What had to be going through Rob Patrick’s mind in the days leading up to the beginning of the 2011 season? After months of training and weeks of practice the team lost an All-American senior and the experienced half of their setting tandem the week before the first game of the year.

“We had to change our offense basically three days before the start of the season”, Patrick said at a Monday press conference.

What the coach probably wasn’t thinking back in August was that he would be heading into the second match vs Florida with his court full of underclassmen in first place in the SEC, with an 18-3 record overall and an 11-1 record in the conference.

“Surprising is a word I would use to describe this season so far, but probably one of the most competitive groups of young ladies to put on the uniform”.

So what is it about this group that has allowed them to overcome the obstacles they’ve faced?

First of all, succeeding with a team that lacks experience means preparation is all the more important. And it’s obviously payed off as Tennessee has won 14 of their last 15, 7 of which were sweeps.

“To have a young team be able to play at that level for that period of time is very encouraging for us as a coaching staff. They have been able to take the game plan and then take it out onto the court. That sometimes is one of the hardest things to do. They all know how to play volleyball. The speed of the game is different and obviously there are some technique things that we work with them on, but the game plans are a real big difference for a high school player coming into college. All of the film work that we do in getting ready with our team, and they have been able to really implement that onto the court. One of the things you will notice is if you look at our matches is that if you look at a team’s average hitting percentage as a team, we are holding them between 50 and 100 points below what they normally hit. We played Georgia this Sunday, and they are hitting like .240 and are third or fourth in the conference in hitting percentage. We held them about 100 points below of what they normally hit. That is due to the game-planning we do and our young ladies being able to carry that out.”

Secondly, all the preparation in the world would not count for much if you didn’t have the talent to back it up. Leading the team in kills, points, and aces this year, sophomore Kelsey Robinson has been more than able to fill the shoes of Nikki Fowler, the All-American and most decorated Lady Vol in school history who graduated last season. With ten 20+ kill matches already this year, she has become the go to player on the court for Tennessee and the opponent other teams have to have a plan for. She ranks in the top 10 in the nation with 4.61 kills per set and 5.36 points per set. And at the rate she’s going she will have her name all over the UT record book by he end of the year. And though just in her second season, Robinson was voted a team captain.

“Kelsey Robinson is really the story that is really interesting, and I’m very proud of her. She finished the season last year and looked at her stats. We always have our meetings at the end of the year, and she wasn’t happy with her performance. One of the things that great players like her, when they come in, they think they can prep kind of what they did in club and high school and be successful collegiately. Some people like her, until they see a little bit of failure in that, they won’t make the changes. She has been very coachable. She is a very coachable young lady, but she wanted to do it her way first. She realized that is not going to work.

“We sat down and we spoke after the season, and I said you need to get stronger, that’s number one. Number two, you really need to work on these types of hits and shots and those types of things. To her credit, she and Kayla Jeter were the hardest working players in our off-season. They went in on their own and stayed here all summer. She actually didn’t take classes second session of summer school so she could work out even more to get ready for the season. She really changed who she was as a player and even mentally became a more disciplined player, a more mature player. Instead of after taking one swing and maybe not getting a kill, the next swing she says I have to get a kill somehow and makes an error. She will take three swings in one rally, and good swings, and not worry about not getting that kill. She has taken over 1,000 swings, more than twice as many as any other player, and still hits for a pretty good hitting percentage with that many swings with a whole opponent’s defense geared to stop her. She has done an incredible job of getting ready for the season, and wouldn’t be able to play at the level she has been this year if she didn’t do what she did from January through August”.

Perhaps even more impressive than Robinson’s stellar play has been that of freshman Mary Pollmiller. The young setter had planned and practiced in the off season to run a 6-2 offense, where she would only need to be on the court for half the game and get used to setting for half the hitters, while sophomore Kylann Scheidt would handle the rest of the load. But medical problems sidelined Scheidt in the week leading up to the first match. So with only mere days to prepare, Pollmiller was tasked with taking over as the sole leader of the Tennessee offense. Since then she has almost 1,000 assists (with at least 9 matches to go) and is averaging 11.71 assists per set. Those numbers: crack the top 15 season record at UT for assists; consistently rank in the top 10 in the country this year; and might get her into the UT career assists top ten before her first year is done!

“That is a pretty special kid there. There are two things that drive our offense: one is ball control and our passing and the other one is our setter. We run a tempo offense. One of the things that help our young players is the type of offense that we run. Normally it takes a setter a while to figure out the tempo that we set. The other thing is that they come into our program and they don’t know any of the hitters. They haven’t played with them before. A middle set to DeeDee Harrison is completely different than a middle set to Shealyn Kolosky. An outside set to Kelsey Robinson is completely different than an outside set to Tiffany Baker.

“All of that type of stuff takes time, and the one thing is that Mary works harder than really anyone. She is in doing individual work five days a week on her own. I have walked past the gym, and she is tossing the ball to herself and setting the ball to the tempo that we need. She has put in the time, so when you see someone put in that type of time, then you are not surprised.

“The other thing is that she has been somebody that’s a sponge in terms of taking the coaching. Anything that we tell her, it is never an argument of ‘I did this because’. It’s always ‘OK, I got it, and we will do that next time’. She really implements what we want to do as a coaching staff very easily and very quickly. She has been able to do that because of her hard work and being open to the coaching that we have been able to give her”.

The team has had one starting upperclassman that was able to play from the beginning of the season. Redshirt junior DeeDee Harrison has been in UT’s program since 2008. A powerful middle blocker, who was second on the squad last year in blocks and hitting only behind All American Leah Hinkey, Harrison didn’t exactly start the season where she left off last year. In out of conference play, she averaged 2.03 kills per set, .76 blocks per set, and a .195 hitting percentage. But that did not last long.

“DeeDee actually started off a little bit slower than we needed her to at the beginning of the year. She has really come on very, very strong since the second weekend of the year. Since we started SEC play, she has really picked up her game to another level.”

In conference matches Harrison is now averaging 2.64 kills per set, 1.31 blocks per set, and an impressive .351 hitting percentage.

“We always expected her to be very strong offensively and she is doing a great job of that again this year, but she is leading the conference in blocks, and that was something she really needed to work on. She has been a force now not just offensively at the net but now defensively”.

The last thing that may be helping this young team surprise everyone is… their youth! When you’re going up against teams that everyone expects you to lose to, not having those expectations is an advantage.

“[They] don’t know better. They are freshmen. They don’t know the history of the Florida series or the LSU series, where we hadn’t really won at their place in a while. Just being able to go and compete without having anything else on their mind except volleyball has carried us through…

“Here are these young ladies who don’t know what it is to lose and expect to win when they walk out there. Not hoping to win, they just expect to win”.

continue to part two…

A “Happy Halloween” message was posted on the UT Volleyball Facebook page today. I’m not going to spoil it by saying anything — just click this link now!

Tennessee is now 28-13-1 all time vs Auburn and 41-24 all time vs Georgia.

The Lady Vols’ win over Georgia was the first decided in 4 sets since 2000. Between that match and this one Tennessee and UGA have played 16 three-setters and 7 five-setters.

Tennessee has been fairly balanced in terms of match scores in their wins this year with three set matches getting the edge: 8 sweeps, 5 four set matches, and 5 five set matches.

Kelsey Robinson earned her 20th career double double this weekend, which is the fifth most by a UT player in the past decade. The only players with more are All-American Yuliya Stoyanova (with 23), All-American Amy Morris (39), All-American Nikki Fowler (52), and All-American Julie Knytych (62).

Tennessee had 14 service errors vs Auburn. While they’ve had at least that many in 12 matches since 2001, 7 of them have come this season alone. In fact, the Lady Vols have had double digit service errors in 13 matches so far this year (with at least 9 games to go). No UT team since 2001 has had more than 8 double digit service error matches in a season. The flip side to those stats is that service aces are definitely up this year. UT is averaging 1.19 per set — easily their best number since the 2005 squad, who had 1.26. (And, of course, aggressive serving has benefits other than aces.)

I forgot to do the career highs and double doubles last time so this list includes the matches of the last two weeks.

DOUBLE DOUBLES:

vs Kentucky: Kelsey Robinson (kills & digs)

vs Mississippi State: Kelsey Robinson (kills & digs)

vs Auburn: Mary Pollmiller (assists & digs), Kelsey Robinson (kills & digs)

vs Georgia: Kelsey Robinson (kills & digs)

CAREER HIGHS MATCHED OR EXCEEDED

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

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

Jasmine Brown: attacks, aces, points

Leslie Cikra: assists (in a 5 set match), digs, block assists (in a 5 set match)

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

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

Ellen Mullins: assists (in a 5 set match), digs

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

Kelsey Robinson: block solos (in a 5 set match)

Stephanie Stoll: kills (in a 3 set match), attacks (in a 3 set match), block assists, total blocks, points

The Lady Vols stayed put at #20 in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll. In other systems, Tennessee held steady at #19 in the RichKern.com Poll and at #18 in the Pablo Rankings.

UPDATE: Tennessee is #16 in the latest RPI. (For those that may not know, the RPI is a rating formula the NCAA uses that ranks teams based on wins, losses and strength of schedule. The reason it is important is that it’s the only ranking system the NCAA uses when it is time to select and seed teams for the NCAA Tournament. So basically if you stay in the top 30-40 of the RPI you’re almost guarenteed to make the tournament even if you don’t win your conference. And if you’re in the top 15-20 you have a great shot at being seeded which will usually give you an easier road in the first few rounds.)

The Lady Vols won in four sets at Georgia this afternoon. The cable went out in my neighborhood at the beginning of the fourth set so it may be awhile before I can see what happened and update. (I was only able to see the final and post this thanks to Twitter and my iPad!) More hopefully very soon.

UPDATE: Back online! Kelsey Robinson picked up the double double (and almost got her third 20/20 match) with 19 kills and 18 digs. DeeDee Harrison had 12 kills and 6 blocks while hitting an impressive .429. Tiffany Baker continued her breakout weekend with 9 kills and 4 blocks. Leslie Cikra knocked down 10 kills and scooped up a career high 5 digs. Shealyn Kolosky had 5 kills and 3 blocks. Ellen Mullins got 14 digs. Nikki Brice had her biggest match of the year, just missing a career high in digs with 10, and serving up 4 aces — the second most of any Lady Vol in a match since 2008. Mary Pollmiller has picked up 50 or more assists in over half the matches this year, getting 53 vs the Bulldogs. She also matched her career high with 3 blocks.

UT STORY, STATS, AND VIDEO | UGA STORY

Tennessee got past a determined Auburn squad (and a bunch of service errors) to win the match in four (19-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-18). Tiffany Baker had a breakout night with almost 20 kills, while I believe Kelsey Robinson and Mary Pollmiller picked up double doubles. More when the official numbers come out later tonight.

UPDATES: Baker shattered her career high in kills with 19 (her previous was 14 in a five set match). She also bested her personal high with a .447 hitting percentage. Baker had 4 blocks as well. Robinson picked up another double double with 10 kills and 10 digs. DeeDee Harrison has 12 kills and 6 blocks, with a career high matching 3 of them solo. Mary Pollmiller earned a double double with 47 assists and 10 digs; she also contributed a career high matching 3 blocks. Ellen Mullins had a match best 16 digs.

UT STORY, STATS, AND VIDEO | AU STORY

Kayla Jeter is featured in the latest issue of COBRA Magazine. She talks about how she was injured, the difficulties of getting to classes, and the process of getting back on the court eventually.

Here’s a heads up to let you know now that we’re basically starting the SEC season over again, some of the match notes will also be repeats from earlier in the year. I’ll update when needed and definitely be adding new information as well.

Tennessee is 27-13-1 all time vs Auburn and 8-2 in their last 10 meetings (and 18-2 in their last 20). The Lady Vols are 7-3 in their last 10 matches at Auburn. UT has won the last 3 matches vs the Tigers.

The Lady Vols are 40-24 all time vs Georgia and 8-2 in their last 10 meetings. 7 of those 8 wins were sweeps. Tennessee is 6-4 in their last 10 matches at Georgia. UT looks to continue a 2 match winning streak.

The Lady Vols have dominated the recent series’ with both their opponents this week. Tennessee’s set records since 2001 are 51-15 vs Auburn and 59-21 vs Georgia.

Since 2009, Tennessee has only lost to an unranked SEC team 3 times: LSU in September 2009, Auburn in November 2009, and Georgia in September 2010. All 3 matches were on the road.

Over half the matches played between Auburn and Tennessee since 1994 have been sweeps by one team or the other.

It’s been 11 years since a Tennessee/Georgia match was decided in 4 sets.

Tennessee’s last 3 losses to Georgia were all five set matches.

After this weekend, the Lady Vols will be home for 6 of their final 9 matches of the year. They’ll have had 14 road matches and only 4 home games in a two month span. And they’ll have traveled over 5,000 miles (“as the crow flies”).

Last time vs Auburn: Mary Pollmiller scored every Lady Vol assist in the match (box score)

Last time vs Georgia: Rob Patrick earned career victory #300 (box score)

First 2011 meetings: notes | recap

Official match notes: Auburn | Georgia | Tennessee (UPDATED)

Auburn (9-11, 3-7)
Game time is Friday, October 21st at 8:00pm ET (FIXED)
Follow the match: Gametracker | online video (payment required)

Georgia (9-11, 5-5)
Game time is Sunday, October 23rd at 1:30pm ET
Follow the match: Gametracker | online video (free)

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
TEAMS	ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS	OPP HIT%
	3rd	1st	3rd	5th	3rd	2nd	1st
	8th	6th	7th	3rd	6th	6th	6th
	5th	5th	1st	7th	4th	4th	9th

higher ranked team

lower ranked team

Vballworld is running a series of articles ranking the freshman around the country by position. This week Mary Pollmiller was listed at #1 in the nation on the freshman setters list. As of last week she had 11.76 assists per set.

A little later than I planned, but some photos from the Kentucky match are now online.

Three Lady Vols are profiled today on two different websites:

The official site has a story about UT assistant coach Rachel Cooper, a former volleyball player at fellow SEC school Mississippi State, who says she’s ready for the challenges and opportunities that come with coaching at a program like Tennessee.

Volleyball Voices interviews Carly Sahagian and DeeDee Harrison at inspiring-female-volleyball-players.com.

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 ↓2	2nd –0
RichKern.com Poll	19th ↓2	2nd –0
Pablo Rankings	18th –0	2nd –0
Volleyball Magazine Poll	20th ↓2	2nd –0
RPI	14th ↓4 (from RKPI)	3rd ↓1 (from RKPI)

NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS
169th ↓57	24th ↓2	112th ↑3	138th ↓2	21st ↓9	19th ↓4

NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	39th ↓20
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	10th ↓2
BLOCKS	DeeDee Harrison	134th ↓12
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	211th ↑28
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Carly Sahagian	214th ↓41
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Shealyn Kolosky	236th ↓77
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	10th ↑1
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	8th ↓2

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS	OPP HIT%
5th –0	2nd –0	7th ↑1	5th –0	2nd –0	2nd –0	3rd ↑2

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	1st –0
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	1st –0
BLOCKS	DeeDee Harrison	6th ↓1
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	5th ↑2
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leslie Cikra	8th ↓2
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Carly Sahagian	14th ↓1
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Shealyn Kolosky	16th ↓5
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	4th –0	5th ↑1	3rd –0	2nd ↓1	1st ↑1

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	2nd ↓1
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	1st –0
BLOCKS	DeeDee Harrison	2nd ↓1
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	3rd ↑2
HITTING PERCENTAGE	DeeDee Harrison	5th –0
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	1st –0
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	1st –0

Most of the SEC is now at the half-way point in their 10-team 20-match round robin schedule. (Florida and South Carolina will get there Wednesday while Arkansas and LSU are starting the second half of SEC play this week but won’t face each other until next week.) While mathematically the race for the conference championship is still anyone’s to win, in reality it is probably down to just a few teams.

Tennessee (9-1)

The Lady Vols have been on top of the SEC for the entire season. Despite a rough road schedule, Tennessee came out of the first half of SEC play with just a single (5-set) loss to Kentucky. UT still controls their destiny — win out and win the conference. And with Florida, Kentucky, LSU, and Mississippi State all coming to Knoxville for the second half of the season, that is not as tall an order as it might usually be. With competition so tough and the top teams beating each other up, another loss might not knock them out of the race completely. But why risk it!

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

Florida (8-1)

The Gators are not used to looking up to someone else in the standings and that is probably enough incentive for this experienced squad to fight that much harder. Since losing to Tennessee, Florida has swept every match they’ve played. They too control their destiny, but will have to travel to Tennessee, Kentucky, and LSU and win on the road if they want a shot at conference title #20.

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

Kentucky (8-2)

The Wildcats were just two points away from an SEC Championship in 2008 and 2009 only to have the Lady Vols dash their hopes. So there was probably a little extra joy in their two point win over Tennessee this year, ending UT’s perfect conference record. But two days later a sweep by Mississippi State showed the importance of keeping up the intensity in every match. While Kentucky technically still controls their conference fate, with two losses they hardly have any margin for error. Florida, LSU, and Mississippi State come to Lexington, but UK ends the season in what will probably be a huge matchup in Knoxville.

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS	OPP HIT%
2nd	3rd	2nd	8th	2nd	3rd	2nd

LSU (6-3)

The Tigers are still holding on in the SEC race, but just barely. They’ve only swept one team in their six wins, and have been swept themselves twice in their three losses. Even if they win out they would still require help to even get a share of the championship. And they’ll be on the road for six of their last nine matches. Possible, but not the circumstances you want to find yourself in.

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS	OPP HIT%
7th	4th	9th	1st	7th	4th	3rd

So what are Tennessee’s chances? Not too shabby! Having all the toughest teams coming to Thompson Boling Arena is huge. But that isn’t enough. Factors working against the team that will need to be taken care of:

UT has only beaten Florida twice in the same season one previous time. This time the Gators will be gunning hard for a win after getting beat on their home court earlier in the season.

Tennessee will also need to keep up their intensity and the pressure on all their opponents — the past two years they’ve dropped a conference match to a team they probably shouldn’t have. And unlike previous seasons, the Lady Vols are in first place and therefore will be the target everyone is aiming at.

While you’d never have guessed it by watching them play this year, Tennessee is a very young team. Lack of experience down the stretch and fatigue due to not being in the conditioning system very long are factors out of their control that could cause problems.

But let’s not focus on those issues. The good news is we’re usually better in the second half of the season than in the first. In every year but one since 2006 when the SEC switched to the double round robin schedule, Tennessee has equaled or exceeded their first half record in the second half. As for the youth, that has advantages too. For example, these players don’t seem easily intimidated. A group of seniors playing Florida might think, “We’re 1-6 vs this team”, but the younger players can say “we’re undefeated”. So without getting too far ahead of things, on the whole I’d have to say I’m optimistic about the chances of bringing an SEC Championship back to Knoxville!

The first RPI of the season has been released and the Lady Vols are sitting in a good position at #14. Fellow SEC schools Florida and Kentucky are just ahead of them at #11 and #13 respectively. Joining the conference in 2012, Texas A&M is at #22.

Congratulations to Ellen Mullins on being named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week! This is Mullins’ first conference award. A Lady Vol has picked up an SEC weekly award 6 of the last 7 weeks, and 5 different players have been honored. More from the press release is below.

After going 1-1 on the week, Tennessee dropped 2 spots in the AVCA Coaches Poll to #20. In other systems, the Lady Vols fell 2 spots to 17th in the RichKern.com Poll, stayed put at #18 in the Pablo Rankings, and moved down 4 spots to #14 in the RKPI.

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SEC DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Ellen Mullins

Averaged 5.75 digs per set in two matches last week, including a career-high 31 versus Kentucky

Her 31 digs at Kentucky marked the highest output by an SEC player during conference play this season

Posted 15 digs in a three-set sweep over Mississippi State, bringing her weekend dig total to 46

Bested her season-average in digs by nearly two per set (5.75-3.84)