Sorry this is late!

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	16th ↑4	1st ↑1
RichKern.com Poll	15th ↑4	1st ↑1
Pablo Rankings	17th ↑1	2nd ↔
Volleyball Magazine Poll	16th ↑4	1st ↑1
RPI	15th ↑1	2nd ↑1

NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS
170th ↑5	29th ↓2	87th ↑7	157th ↓10	23rd ↔	21st ↓4

NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	44th ↓1
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	11th ↓1
BLOCKS	DeeDee Harrison	78th ↑19
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	212th ↔
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leslie Cikra	210th ↓46
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	18th ↓3
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	10th ↓2

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS	OPP HIT%
5th ↔	1st ↔	5th ↔	6th ↓1	2nd ↔	2nd ↓1	4th ↓1

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

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS	OPP HIT%
3rd ↔	1st ↔	2nd ↑1	5th ↔	3rd ↔	1st ↑1	1st ↔

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	2nd ↔
ACES	Nikki Brice	10th ↑NR
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	1st ↑1
BLOCKS	DeeDee Harrison	1st ↔
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	3rd ↔
HITTING PERCENTAGE	DeeDee Harrison	4th ↔
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Tiffany Baker	9th ↑NR
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	1st ↔
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	1st ↑1

Tennessee defeated Louisville in a tight back and forth three set match tonight (25-23, 25-21, 25-19). More tomorrow.

UPDATE: Louisville gave the Lady Vols all they could handle in the first two sets with each team basically just trading points, before Tennessee was able to pull away in the third. UT hit .455 in the first set, .439 in the third, and .374 overall. Six Lady Vols hit over .285 — four of them hit over .355! UofL’s .272 was the third highest by an opponent all season. Tennessee was held to just 2 total team blocks, which is the least a Lady Vol team has had in a match since 2002.

Kelsey Robinson had 17 kills and a career high .452 hitting percentage. Tiffany Baker had 11 kills while hitting .308. DeeDee Harrison added in 8 kills with a .429 average. Shealyn Kolosky hit .357 with 7 kills. And Leslie Cikra contributed 6 kills and a .286 hitting percentage. Mary Pollmiller picked up 42 assists. Ellen Mullins had a match high 13 digs.

(BTW – The arena was fabulous, as expected! Though I’d have preferred either not assigning seats or not serving alcohol — I’m surprised I didn’t get drunk from the fumes coming off the guy sitting next to me!)

UT STORY, STATS, AND VIDEO | UofL STORY

Congratulations to Tiffany Baker on being named the CVU.com National Player of the Week! “For the weekend the freshman averaged 4.0 kills per set on .429 hitting, chipping in 3.29 digs per set and six total blocks.” Baker is the third Lady Vol honored by CVU.com (Yuliya Stoyanova and Sarah Blum both won the award in 2005). More info is available here (PDF).

Due to the shortened game week and the holiday yesterday I’ve been rushing out updates since late last night! Be sure to check out the weekend recap and other recently posted articles below this entry. I’l try to have the statistical rankings up before tomorrow’s match.

As some of you already know (but will still have to listen to as long as we keep playing them!) Louisville is one of my favorite teams. I lived there for several years and my son was born there. I’m really looking forward to seeing the new arena the volleyball team is playing in this year. The KFC Yum Center just opened last year for the basketball team but it has been in the planning (and debating and arguing!) stages for years. Next year it will host the Women’s Volleyball National Championship. It looks like they did an amazing job and I’m expecting to be blown away by it. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like they offer tours so they’ll just have to deal with a blogger getting there early and poking around taking pictures! For anyone else interested here is some more info.

Tennessee is 13-7 all time vs Louisville. The Lady Vols are 5-5 in their last 10 meetings. At Louisville, UT is also 5-5 in their last 10 meetings.

Since 2004, when Tennessee and Louisville began playing each other every year, the home team has won every match except one (in 2009 UT won on the road in 5 sets after being down 0-2).

In the last eight matches since 2001, neither team has swept the other. The last sweep was a 15-8, 15-0, 15-7 win by the Cardinals in 1995. (That game was also notable for being one of only eleven times in program history that UT was blanked in a set.)

Louisville is 7-1 at home this year — 5-0 in their on campus Cardinal Arena and 2-1 at the downtown KFC Yum Center.

The UofL staff should be very familiar with (and to) Tennessee. Assistant coach Dani Busboom was an assistant at UT from 2009-2010. And Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director Julie Hermann was the head coach of the Lady Vols from 1991-1996.

Tennessee and Louisville share 5 common opponents this season, with both teams sporting identical 3-2 records — also winning and losing to the same teams.

TENNESSEE AND LOUISVILLE COMMON OPPONENTS
	OPPONENT	TENNESSEE	LOUISVILLE
	Illinois	LOSS 3-1 31-29, 25-23, 23-25, 25-19	LOSS 3-2 25-20, 23-25, 25-20, 21-25, 15-9
	Kentucky	LOSS 3-2 26-24, 24-26, 25-20, 24-26, 15-13	LOSS 3-0 25-22, 26-24, 25-11
	Mississippi	WIN 3-2 25-22, 17-25, 21-25, 25-21, 15-13	WIN 3-0 28-26, 25-19, 25-18
	Ohio	WIN 3-2 23-25, 25-13, 18-25, 25-17, 15-7	WIN 3-1 23-25, 25-15, 25-22, 25-19
	Seton Hall	WIN 3-0 25-22, 25-17, 25-15	WIN 3-0 29-27, 25-18. 25-21

Tennessee and Louisville were familiar rivals in the 1980’s as well, facing each other 7 times during the decade. In fact, the teams actually co-hosted two tournaments together. In 1982, the Lady Vols and five other teams made the trip to Louisville for the Cardinal-Volunteer Invitational. The next year the Cardinals and four other teams headed to Knoxville for the Volunteer-Cardinal Invitational.

Official match notes: Louisville (PDF) | Tennessee (UPDATED)

Louisville (17–6, 8-1 Big East)
Game time is Wednesday, November 2nd at 7:00pm ET
Follow the match: Gametracker | online video (payment required)

NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
TEAMS	ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS
	170th	29th	87th	157th	23rd	21st
	42nd	79th	40th	207th	15th	71st

higher ranked team

lower ranked team

Tennessee is now 12-42-1 all time vs Florida and 33-25 all time vs South Carolina.

The Lady Vols earned their 20th win in their 23rd match of the year. That’s the third fastest the team has reached the 20 win milestone in school history. The 1973 team won their first 20 in a row, while the 2004 squad reached 20 wins in 22 matches.

Against South Carolina, UT hit .446, their 5th highest average in the rally scoring era. They also held SC to 1 total team block, the second lowest total since 2001.

Florida has lost 5 times this year, but Tennessee’s win this week was the first time a team has defeated them in less than 5 sets.

Winning the first set vs UF, the Lady Vols ended Florida’s 24 set winning streak.

UT hit .175 to Florida’s .160, marking the first time the Gator’s have been outhit all year.

Tennessee has defeated Florida twice in the same season 3 times: 1988, 2004, and 2011.

Since Mary Wise took over the Gators in 1991, Florida has not lost often — let alone twice to the same team in a single season. 8 of the 9 teams that have done it prior to this year went on to make deep runs in the tournament, with 7 of them going to the Final Four.

TEAMS THAT HAVE BEATEN FLORIDA TWICE IN ONE YEAR SINCE 1991
	Long Beach State	1991	National Champion Runner-up
	LSU	1991	Final Four
	UCLA	1992	National Champion Runner-up
	Hawaii	1996	National Champion Runner-up
	Pacific	1999	Final Four
	USC	2002	National Champion
	USC	2003	National Champion
	Tennessee	2004	Sweet Sixteen
	LSU	2009	Second Round
	Tennessee	2011	?

The match attendance Friday was 2,012, good for the second most in school history.

MILESTONES AND RECORDS:

Nikki Brice got her first career kill vs Florida.

DeeDee Harrison got her 200th career block and her 200th kill of 2011 vs South Carolina.

Ellen Mullins moved into the UT top 20 season digs list vs South Carolina.

Mary Pollmiller picked up her 1,000th assist vs Florida.

DOUBLE DOUBLES:

Tiffany Baker vs Florida, kills and digs (2nd of 2011, 2nd of career)

Tiffany Baker vs South Carolina, kills and digs (3rd of 2011, 3rd of career)

Kelsey Robinson vs South Carolina, kills and digs (17th of 2011, 21st of career)

CAREER HIGHS MATCHED OR EXCEEDED:

Tiffany Baker: kills (in a 3 set match), attacks (in a 3 set match), hitting percentage, digs (in a 3 and a 4 set match), block assists (in a 4 set match), total blocks (in a 4 set match), points (in a 3 set match)

Nikki Brice: kills, attacks, assists (in a 4 set match), aces (in a 3 set match), points (in a 3 set match)

Jasmine Brown: aces, digs (in a 4 set match), points

Leslie Cikra: hitting percentage

DeeDee Harrison: attacks (in a 4 set match), solo blocks (in a 3 set match), block assists

Shealyn Kolosky: block assists (in a 4 set match), total blocks (in a 4 set match)

Mary Pollmiller: attacks, assists (in a 3 set match), block assists, total blocks, points (in a 4 set match)

Kelsey Robinson: hitting percentage, solo blocks (in a 3 set match)

Congratulations to Tiffany Baker and Mary Pollmiller on winning two of the three SEC awards this week! Pollmiller was named the Freshman of the Week for the third time while fellow first year Lady Vol Baker was named the Offensive Player of the Week. I’ve no idea how often a freshman has won the Offensive Player of the Week award since the Freshman of the Week award started but I’d guess it is pretty rare (the only occasion I know off the top of my head was when Florida freshman Kelly Murphy won both awards in the same week in 2008).

These awards also come with a few records. Baker is the 6th different Lady Vol honored with an SEC weekly award this year. That is the most in UT history (the 2004 squad had 5 players win). And it ties for the most in SEC history (in 2007, Florida had 6 players get an award too). These are also the 8th and 9th SEC weekly awards a team member has earned this year, breaking the UT mark of 8 set in 2008.

SEC OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Tiffany Baker
Outside Hitter/Middle Blocker, Tennessee

• Averaged 4.50 points per set, recorded consecutive double-doubles while hitting .429 (28-4-56) in an undefeated week for Tennessee
• Had 13 kills, 11 digs and four blocks in a 3-1 win over Florida. The Lady Vols swept the season series versus the Gators for the first time since 1988
• Posted 15 kills, 12 digs and a .519 attack-percentage (15-1-27) in a 3-0 win over South Carolina
• Bested her season-average in nearly every category

SEC FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK: Mary Pollmiller
Setter, Tennessee

• Contributed 38 assists, nine digs and three blocks in a 3-1 win over Florida. Pollmiller also helped limit the Gator offense to a .160 hitting clip. Florida ranked first in the nation in hitting percentage
• Dished out 41 assists in a sweep of South Carolina, aided the Lady Vols to a season-high .446 attack-percentage versus the Gamecocks
• Ranks first in the SEC with nearly 12 assists per set (11.98) in league matches this season

2011 SEC WEEKLY AWARDS
	Kelsey Robinson	Offensive Player of the Week	9/6
	Mary Pollmiller	Freshman of the Week	9/12
	Carly Sahagian	Offensive Player of the Week	9/26
	DeeDee Harrison	Defensive Player of the Week	9/26
	Mary Pollmiller	Freshman of the Week	10/3
	Kelsey Robinson	Offensive Player of the Week	10/10
	Ellen Mullins	Defensive Player of the Week	10/17
	Tiffany Baker	Offensive Player of the Week	10/31
	Mary Pollmiller	Freshman of the Week	10/31

The Lady Vols have moved up the polls after two weekend wins, including the season sweep of Florida. In the AVCA Coaches Poll Tennessee moves from #20 to #16. In the RichKern.com Poll they’re up to #15 from #19. In Pablo UT moves up a spot to #17. And in the NCAA RPI the Lady Vols are up one spot to #15.

Tennessee gets a sweep of South Carolina (25-13, 25-20, 25-14). Details soon (but decorating for Halloween with the kids may push it to later tonight).

UPDATES: Stats and Roster pages are updated. I’ll have more tonight.

Tiffany Baker earned her second double double in a row with 15 kills and 12 digs, and she hit .519 for the match. (Can we get this girl a Freshman of the Week award please?!) Kelsey Robinson also had a double double with 13 kills and 10 digs. Leslie Cikra had an impressive match leading and personal best .636 hitting percentage. DeeDee Harrison had 7 kills and hit .417. She also lead the match with 4 blocks. Baker, Robinson, and Shealyn Kolosky had 2 blocks a piece. Ellen Mullins scooped up 11 digs. Mary Pollmiller had 41 assists. And Nikki Brice served up 2 aces.

Photos from the South Carolina match are now online. (Pictures from the Florida match are a little too dark — I’ll see what I can salvage and get those up soon.)

UT STORY, STATS, PHOTOS, & VIDEO | SC STORY

The Lady Vols are 32-25 all time vs South Carolina and 7-3 in their last 10 meetings. Tennessee has a 6 match winning streak going. In Knoxville, UT leads the last 10 meetings 8-2.

The Gamecocks haven’t won in Knoxville since 2002.

The South Carolina series has consisted of three long streaks by the teams. Tennessee started off with a 17-4 run from 1974 to 1993. Then SC went on a 18-1 run from 1994-2002 (that included a 14 match winning streak — the second longest losing run in UT history). Since then the Lady Vols are 14-3.

Like Tennessee, South Carolina has a young team. This year the Gamecocks are eighth in the country for most underclassmen, with 12.

Since 1991, South Carolina is 8-90 vs ranked opponents. None of those wins were over the Lady Vols.

Last time vs South Carolina: UT got win #10 of the season and just their second 3-0 SEC start in 25 years in a 3-1 match.

First 2011 meeting: notes | recap | stats

Official match notes: South Carolina | Tennessee

South Carolina (11-11, 2-10)
Game time is Sunday, October 30th at 1:30pm ET
Follow the match: Gametracker | free online video

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
TEAMS	ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS	OPP HIT%
	3rd	1st	3rd	5th	3rd	2nd	1st
	11th	8th	11th	3rd	7th	8th	11th

higher ranked team

lower ranked team

Several promotions and events you might want to keep in mind:

Wear your Halloween costume and receive free admission. There will be a costume contest. (And I assume prizes?)

Kids 12 and under receive free admission, while the first 150 also get a free hot dog and small drink.

Bring your UT vs SC football ticket stub and receive free admission.

Coach Patrick will give a “Chalk Talk” to fans starting 45 minutes before the game in the Ray Mears Room (ask an usher).

Tennessee cemented their SEC lead tonight with a 3-1 win over Florida (25-15, 17-25, 25-23, 25-21). Much, much more soon!

UPDATES: Wow! That was fun! UT got a huge win in their quest for a conference title. It wasn’t always pretty, but a win (or two!) over Florida you’ll take however you can get it! Tiffany Baker continues to impress, tonight with a double double of 13 kills and 11 digs. She hit .345 and had 4 blocks as well. Kelsey Robinson had 10 kills, 8 digs and 2 blocks. DeeDee Harrison notched 9 kills and a match leading 7 blocks. Leslie Cikra put down 6 kills and 3 blocks. And Shealyn Kolosky had 5 kills, 4 blocks, and hit .364. Mary Pollmiller had 38 of the team’s 41 assists and also picked up 9 digs and 3 blocks. Ellen Mullins had 17 digs. Nikki Brice added 9 more while Jasmine Brown contributed 6.

The Lady Vols held Florida — the #1 team in the country in hitting percentage — to just .160! With UT hitting .175, this marked the first time UF has been outhit all year.

The match attendance was 2,012, good for the second most in school history.

Two people at the match asked me about season sweeps of Florida: UT has never swept Florida in the regular season until this year (only including years where we played them more than once, of course). In 1988, Tennessee swept Florida on the year, defeating them once in the regular season and once in the SEC Tournament. And in 2004, while not getting a season sweep Tennessee did split matches with Florida in the regular season and then beat them in the SEC Tournament for a 2-1 season record.

And a random just for fun stat: Earlier this season when Tennessee beat Florida they ended UF’s 24 match conference winning streak. With tonight’s win the Lady Vols ended Florida’s 24 set conference winning streak.

UT STORY AND STATS | UF STORY | KNOXNEWS.COM STORY

Tennessee is 11-42-1 all time vs Florida and 2-8 in their last 10 meetings. In Knoxville, the Lady Vols are also 2-8 in their last 10 meetings.

Tennessee is playing just their 5th match at home in the last 62 days.

With a win UT would have their first two match winning streak vs the Gators since 2004. Tennessee has won consecutive matches vs Florida only 4 times in school history.

Since losing to Tennessee earlier this year Florida has not only gone on an 8 match winning streak, they also have not dropped a single set — winning 24 straight.

Despite their apparent domination since the last meeting, UF has shown some possible cracks in their armor. In 9 out of those 24 sets (over 7 of their 8 matches), Florida’s opponent was almost able to force another set and only lose by 2 points.

History says that the Lady Vols have the advantage over Florida when matches go long. The Gators are 2-6 all time vs Tennessee in five set matches.

With 5 wins since 2001, no one has defeated Florida more times than the Lady Vols in the past decade. USC is the next closet with 4 wins and 2 national championships in that time frame.

Florida coach Mary Wise and Tennessee coach Rob Patrick are the two longest serving coaches at a single school currently in the SEC.

LONGEST TIME COACHING AT A SINGLE SEC SCHOOL
1	Mary Wise	Florida 1991-	21 years
2	John Blair	Mississippi 1986-2001	16 years
3	Rob Patrick	Tennessee 1997-	15 years
	Judy Green	Alabama 1996-2010	15 years
5	Fran Flory	LSU 1998-	14 years
	Chris Poole	Arkansas 1994-2007	14 years

Florida’s Kristy Jaeckel and Tennessee’s Mary Pollmiller are both from Littleton CO.

Last time vs Florida: Unranked UT stuns the #6 Gators on their home court.

First 2011 meeting: notes | recap | stats

Official match notes: Florida (PDF) | Tennessee

#13 Florida (17-3, 10-1)
Game time is Friday, October 28th at 7:00pm ET
Follow the match: Gametracker | free online video

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
TEAMS	ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS	OPP HIT%
	3rd	1st	3rd	5th	3rd	2nd	1st
	1st	1st	5th	10th	1st	1st	4th

higher ranked team

lower ranked team

Several promotions and events you might want to keep in mind:

Orange Out the Gators – “Make Thompson-Boling Arena a sea of orange with a record crowd.”

All tickets are just $1.

Bring your UT vs SC Football ticket and receive free admission.

Coach Patrick will give a “Chalk Talk” to fans starting 45 minutes before the game in the Ray Mears Room (ask an usher).

The Lady Vol squad of 2011 has taken control of the SEC, winning 9 in a row and 11 out of their 12 conference matches so far.

“Our goal is to win the SEC Championship every year. That is something we talk about before the season and in our offseason we are preparing for that.”

The last time Tennessee won the championship was 2004 when they became the first team other than Florida to lay claim to an SEC title in 14 years. Since then Florida has continued their domination with 5 out of the last 6 championship trophies going to Gainesville.

“Florida obviously has a lot of advantages in what they have been able to do over an extended period of time, and most teams are always looking up.”

But this year’s title goes through Knoxville tomorrow night. That’s a scenario even the most optimistic Lady Vol fan probably wasn’t envisioning back in August.

“To be in the position that we are, specifically this year, is surprising. Again, I really thought we had a great chance to do some incredible things this year if we are healthy. We lose Kayla Jeter. We lose Kylann Scheidt at the beginning of the year and all of a sudden we are running a 5-1 offense with a freshman setter.”

Let’s not gloss over things, just because the team is now 18-3 and 11-1 in the conference. Things started out a little rough. But that early adversity may be a factor that galvanized this group of players (who probably would not have got the playing time they’re seeing now except for the injuries) into a cohesive team that stand atop the SEC.

The Lady Vols started the season with four players out with various issues. Their match vs Ohio was the first time since 2001 they’d opened the year with a 5 set match. The next day they were down 2 sets to Maryland before storming back in impressive fashion to win the next 3 — a feat they’d accomplished only 3 other times in the last 15 years.

The next week Tennessee went on the road to face #7 Illinois (who would later be ranked #1 for several weeks). In a very close 4 set match the Lady Vols lost, but a 3 point swing would have been enough for the young UT squad to scrape a sweep. After a late game forced them into having to play the last match of the tournament without much of a break in a sweltering gym, Tennessee fell in 5 sets to Houston. The team had played four 5 set matches in their first 6 games.

“Playing Illinois at Illinois… when we came out of that match and lost in four sets, it was basically all two-point games, I really felt we had something special even though it was a loss. The two matches [Ohio and Maryland] that we were able to come back and keep plugging away and grind it out and watching us play against the number one team in the country. It took everything they could to beat us as we literally had four freshmen on the court most of the match. I felt we had something special that we could do.”

Since that 4-2 start, the Lady Vols are on an amazing 14-1 run, including the huge win at #6 Florida. That win broke a streak of 24 straight SEC victories the Gators had going. It was the 3rd highest ranked team UT had ever defeated. And it was the first time an unranked team had won in Gainesville since 1995. And they did it starting 3 freshmen and 3 sophomores.

“Their number one recruiting class that they had four years ago are now all seniors. I think they start four seniors on their team. Right away we are under the eight ball. They have more experience than we do. They’ve had players that have played 100-110 matches in their career. Most of my team has played 18 or 20 matches in their career… It was a great volleyball match at their place. Florida played very well and we played very well, and it was one of those matches that it is kind of sad someone had to lose because both team played at a very high level I thought… One thing that I was really excited about was we ball controlled very well, we served very well and our players played fearlessly. That is something that is really hard for players to do against a team that wins all the time is to play fearlessly.”

Florida had lost to an SEC opponent only 16 times since 1991 prior to this season. And they’ve apparently taken the rare conference defeat earlier this year to heart. Since their loss to Tennessee the Gators have won 8 straight matches — all of them 3-0 sweeps. That’s an incredible 24 sets won in a row, all played while waiting for another shot at the Lady Vols.

“Florida is a great team. They do one of the hardest things in sports, and that is to play at a very, very high level consistently for many years. So they are a team that is very physical… It is not so much about person for person and we are just going to go up there and beat them… It is going to come down to grinding out every point, and that is what our team is really, really good at. If we can continue to just grind and not worry about what happened, we get on to the next point pretty quickly.

“We are not going to fake Florida out with something new or anything like that. They are going to come at us. They have two All-Americans on their team; Kristy Jaeckel and Kelly Murphy are just tremendous players. It’s not like we are going to stop them and have them hit zero. We’re going to have to slow them down as best we can, and we are going to have to play as clean a game as we can. We can’t give them anything. They are a very tough serving team. They are very physical. They make the court look small. That is the one thing that I have always said about Florida teams. If you look at them on tape, they have all these incredible athletes on the court, and they just make the court look small.”

Despite some unexpected bumps in the road, the 2011 Lady Vols have taken fans on an amazing ride this year. And it’s easy to forget that just a year or two ago most of these women were playing on high school courts. Again, what quality can account for this surprising outcome?

“They are fearless. They don’t care who they are playing. We played Illinois. Illinois has two All-Americans on their team. We went at them, played as hard as we could and looked up at the scoreboard after and realized we lost. We did the same thing against Florida, looked up at the scoreboard and, ‘Hey, we won’. That’s what is really neat about this team. You can’t really tell what the score is by looking at their faces. When somebody finally blows the whistle and says the match is done, they are like OK.”

Building on the foundation of the players that came before them, and playing beyond their years today, these Lady Vols are setting up a legacy that could last for some time.

“When I came here 15 years ago, I felt like a preacher running around the country trying to extol the virtues of Tennessee. Now I really don’t have to do that very much…

“The people and teams know about our program. We have been in the Final Four just a few years ago, and we are in the NCAA Tournament every year…

“We had two top 10 recruiting classes in the last two years, so people see that and want to play with great players. We can talk about the future with future recruits about how good we are right now, but also that doesn’t change because we have no starter that graduating next year. We have everyone returning, plus Kayla Jeter coming back, so we are very excited about that.”

Tennessee head coach Rob Patrick talked with Bob Kesling on Vol Calls last night. He discussed the upcoming Florida match, the season so far, how the team handles pressure and expectations, how he got into volleyball, and… the orange pants! You can listen to the archived show at UT Sports.

The Lady Vols volleyball program was one of only four teams (men’s or women’s) at Tennessee to earn a perfect 100% on the latest graduation success rate report. UT Director of Athletics Dave Hart said, “our priority on the graduation of our student-athletes is an obligation we all share within the Department of Athletics at the University of Tennessee. We will continue to strive to be student-athlete centered as a department with academic success as a constant focus”.

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	20th –0	2nd –0
RichKern.com Poll	19th –0	2nd –0
Pablo Rankings	18th –0	2nd –0
Volleyball Magazine Poll	20th –0	2nd –0
RPI	16th ↓2	3rd –0

NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS
175th ↓6	27th ↓3	94th ↑18	147th ↓9	23rd ↓2	17th ↑2

NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	43rd ↓4
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	10th –0
BLOCKS	DeeDee Harrison	97th ↑37
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	212th ↓1
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leslie Cikra	164th ↑NR
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	15th ↓5
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	8th –0

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS	OPP HIT%
5th –0	1st ↑1	5th ↑2	5th –0	2nd –0	1st ↑1	3rd –0

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	1st –0
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	2nd ↓1
BLOCKS	DeeDee Harrison	1st ↑5
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	5th –0
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leslie Cikra	9th ↓1
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	1st –0
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	1st –0

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS	OPP HIT%
3rd –0	1st –0	3rd ↑1	5th –0	3rd –0	2nd –0	1st –0

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	2nd –0
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	2nd ↓1
BLOCKS	DeeDee Harrison	1st ↑1
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	3rd –0
HITTING PERCENTAGE	DeeDee Harrison	4th ↑1
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	1st –0
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	2nd ↓1