Today’s Knoxville News Sentinel has a piece on Tennessee recruit Megan Hatcher, discussing her reasons for choosing UT and what kind of player she is.

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	23rd ↑3	2nd –0
RichKern.com Poll	18th ↑5	2nd –0
Pablo Rankings	14th ↑9	2nd –0
Volleyball Magazine Poll	20th ↑6	2nd ↑1
RKPI	9th ↑10	1st ↑2

NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS
131st ↑22	35th ↑5	134th ↑17	122nd ↓30	19th ↑2	23rd ↑10

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS	OPP HIT%
4th ↑1	3rd –0	8th ↑1	5th ↓1	2nd –0	2nd ↑1	4th ↑1

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS	OPP HIT%
1st ↑2	1st ↑1	4th ↑2	5th –0	3rd ↓1	2nd –0	3rd ↓2

NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	24th ↑12
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	10th ↑16
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	237th –0
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Carly Sahagian	87th ↑42
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Shealyn Kolosky	103rd ↓56
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	6th ↑2
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	4th ↑1

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	3rd –0
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	2nd –0
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	9th –0
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Carly Sahagian	7th ↑3
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Shealyn Kolosky	9th ↓6
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	1st –0
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	1st –0

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	1st ↑3
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	2nd ↓1
BLOCKS	DeeDee Harrison	3rd ↑5
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	5th ↑2
DIGS	Kelsey Robinson	10th –0
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Carly Sahagian	8th ↓2
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	2nd ↓1
KILLS	Carly Sahagian	8th ↑NR
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	1st –0
POINTS	Carly Sahagian	6th ↑NR

Congratulations to two Lady Vols on picking up weekly SEC awards! Carly Sahagian won the SEC Offensive Player of the Week award while DeeDee Harrison was named SEC Defensive Player of the Week. Both were honored for the first time in their careers. It’s also the first second time two Lady Vols have won SEC awards in the same week. Mary Pollmiller was named a Top Performer. From the release:

SEC OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Carly Sahagian

• Turned in a career-high 19 kills in a win over No. 6 Florida, hit .429 (19-4-35) against the Gators
• Totaled 31 kills, 26 digs, three blocks and two services aces in a 2-0 week
• Registered double-doubles (12 kills, 13 digs vs. South Carolina; 19 kills, 13 digs vs. Florida) in a pair of road victories
• Aided the Lady Vols to a 4-0 start in league play

SEC DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: DeeDee Harrison

• Blocked 12 shots in a 2-0 week for the Lady Vols
• Set career-highs in blocks assists and total blocks against South Carolina with seven and eight, respectively
• Averaged 1.33 blocks per set last week
• Bested her season average in blocks per set and digs per set

UPDATED: UT has more and the correction!

After defeating the #6 team in the land Tennessee finally moves into the AVCA Coaches Poll… barely! Moving just three spots from an unofficial #26 to an official #23, the Lady Vols are back in the poll for the first time since the preseason when they were dropped out after going 3-0 to start the year.

Also of note, one of Tennessee’s two losses this year is to the new #1 team in the nation, Illinois.

UPDATE: In other systems… Tennessee is #18 in the RichKern.com Poll, and #14 in the Pablo Rankings. In the RKPI (which attempts to emulate as closely as possible what the actual RPI rankings would be if released this early) Tennessee is the top SEC school at #9.

With no disrespect meant towards South Carolina, these notes will mostly focus on the Florida match!

STREAKS & RECORDS

• The Lady Vols are now 32-25 all time vs South Carolina and 11-42-1 vs Florida.

• Tennessee broke Florida’s streak of 24 straight SEC wins, which dated back to their last conference loss in 2009 — which was also vs Tennessee.

• The Lady Vols have won 7 in a row, their longest winning streak since 2008 when they won 9 in a row. We’re currently in the 6th longest winning streak under Coach Rob Patrick.

• Tennessee got their 10th win of the year in their 12th match. That’s the 5th quickest to 10 wins in school history, and the 2nd best under Patrick. (The 2004 SEC Championship squad reached 10 wins in 11 matches.)

• Tennessee games have aired 7 times on an ESPN network over the years and the Lady Vols are 5-2 in those matches. The team has won 11 of their last 13 televised matches.

WINNING AT FLORIDA

• It’s been 7 years since the Lady Vols defeated Florida on their home court.

• Florida’s loss was just their 21st at home since Head Coach Mary Wise took over the team in 1991, and just the 52nd loss at home in program history. (For comparison, Tennessee has 81 home losses since 1991.)

• Tennessee is just the second unranked team to defeat Florida in Gainesville since 1991, and the first in 17 years.

• With 3 victories in Gainesville, no other team has more wins over the Gators at home under Coach Wise than the Lady Vols.

RANKED TEAMS

• At #6, Florida is the 3rd highest ranked team Tennessee has defeated in program history. (#2 Penn State and #4 Florida in 2005 were the others.) They are the highest ranked team UT has ever beaten while they themselves were unranked.

• Tennessee is 9-23 vs the Top 10 and 21-38 vs the Top 25 in the past decade. All time the Lady Vols are 29-124 vs the Top 25.

• The Lady Vols have now defeated multiple Top 25 opponents in the same season 5 of the last 8 years.

FIVE SET MATCHES

• 6 of Tennessee’s 11 wins over the Gators have come in five set matches.

• Florida is 2-6 all time vs Tennessee in five set matches.

• The Lady Vols have gone to five sets 5 times in 13 matches this year so far, matching their total for the entire season in 2010. They’re 4-1 in those games this year.

DOUBLE DOUBLES

• vs South Carolina: Kelsey Robinson and Carly Sahagian (kills and digs)

• vs Florida: Kelsey Robinson and Carly Sahagian (kills and digs)

• Kelsey Robinson has the 9th most double doubles at Tennessee in the rally scoring era with 13. Other current Lady Vols on that list include:
    – 7. Kelsey Mahoney (16)
    – 14. Carly Sahagian (5)
    – 18. Mary Pollmiller (3)
    – 21. Kayla Jeter (2)
    – 24. Kylann Scheidt (1)
    – 24. Tiffany Baker (1)

CAREER HIGHS MATCHED OR EXCEEDED

• Tiffany Baker: block assists (in a 4 set match)

• Nikki Brice: attacks

• Leslie Cikra: assists (in a 4 set match), solo blocks, block assists, total blocks

• DeeDee Harrison: digs, block assists, total blocks, points (in a 4 set match)

• Shealyn Kolosky: kills (in a 4 set match), hitting percentage (with 20+ attacks), aces, digs, solo blocks, block assists (in a 4 set match), total blocks (in a 4 set match), points (in a 4 set match)

• Ellen Mullins: attacks (in a 5 set match), aces (in a 5 set match), digs (in a 4 set match), points (in a 5 set match)

• Mary Pollmiller: attacks (in a 4 set match), assists, aces

• Kelsey Robinson: assists (in a 4 set match)

• Carly Sahagian: kills, attacks, aces (in a 4 set match), points

• Stephanie Stoll: block assists (in a 4 set match), total blocks (in a 4 set match), points (in a 4 set match)

The Lady Vols earned a hard fought victory over #6 Florida in Gainesville on national TV! Unfortunately I’ve missed almost the whole thing because I’m at a child’s birthday party — I saw the last half of the fifth set while presents were being opened! I’ll definitely have a lot more tonight when I get home and actually get to see the match.

UPDATES: I’ll have more about Texas A&M officially joining the SEC tomorrow. Tonight’s all about Florida!

I’m so tempted to reel off stats and records details tonight but I’ll try to save it for the recap!

Carly Sahagian led both teams with a career high 19 kills. She notched a double double with 13 digs. Kelsey Robinson also got the double double with 17 kills and a team leading 15 digs. Leslie Cikra had 17 kills and DeeDee Harrison had 12. Harrison’s 4 blocks led the squad in that stat. Mary Pollmiller tied her career high with a match leading 59 assists. And Ellen Mullins picked up 14 digs. Also of interest, Kylann Schedit saw her first (brief) action of the season. As a team Tennessee had a season high 71 kills. And for the first time this year, the Lady Vols won a match despite being out hit — .239 to .295.

UT STORY, STATS, AND VIDEO | UF STORY

Coach Wise: “So now we’re all chasing Tennessee.”

Coach Patrick: “We better be prepared for every single match from here on out, because we are going to get everyone’s best shot.”

Tennessee got the win vs South Carolina 3-1 (28-30, 25-12, 25-15, 28-26), earning their 10th win of the year and giving them an SEC record of 3-0 for just the second time in 25 years. Much more later…

In front of the largest crowd at South Carolina in nine years, Kelsey Robinson got her 8th double double this season and the 8th 20+ kill total of the year, with 22 kills and 12 digs. She also had 3 aces. Carly Sahagian also notched a double double with 12 kills and 13 digs. DeeDee Harrison, Robinson, and Sahagian all hit over .300, while Shealyn Kolosky and Tiffany Baker hit .250. Harrison also led the team with a career high 8 blocks. Leslie Cikra added a career high matching 5 more. Mary Pollmiller had 53 assists. Ellen Mullins had 18 digs. The team had a season high 14 blocks. And they are on a 6 match winning streak going into Florida.

UT STORY AND STATS | SC STORY AND VIDEO

Tennessee has posted the 2011 media guide online for those interested. The staff has done an outstanding job on this one — a beautiful layout, great photos, and a trove of useful data. So if you’re into the minutiae of Tennessee volleyball stats and history (and if you’re on this site I assume you are!) then be sure to check it out.

Just for fun I thought it might be cool to look back at the cover of the media guide from 10 years ago…

• The Lady Vols are 31-25 all time vs South Carolina and 7-3 in their last 10 meetings. Tennessee has a 5 match winning streak going. In Columbia, the teams are even at 5-5 in their last 10 meetings.

• Tennessee is 10-42-1 all time vs Florida and 1-9 in their last 10 meetings. In Gainesville, the Lady Vols are 2-8 in their last 10 meetings.

• This weekend’s opponents feature a conference dean and rookie: Florida’s Mary Wise is the longest serving coach in the SEC, having coached the Gators since 1991. South Carolina’s Scott Swanson is one of four new coaches in the league this year.

• Tennessee’s two longest losing steaks to a single team in program history are a 28 match skid vs Florida (from 1991 to 2004) and two 14 match streaks, one of which was vs South Carolina (from 1994 to 2000).

• The Lady Vols have only gone 3-0 vs their first three SEC opponents once in the past 25 years (2004).

• Last year South Carolina had the most freshmen on a roster in the nation. So obviously they are still a fairly young team. This year the Gamecocks are eighth in the country for most underclassmen, with 12.

• Tennessee has defeated the Gators 10 times over the years, and 6 of those wins were in the state of Florida: 4 times in Gainesville (1984, 1989, 2004 twice), and once in both Tallahassee (1978) and Pensacola (1988).

• Florida has been dominant since coach Mary Wise took over the program in 1991. She’s only lost to an SEC team 16 times in her Florida career.

• Tennessee has 4 wins over Florida under Coach Wise. In the SEC only LSU can match that with 5 (though 3 of those came in Wise’s very first season). Only 6 other teams in the nation have as many wins against Mary Wise’s Gators as the Lady Vols:
    – 3-time National Champion Long Beach State (6 wins vs Wise)
    – 3-time National Champion Nebraska (5)
    – 3-time National Champion USC (5)
    – 2-time National Champion Pacific (4)
    – 5-time National Champion Penn State
    – 1-time National Champion Texas (4)

• The Lady Vols are 10-2 in their last 12 appearances on TV dating back to 2008. Both losses were to Florida. Since 2001, the team is 18-17 when televised.

• Random note of the week: Tennessee has been playing volleyball longer than any other SEC school. The Lady Vols report 1958 as being their first season. The next closest school is South Carolina (1967). They’re followed by: LSU (1974), Mississippi State (1975), Mississippi (1976), Kentucky (1977), Georgia (1978), Florida (1984), Auburn (1986), and Arkansas (1994). (Alabama started volleyball in 1974 but discontinued it after 1981; they reinstated it in 1989. Florida volleyball restarted in 1984 after being cut in 1978.)

South Carolina (9-2, 0-1)
UT leads all time series 31-25.
UT won the last meeting 3-0 (25-16, 25-15, 25-14).
Game time is Friday, September 23rd at 7:00pm ET
Follow the match: Gametracker | online video (free, I think!)

#6 Florida (8-2, 1-0)
UT leads all time series 10-42-1.
UF won the last meeting 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-20).
Game time is Sunday, September 25th at 5:00pm ET
Follow the match: Gametracker | radio stream | TV: ESPNU

Official match notes: South Carolina | Florida (PDF) | Tennessee

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
TEAMS	ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT%	OPP HIT%
	5th	3rd	9th	4th	3rd	2nd	5th
	9th	1st	10th	1st	1st	3rd	4th
	2nd	6th	3rd	7th	6th	1st	1st

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
TEAMS	ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT%	OPP HIT%
	3rd	2nd	6th	5th	2nd	2nd	1st
	7th	5th	11th	4th	5th	9th	8th
	4th	1st	2nd	1st	1st	1st	6th

UPDATED

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.

POLLS	NATIONAL	SEC
AVCA Poll	26th –	2nd –
RichKern.com Poll	23rd –	2nd –
Pablo Rankings	23rd ↑4	2nd ↑1
Volleyball Magazine Poll	26th ↑NR	3rd ↑NR

NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS
153rd ↑11	40th ↑15	151st ↓3	92nd ↓15	21st ↑7	33rd ↑11

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS	OPP HIT%
5th ↑1	3rd ↑1	9th –	4th ↑1	2nd ↑1	3rd –	5th ↑1

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

NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	36th ↑21
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	26th ↑10
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	237th ↓1
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Shealyn Kolosky	47th ↑84
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Carly Sahagian	129th ↑49
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	8th ↑1
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	5th –

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	3rd ↑1
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	2nd ↑1
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	9th ↑1
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Shealyn Kolosky	3rd ↑5
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Carly Sahagian	10th ↑1
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	1st –
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	1st –

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	Carly Sahagian	1st
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	4th
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	1st
BLOCKS	Leslie Cikra	8th
BLOCKS	DeeDee Harrison	8th
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	7th
DIGS	Kelsey Robinson	10th
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Shealyn Kolosky	4th
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Carly Sahagian	6th
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	1st
KILLS	Leslie Cikra	8th
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	1st

Our prayers, best wishes, good thoughts… whatever you’ve got, go out to Anna Martin as she prepares for her bone marrow transplant this week. Anna played in the same volleyball league as my daughter and I can’t begin to imagine what the family has been through. But we look forward to seeing her back next season!

• The Lady Vols are now 40-24 all time vs Georgia and 27-13-1 vs Auburn.

• Tennessee is off to a 2-0 start in the SEC, and believe it or not that is a fairly rare occurrence! Before this season, UT has started off 2-0 in SEC matches only 7 times in the last 25 years. And in all but one of those years the team lost their third conference match.

• Mary Pollmiller scored all 38 assists on the Tennessee side of the court vs Auburn. Thats the first time a player has done that since at least 2001.

• Pollmiller assisted on 90.5% of the team’s 42 kills vs Auburn. In the past decade, a setter has had a 90.0% or better rate only 15 times — and the freshman already has 3 of those matches under her belt.

• Tennessee has hit over .300 for the last 4 matches in a row, a feat they’ve matched twice since 2001 but not surpassed.

• Kelsey Robinson had 6.67 kills per set vs Georgia — the 7th most by any Lady Vol since 2001.

• While she obviously doesn’t qualify yet as she’s just eleven matches into her career, Shealyn Kolosky would rank #1 in the school record book for career hitting percentage as of right now. Carly Sahagian would rank in the top ten, while DeeDee Harrison is on the list at #10.

• Rob Patrick earned his 300th win at Tennessee this weekend. For those who like to have something to count down to, the coach is just 17 wins away from becoming the 3rd winningest SEC coach in conference history. He currently ranks 6th.

SEC CAREER COACHING RECORDS*
1	Mary Wise	Florida 1991-	640-71
2	Fran Flory	Kentucky 1993-1997 LSU 1998- Total 1993-	78-80 257-148 335-228
3	Sid Feldman	Georgia 1978-1988	318-135
4	Chris Poole	Arkansas 1994-2007	316-161
5	Scott Luster	LSU 1985-1997	308-161
6	Rob Patrick	Tennessee 1997-	301-152
7	Stephanie Schleuder	Alabama 1974-1981	285-108
8	Judy Green	Alabama 1996-2010	237-234
9	Bob Bertucci	Tennessee 1979-1986	229-115
10	Kim Hudson	South Carolina 1993-2004	226-133
* these are career wins while at an SEC school, not just conference wins

Double doubles:

• Kelsey Robinson vs Auburn (kills and digs)

Career highs matched or exceeded (excluding freshmen):

• Leslie Cikra: kills (in a 3 set match), attacks (in a 3 set match), block assists, points (in a 3 set match)

• DeeDee Harrison: block assists (in a 3 set match), total blocks (in a 3 set match)

• Kelsey Robinson: kills (in a 3 set match), assists (in a 3 set match), aces (in a 3 set match), points (in a 3 set match)

• Carly Sahagian: aces (in a 3 set match)

The SEC website has a blog post up discussing the importance of Rob Patrick’s 300th career victory and how he’s helped change the perception of the conference.

This season the SEC is naming some “Other “Top Performances” along with their players of the week awards — sort of a runners-up type thing it seems like to me. I like it because sometimes it seems the awards are a little too subjective and now we see they actually did notice the other great outings. Congratulations to Kelsey Robinson and Shealyn Kolosky who were recognized for their performances this week even though neither got the top honor this time.

My camera has a nice zoom lens on it. But unfortunately in order to get good pictures while using it I need sufficient light and not a lot of motion — and both are in short supply during volleyball matches at Thompson-Boling Arena! So I usually keep the zoom to a more useable level. (Most photos on this site that look really close up were probably just cropped that way with the downside being softer looking shots.) This past weekend I decided to push my luck and see what I could get at higher zoom levels. That turned out to be nothing but blurry masses of color for the most part! The pictures that did turn out good, not surprisingly, are the ones right before a player served when they’re standing pretty still. I’ve gone ahead and posted those here. I’ve got some other non-zoomed-in pictures from the matches too that I’ll try to get to sometime this week — sorry friends, families, and fans of players who don’t serve!