thursday, December 1st at 4:30pm ET
     #14 Tennessee vs Duke: Thursday, December 1st at 7:00pm ET
     1st Round Winners: Friday, December 2nd at 7:00pm ET

The UT story has added quotes and video from Coach Patrick.

Mary Wise thinks the NCAA Committee wasn’t very kind to the SEC.

Knoxnews.com, the local newspaper website, has a piece up about the Tournament, including quotes from the coach and several players.

The Tennessee volleyball team was recognized today for their SEC Championship season in front of the 10,000+ fans on hand for the women’s basketball game between #1 Baylor and #7 Tennessee. The team’s Twitter feed has an image and volleyball announcer Brian Rice (who’s live blogging the basketball game for the official site) has another pic on his account.

The amazing Rich Kern has given us one last look at his RKPI standings (which attempt to emulate the actual RPI numbers) before tonight’s selection show. After Wednesday’s win, Tennessee is up from 13th to 9th.

Last season the NCAA pretty much took the top 16 in the RPI and seeded them all, with a few variations in numbering. For example UT was 14th in the RPI but got the #11 seed. So assuming the RKPI is accurate and the NCAA again stays pretty close to it, these could be your top 16 seeds:

1. Illinois
2. Texas
3. Iowa State
4. Nebraska
5. Northern Iowa
6. Purdue
7. Hawaii
8. USC
9. Tennessee
10. Florida State
11. Penn State
12. Minnesota
13. Kentucky
14. Northern Illinois
15. UCLA
16. Pepperdine

With future conference mates Texas A&M and Missouri looking to be tourney-bound as well, I’ve gone ahead and added them to the SEC volleyball Twitter list so we can keep up with how they’re doing. Subscribe to the list or just read along on the list page or the sidebar to the left.

Just a reminder that the 2011 NCAA Tournament selection show is tonight at 6pm ET on ESPNU (and WatchESPN.com for certain cable subscribers). In previous years the “show” was actually just a segment during a larger news broadcast and could appear anywhere during the half hour. But the way they are labeling it in the TV listings this year makes it seem like an actual program. But note that a basketball game precedes the show which could push the start time back if things run long.

Until we find out the team’s fate tonight, check out their previous NCAA Tournament appearances over the past decade.

We’re just a few days away from the announcing of the SEC annual awards. So before we get into the excitement of the Tournament selection, let’s look at the top candidates for this year’s conference prizes. Most years when I try to predict them I make some self-deprecating comment about how I probably don’t know what I’m talking about, mainly to cover my behind if I’m wrong! But with no intent to brag, I’ve actually done very well. Since 2007, I’ve only made one wrong prediction. And even on that one I mentioned the two top candidates but just picked the wrong one to win. I mention this to point out that normally I believe there is a good chance I might be wrong and am surprised to find I did so well! But this year I think all but one of the choices are fairly clear so these hardly seem like predictions at all, but more like stating what is pretty obvious! Of course with all that said, watch this be the year I get them all wrong!

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

As late as two-thirds through the SEC season there were probably many people who still believed this award was a Florida senior’s to take — either Kristy Jaeckel or Kelly Murphy. While another conference player may have had better stats, the other two players have had such phenomenal careers with the Gators that even with just reasonably successful seasons in 2011 you had to reward them for that, right? (As I suggested they do last year for Nikki Fowler, with little success!) After Tennessee’s second win over UF, and with every Lady Vol win since those voices have quieted. Looking objectively at the candidates regardless of career or experience, it’s obvious this award deserves to go to Kelsey Robinson. She leads the conference in kills and points, by significant margins — and is in the top 15 in the nation in both stats as well. She’s second in the conference in aces. Robinson has 6 of the top 13 conference matches in kills; the next best has 3. And she leads the SEC in double doubles with 21, 6 more than her nearest competitor. No offensive player has had a more profound impact on their team’s success than Robinson. And the fact that she’s doing all this in her sophomore year just makes it all the more impressive. But it could be the one reason she might not win it. Having a second year player win this award is rare, but not unprecedented. It’s happened at least twice — in 2000 with Florida’s redshirt sophomore Nicole McCray and in 2001 with Florida’s Aury Cruz. I can’t think of a single reasonable or even just cogent argument why she should not win it this year! Robinson wins.

LIBERO/DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

In seven of the eight years this award has been given, the player with the most digs in all matches or conference matches has won it. Which means this race is between Kentucky’s Stephanie Klefot and LSU’s Meghan Mannari. Their numbers are within mere tenths of each other. Both are juniors and both have won the SEC Defensive Player of the Week award 3 times each this season. The only place I can find any separation between the two is in individual match highs and team accomplishments. Mannari has 3 of the top 5 SEC performances in digs this year. Klefot’s bests are #9 and #10 in the conference. Mannari also is tied for the most aces in a match this year with 7. But Klefot and Kentucky have an impressive record and a possible NCAA Tournament seed. Which trumps which? One last item to note: Klefot won the SEC Defensive Player of the Year award last season. Would that be enough for coaches to want to “spread the wealth” around a little bit and honor Mannari this year? Unlike the other picks, this is actually a tough one. As I mentioned above I’ve only been wrong on these picks once — and it was this award last year. I picked against Klefot then, and I think I’m going to do it again, but would not be surprised to be wrong again. Toss up between Klefot and Mannari, with the slight edge to Mannari.

FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR

The SEC has two phenomenal freshman setters this season: Tennessee’s Mary Pollmiller and LSU’s Malorie Pardo. They rank 1st and 2nd in the conference in assists respectively, and 6th and 12th in the nation. Pardo leads with double doubles 11 to 7. Pollmiller has 4 Freshman of the Week honors to 3 for Pardo. Their digs and blocks number are very similar. Pollmiller leads significantly in kills with 66 (with 16 errors and 210 attempts for a .248 hitting percentage). Pardo has 22 kills (with 22 errors on 103 attempts for a .000 average). Pardo’s signature moment came leading her team to an SEC record .638 hitting percentage vs Louisiana-Lafayette. Pollmiller’s major achievement has been leading her team to the SEC Championship after having to unexpectedly take over the offense solo after another setter’s medical problem the week before the season started. Numbers-wise, I think Pollmiller gets the edge. Add in the team’s SEC Championship and probable NCAA seed and and it’s decided. The only possible reason I could see for someone not to vote for her is to try to prevent a Big Orange steamroller in the awards department. But I doubt if there would be enough voters thinking that to make a difference. Pollmiller wins.

SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

As I always say, I don’t try to predict this one! But I will point out that every year since 2006, an Academic All-District first team member has won this award (though last year a first teamer shared the award with a non-first teamer). This year there are only two of them in the SEC: Kentucky’s Ashley Frazier and Florida’s Kristy Jaeckel.

COACH OF THE YEAR

The only two times in the past 10 years that someone has managed to wrest a piece of the SEC title away from Florida their coach has won this award. And I don’t see that changing this season! More impressively I think are the obstacles Rob Patrick had to overcome this year to reach that title. Losing an All-American senior for the year days before the season was to begin? Losing half of your setting tandem for the 6-2 you’ve been running for 3 years the week before the season? Handing the reigns of the offense to a freshman, on a team already filled with underclassman? All told, having 7 of the 14 available players miss time at some point during the year to medical problems? Having a brutal road schedule that included a span of 62 days with only 4 home matches? All that after losing both assistant coaches in the offseason? And then hitting the court and going 19-1 in SEC play with the only loss coming by two points in a 5 set match on the road? There’s only one word for that — unbelievable! Patrick wins.

Some photos from the Kentucky post game celebration have been put up here.

MATCH

Tennessee is now 29-40 all time vs Kentucky.

Double doubles were earned by 3 different players. While not super rare — there have been 27 such matches in the past decade — it is just about the best you can do! There’s been only one match since 2001 at UT with 4 players getting double doubles in the same match.

Kelsey Robinson’s 26 kills is the 15th most in a 4 set match in school history, while Ellen Mullins’ 24 digs is the 25th most in a 4 set match.

Kentucky outblocked Tennessee 15.5 to 8 — the first time the Wildcats have lost a match this season when doing so.

With 1,648 fans in the stands, the match was UT’s 5th highest attended home game in school history. Since the season began, Tennessee has set attendance records with 4 of the top 5 individual matches in school history, 7 of the top 25 matches, and also set a new total season record.

The Kentucky victory was the 50th Tennessee volleyball win in Thompson-Boling Arena. (1 in 2005, 11 in 2008, 13 in 2009, 12 in 2010, and 13 in 2011). The team only has 8 losses there.

SEASON

This year the team is 4-2 vs ranked opponents.

With the win Wednesday night, several previously mentioned streaks and records were extended. The Lady Vols have won 12 straight matches and 11 straight SEC games. The team won all 13 regular season home matches in 2011.

With the regular season compete and a 27-3 overall record, Tennessee will have no more than 4 losses at the most on the year. Only one other UT team has ever had so few defeats: the 2004 team that went 32-3.

CONFERENCE

The Lady Vols finish SEC play at 19-1, easily topping their previous record of 16 conference wins. Their record stands as the second best in SEC history, with only Florida’s 20-0 record last year being better. This is only the second season Tennessee has defeated every other SEC school at least once (the 2004 squad also did so). It is the first time since the conference went to a 20 match double round robin format in 2006 that UT has gone undefeated in one of the 10 game half-seasons.

The Lady Vols are tied for the 2nd most SEC Championships in conference history.

TOTAL SEC CHAMPIONSHIPS
TEAM	TOTAL	LAST
Florida	19	2010
Tennessee	5	2011
LSU	5	2009
Kentucky	5	1988
Georgia	2	1986

LSU won the SEC title in 2009. Florida won it in 2010. And Tennessee owns it in 2011. The last time 3 different schools won the conference in as many years was 1985-1987, when Georgia, LSU, and Kentucky won them.

In the past 23 seasons since 1989, only Florida (19), LSU (4), and Tennessee (2) have won an SEC title.

MILESTONES AND RECORDS:

Tiffany Baker got her 600th attack.

Nikki Brice scooped up her 200th dig.

Leslie Cikra played in her 300th set and picked up her 150th career block assist. She also got her 250th kill and 50th block assist of the season.

DeeDee Harrison put back career block assist #200.

Shealyn Kolosky got her 400th attack attempt.

Ellen Mullins has moved up to #6 on the all time single season digs chart.

In just her first regular season, Mary Pollmiller has entered the top 10 in career assists. She’s also up to 7th on the single season list.

Kelsey Robinson scored career kill #700 and career point #800. She crossed 500 kills and 1300 attacks on the year. She’s up to #6 on the single season kills list, #3 on the single season attacks list, and #16 on the single season digs list.

DOUBLE DOUBLES:

Tiffany Baker: 12 kills and 11 digs (5th in 2011 and career)

Mary Pollmiller: 64 assists and 11 digs (7th in 2011 and career)

Kelsey Robinson: 26 kills and 13 digs (21st in 2011, 24th in career)

CAREER HIGHS MATCHED OR EXCEEDED:

Tiffany Baker: attacks (in a 4 set match), digs (in a 4 set match)

Nikki Brice: assists (in a 4 set match), digs (in a 4 set match)

DeeDee Harrison: kills (in a 4 set match), attacks (in a 4 set match), points (in a 4 set match)

Shealyn Kolosky: solo blocks, total blocks (in a 4 set match), points (in a 4 set match)

Ellen Mullins: digs (in a 4 set match)

Mary Pollmiller: assists (in a 4 set match)

Kelsey Robinson: kills (in a 4 set match)

More soon…

UPDATES: The Tennessee Lady Vols are the 2011 SEC Champs after a 3-1 (28-30, 25-20, 30-28, 25-18) win over the Wildcats! To any of the team out there reading this: I know you won this first and foremost for yourselves and your teammates. But thank you so much for the hard work and effort you put in in the off season and since to win this for your fans. We are so proud of everything you’ve accomplished this year despite so much adversity. You’ve secured a deserved place in Tennessee history, and we will never forget what you did on the court this season.

I’ll be updating more over the next hour or two. I don’t see sleep in my evening anytime soon!

Kelsey Robinson had 26 kills — the 15th most in a 4 set match in school history. She also had 13 digs giving her the double double. DeeDee Harrison had 15 kills, 3 blocks, and hit .444. Leslie Cikra had 14 kills, 3 blocks and hit .370. Tiffany Baker earned a double double with 12 kills and 11 digs. Shealyn Kolosky had 8 kills, a team leading 5 blocks, and hit .421. Mary Pollmiller also notched a double double with 64 assists and 11 digs. Tonight’s performance also earned her a spot at #10 in the career assists record book — during the regular season of her freshman year! Ellen Mullins dug up 24 balls, the 25th most in a 4 set match in school history. Nikki Brice picked up 11 digs. There are lots more number to go through, but we’ll get to them in the match recap later this week.

UT STORY, STATS, VIDEO, & PHOTOS | UK STORY | KNOXNEWS.COM STORY

All right, it’s almost 2am. I’ve done just about all I can do tonight and I really should get to bed! One last note to any players reading out there: when those SEC Championship rings come in, someone send a photo for the site. I’m not really a jewelry guy myself but I bet they’re going to be the most beautiful pieces of metal we’ve ever seen!

This is it! In less than two hours the match to decide if the Lady Vols are THE conference champion kicks off. There’s still plenty of time to get to Thompson-Boling Arena by 7pm! All tickets are only $1.

The Knoxville News Sentinel has a story today about senior Kelsey Mahoney’s journey at Tennessee: her record breaking first few seasons ,”the wall”, her injury, her return to the lineup, and what she’s learned along the way.

The NCAA and SEC have updated their weekly statistical rankings of players and teams for the 2011 season. The national stats rank 322 teams and the top 250 players in each category. All stats (except hitting percentage) are “per set”, not totals. I’ve also listed Tennessee’s rank in the polls. Click the underlined links to see the full season’s national 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	15th ↓1	1st ↔
RichKern.com Poll	15th ↓1	1st ↔
Pablo Rankings	13th ↑1	2nd ↔
Volleyball Magazine Poll	15th ↓1	1st ↔
RPI	13th ↑2	2nd ↔

NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS
166th ↑12	16th ↑2	99th ↑5	182nd ↓16	9th ↑2	11th ↑3

NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	57th ↑4
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	6th ↔
BLOCKS	DeeDee Harrison	73rd ↑21
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	222nd ↓3
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leslie Cikra	90th ↑33
HITTING PERCENTAGE	DeeDee Harrison	169th ↑11
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	15th ↑1
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	10th ↑5

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS	OPP HIT%
6th ↔	1st ↔	6th ↔	6th ↓1	2nd ↔	1st ↔	2nd ↔

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	2nd ↔
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	1st ↔
BLOCKS	DeeDee Harrison	1st ↑1
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	5th ↔
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leslie Cikra	5th ↔
HITTING PERCENTAGE	DeeDee Harrison	10th ↑NR
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	1st ↔
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	1st ↔

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS	OPP HIT%
4th ↔	1st ↔	2nd ↑1	6th ↔	2nd ↑1	1st ↔	1st ↔

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	2nd ↔
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	1st ↔
BLOCKS	DeeDee Harrison	1st ↔
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	4th ↔
HITTING PERCENTAGE	DeeDee Harrison	4th ↑1
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leslie Cikra	7th ↑1
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Tiffany Baker	10th ↓1
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	1st ↔
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	1st ↔