Tennessee got the sweep vs Auburn (25-15, 25-16, 25-20) to start SEC play 2-0. More details soon.

DeeDee Harrison and Kelsey Robinson led the team in kills with 10 each. The impressive run of hitting percentages continued with Shealyn Kolosky leading the way at .583, followed by DeeDee Harrison with .533, and Carly Sahagian at .471. The team as a whole hit .313. Robinson and Ellen Mullins had 11 digs each, earning Robinson her 7th double double in 11 matches. Kolosky led both teams with 4 blocks. And Mary Pollmiller made every assist on the Tennessee side of the court — no other players on the team had an assist.

A weekend recap and some photos will be up by tomorrow.

UT STORY, STATS, & VIDEO | AU STORY

UPDATED

Tennessee gets their first SEC win of the year and Rob Patrick’s 300th career win vs Georgia tonight in a sweep (25-19, 25-20, 25-21).

Kelsey Robinson had 20 kills and 9 digs while hitting .389. Leslie Cikra had 12 kills and hit .348. Shealyn Kolosky had another big hitting night with 7 kills and no errors for a .500. Other stat leaders include DeeDee Harrison with 5 blocks, Mary Pollmiller with 41 assists, and Ellen Mullins with 11 digs. More later…

UT had their highest kills per set average of the season (and have only had two higher since 2009). The last three matches in a row have had the top three team hitting percentages of the year.

UT STORY, STATS, & VIDEO | UGA STORY

UPDATED

Head coach Rob Patrick was interviewed on the “Doc, Jeff, and Heather in the Morning” show on local Knoxville radio station WNML earlier today. He discussed win #300 (and what it really means), the impact underclassmen leading the team this year, and the SEC schedule. The broadcast should be archived on the station’s website later today (I believe in the 7:45-8:00am block). Listen soon though as those links are usually overwritten after the next day’s show airs.

Promotions and events for this weekend’s matches include:

• UT has a triple play promotion going on where you can get a t-shirt, hot dog, and admission to the Georgia match for just $5. Pre-ordering is required, so call 656-1200 for info.

• It’s Second Harvest Food Bank weekend: donate two non-perishable food items and receive free admission to either match on Friday or Sunday — or both technically I guess!

• Kids 12 and under get a free hot dog and small drink at every Sunday home match this season.

• Also at every Sunday home match this year (weather permitting) the team will host a kids carnival with games, inflatables and more.

• Coach Patrick will give a “Chalk Talk” to any interested fans 45 minutes before home matches this year in the Ray Mears room of Thompson Boling Arena (ask an usher for directions).

• The Lady Vols are 39-24 all time vs Georgia and 8-2 in their last 10 meetings. 7 of those 8 wins were sweeps. Tennessee is 9-1 in their last 10 matches with Georgia at home.

• Tennessee is 26-13-1 all time vs Auburn and 8-2 in their last 10 meetings (and 18-2 in their last 20). The Lady Vols are 9-1 in their last 10 matches with Auburn at home.

• Head coach Rob Patrick is just one away from career win #300.

• There are four new head coaches in the SEC ranks this year and two of them will be in Knoxville this weekend to take on the Lady Vols for the first time.

• Tennessee returns to Thompson Boling Arena after a 6 match 20 day absence, their longest away stretch of the season. After this weekend they won’t return to Knoxville for 19 days.

• The Lady Vols have dominated the recent series’ with both their opponents this week. Tennessee’s set record vs Georgia since 2001 is 56-21 and 48-15 vs Auburn.

• Auburn has only won once in Knoxville since 1997. Georgia has only done so once since 1998.

• Tennessee is 19-18-1 in their first match of the year vs SEC opponents. The squad is 2-0 when that team is Georgia (1976 & 1999).

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

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

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

• Georgia head coach Lizzy Stempke attended the same high school as Tennessee legend Peyton Manning. Her brother played baseball for Tennessee in the early 2000’s.

• Players to watch: Like Tennessee, lots of underclassmen are shouldering the loads for their teams this weekend. For Georgia, sophomores Brittany Northcutt and Kathleen Luft and freshmen Tirah Le’au are doing the bulk of the offensive work, all with over 3 kills per set. Auburn’s offense is more spread out but sophomore Camila Jersonsky is second in the conference with a .409 hitting percentage and sophomore Chloe Rowand is 5th in blocks.

• Random note of the week: Call in some babysitters! Three SEC coaches have added new members to their family since last December — Georgia’s Lizzy Stempke, Mississippi State’s Jenny Hazelwood, and Tennessee’s Rob Patrick.

Georgia (4-6, 0-0)
UT leads all time series 39-24.
UT won the last meeting 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-13).
Game time is Friday, September 16th at 7:00pm ET
Follow the match: Gametracker | online video (free)

Auburn (6-4, 0-0)
UT leads all time series 26-13-1.
UT won the last meeting 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-16).
Game time is Sunday, September 18th at 1:30pm ET
Follow the match: Gametracker | online video (free)

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

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
TEAMS	ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT%	OPP HIT%
	6th	4th	9th	5th	3rd	3rd	6th
	5th	7th	7th	11th	6th	9th	11th
	11th	10th	8th	9th	11th	10th	10th

Just in time for the first 2011 rankings (see the previous post), I’ve added a new section to the stats pages. Now you can view the week-by-week national statistical rankings for the team and individual players since 2001! Team rankings are available here while individual rankings are available on each player’s stat page (for example).

The NCAA has started and the SEC has 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. I’ll be updating this usually every Wednesday during the season. (UPDATE: Forgot the link)

POLLS	NATIONAL	SEC
AVCA Poll	26th	2nd
RichKern.com Poll	23rd	2nd
Pablo Rankings	27th	3rd
Volleyball Magazine Poll	NR	NR

NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS
164th	55th	148th	77th	28th	44th

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	HIT%	KILLS
6th	4th	9th	5th	3rd	3rd

NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	57th
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	26th
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	237th
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Shealyn Kolosky	131st
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Carly Sahagian	178th
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	9th
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	5th

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	4th
ASSISTS	Mary Pollmiller	3rd
DIGS	Ellen Mullins	10th
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Shealyn Kolosky	8th
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Carly Sahagian	11th
KILLS	Kelsey Robinson	1st
POINTS	Kelsey Robinson	1st

Someone recently asked me what I’m noticing about this year’s team. We didn’t get to talk long but the question got me thinking and it seems like now, as we’re about to start conference play, is a good time to look at what’s different about this squad. Keep in mind that I’ve only seen six of the nine matches (and notably missed the two losses), and that last minute changes due to injuries have effected things greatly.

• The first thing concerns something that has been a pet peeve of mine for years! For some time Tennessee has been highly susceptible to the lightly tipped ball that goes over the blockers and falls to the floor. I understand it’s hard to defend! But it seems to never fail to get us while other teams pick it up more oftern. If I were an opponent watching tape I would have told my team to do nothing but tip the ball over on every play! I am so happy to say that the 2011 team is all over this. And it mainly comes down to three players. Kelsey Robinson and Ellen Mullins will sacrifice their bodies and literally throw themselves to the floor to get an up on these balls. And Mary Pollmiller can somehow stick an arm out of nowhere to give a teammate a chance to make a play. Minor point maybe but it’s great to not have to start immediately groaning when an opponent tips the ball over!

• One of the most obvious changes this year is serving. Every returning player and all the freshmen are being very aggressive. There are no easy serves coming over the net this year. While the spectacularly powerful serves coming from Robinson and Carly Sahagian might be the most appreciated by fans, those boring looking but highly effective floaters are giving opponents fits. Even if it doesn’t necessarily result in an ace, serves from Nikki Brice and Jasmine Brown still confound the other team by ruining the initial pass and taking them out of their offensive system. Yes, there are more errors but the upsides may be worth it. And we are mainly talking about freshmen and sophomores here — they will probably only get better with time.

• Hitting percentages have been higher than average this year. And it’s not due to one superstar, but two, three, or even four teammates hitting at a high level. Shealyn Kolosky and Leslie Cikra have been particularly deadly! But surprisingly Tennessee’s kills per set number this year is actually one of the lowest of the past decade. So what accounts for the higher hitting percentages? Maybe fewer errors. Since 2001, Tennessee has averaged 14.8% errors-to-attacks. This season it is at it’s lowest in that time frame: 12.3%. (UPDATE: That may not sound like a big difference but over a season that’s 100 fewer points to the other team. Last year, 16 points made a difference between being 25-7 and 31-1.)

• Mullins has been doing an amazing job at libero. But this year, even more so than previous years, it seems we’re spreading the defensive duties around. And having competent passers all over the court has to be a good thing. It all starts with the libero obviously. Setters lend a hand. Tennessee’s hitters the past few years (this season included) have been more than up to the task. What seems new to me this year is we’ve been utilizing a defensive specialist along with the libero a lot more than usual. And if they’re also a serving specialist, all the better. In fact, I’m not sure if this is a planned defensive thing or just the result of good serving on the DS’ parts keeping them in the game longer!

• I’m not sure how to categorize this one… scrappiness, maybe? There have been a lot of long rallies this year. And a lot of them weren’t pretty! But win or lose the point, Tennessee was in the point a lot longer than they would have been in previous years. This probably encompasses some of what I mentioned already — throwing yourself at the ball, having good passers everywhere. But I think speed and awareness are also important here, so those may be other areas where the team has seen improvement.

As we head into conference play here’s what I’ll be watching for:

• Because of the great play of Pollmiller, it’s easy to forget that Tennessee had been practicing all offseason to run a 6-2 system. It was only in the week before the season started that they had to scramble into a 5-1 due to injury. When Kylann Scheidt returns to the lineup it will be interesting to see how much better the team might be with the hitters aligned with their usual setters.

• The weakest part of Tennessee’s game has probably been blocking. UT is averaging less than 2 blocks per set for the first time since at least 2001. While slowing the ball down and directing the ball to the passer you want to handle it are very important parts of the blockers duties, it’s also nice to get points! Getting Scheidt back may also help here. While Pollmiller already has more blocks than all the setters in the last three years combined (since setters can’t block in a 6-2), having three six feet tall players at the net should help.

Tennessee is still just on the outside of the latest AVCA poll, unofficially up one spot from last week to #26. The Lady Vols hold steady at #23 in the RichKern.com poll, and are #27 in the debut of the 2011 Pablo Rankings.

Also debuting today: a new poll database! Check out Tennessee’s week to week ranking in four different systems since 2004 1982. UPDATED!

Congratulations to Mary Pollmiller who just picked up her first SEC weekly award for Freshman of the Week! From the release:

• Named to the Hokie Invite All-Tournament Team
• Totaled 110 assists in three matches over the weekend, including a 53-assist output in a win over Virginia Tech
• Has five matches with at least 50 assists this season
• Also added 22 digs and two blocks on the defensive end during action at Hokie Invite
• Had 12 kills with just one error for a .440 attack percentage in three matches
• Aided the Lady Vols to its highest team hitting percentages of the season in wins over Virginia Tech (.392) and American (.412)

• The Lady Vols are now 3-0 all time vs Seton Hall, 1-0 vs American, and 15-1 vs Virginia Tech.

• With a preseason record of 7-2, Tennessee is off to their 5th best start under Coach Rob Patrick.

• Shealyn Kolosky’s .769 hitting percentage vs Seton Hall is 4th best total of the last decade with double digit attacks.

• The team hit .412 vs American, the 10th best percentage since 2001.

• Tennessee’s win over Tech broke their 23 match home tournament winning streak dating back to 2005.

• It’s been fairly rare to have four or more players with at least 5 attack attempts hit above .400 in a single match. It’s only happened 19 times in the past 10 years. This weekend UT did it twice, vs American and Virginia Tech. If you up the threshold to matches where four or more players with double digit attempts hit above .400, you can add the American match to one of just 6 other instances in the past decade.

• With 11.24 assists per set so far this year, Mary Pollmiller has the highest average of any Lady Vol player since 2006. (Obviously running the 5-1 offense rather than the 6-2 we’ve been running is the main cause of this, but stats don’t care about about the reasons why!)

• Kelsey Robinson has started the season with 6 double doubles in the first 9 matches, a total no player since at last 2001 has bested (though Erica Lear matched it her senior year).

• I mentioned in a previous recap that fans got their money’s worth at the Lady Vol Classic as two matches ranked among the top 12 longest of the past decade. In that vein it’s a good thing admission to this tournament was free! The American match was the shortest match of the last decade with the Seton Hall match not far behind at third. (To be fair neither match had an intermission.)

Double doubles:

• Kelsey Robinson vs Virginia tech (kills and digs)

Career highs matched or exceeded (excluding freshmen):

• Jasmine Brown: assists, aces, digs, and points

• Leslie Cikra: kills (in a 4 set match), hitting percentage (with 20+ attempts), and solo blocks

• DeeDee Harrison: kills (in a 4 set match), attacks (in a 3 set match), and points (in a 4 set match)

• Ellen Mullins: attacks, assists, aces, digs (in a 3 set match), and points

• Kelsey Robinson: kills (in a 4 set match), hitting percentage, assists (in a 4 set match), solo blocks (in a 3 set match), and points (in a 4 set match)

• Carly Sahagian: kills (in a 3 set match), attacks (in a 3 set match), aces (in a 3 set match), block assists (in a 3 set match), total blocks (in a 3 set match), and points (in a 3 set match)

(By the way, while I’m not listing freshmen career highs here until later in the season, they are being kept on the roster page if you want to see them now.)

Photos from the Virginia Tech tournament are up now. Not the best photos I’ve ever taken but better than nothing if you weren’t there!

Today is the 10th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States and people around the country are looking back and remembering what that fateful day was like.

The Lady Vols volleyball team was in California in the days prior, where they beat Rice and Cal before losing to San Jose State on the day before. They were on a flight back to Knoxville as the attacks occurred. According to the match notes a week later:

Moments after the Tennessee volleyball team landed safely at McGhee-Tyson Airport in Knoxville on Tuesday, the plane’s pilot spoke over the intercom to inform his passengers that they “were a part of history today.” The pilot said that all air travel in the U.S. had been grounded shortly after their plane took off. Most other flights were rerouted to the closest airport and instructed to land, this flight however was allowed to continue on its short flight plan. As the team deplaned it still was not totally aware of the happenings of the day. Television monitors tuned to CNN in the terminal brought the team up to speed in a hurry. “I was on a plane when all of this was going on,” head coach Rob Patrick said later. “That’s so spooky.”

In light of the attacks, women’s athletic director Joan Cronan announced the cancellation of all sporting events for a week, including the Lady Vol Classic where Tennessee had been scheduled to play UAB, Radford, Charlotte, and SMU:

“I think that out of respect for the tragedy that has happened, the Southeastern Conference and the University of Tennessee have decided to cancel all athletic events this weekend. Our thoughts and prayers should turn toward the victims and the future of America.”

The SEC also made a statement:

“The Southeastern Conference joins all of the other major sporting entities in the nation in postponing all athletic events, including the football games scheduled for September 15.

The Conference continues to believe this country must begin the healing process following the horrendous events of this past week and will evaluate all future schedules at an appropriate time.

The Southeastern Conference reaffirms its commitment of $1,000,000 to the funds that will assist the victims of this event.”

Play resumed on September 18th when Tennessee went to Louisville where they lost in five to the Cardinals.

The Lady Vols took out Virginia Tech in four tonight to win the Hokie Invite (20-25, 25-21, 25-16, 25-17). Mary Pollmiller and DeeDee Harrison made the All-Tournament Team with Kelsey Robinson named MVP. I’ll have more tomorrow.

Tennessee got their second sweep in a row at the Hokie Invite, this one vs American (25-14, 25-13, 25-16).

DeeDee Harrison led in kills with 10 while hitting .438. Carly Sahagian hit .429 with 9 kills. She led the match with 9 digs and 3 blocks. Kelsey Robinson and Leslie Cikra had 8 kills each while hitting .444 and .438 respectively. Mary Pollmiller had 28 assists. As a team the Lady Vols hit an impressive .412.

Tennessee has one more tonight around 7pm. Check out the Virginia Tech link below for pay video free and score/stats links. The Lady Vols site will also be doing a live blog.