The Lady Vols defeated Seton Hall in three (25-22, 25-17, 25-15).

Shealyn Kolosky had 10 kills and no errors on 13 attacks for an amazing .769 hitting percentage. That’s the 4th best total of the last decade (with double digit attacks). Kelsey Robinson had 11 kills, 6 digs, and hit .400. DeeDee Harrison had 9 kills and 4 blocks. Mary Pollmiller had 29 assists, 7 digs, and hit .500. Ellen Mullins picked up 13 digs while Jasmine Brown 10.

I didn’t bring my computer so I’ll update the stats and get some photos up when I get back from Blacksburg on Sunday.

• Under Coach Rob Patrick, the Lady Vols are 26-12 vs out of conference opponents the week before SEC play begins.

• The team has only played one match in the state of Virginia in the past decade. It was a 3-0 win over Virginia Tech in Blacksburg in 2002.

• The Lady Vols have never played Seton Hall without also playing Virginia Tech in the same season.

• Tennessee assistant coach Alan Edwards was most recently the head coach at Iona College. He replaced Kris Zeiter, who left Iona for his current job as head coach of Seton Hall.

• Tennessee and American University are facing each other for the first time. The last time UT met a team for the first time was Alabama A&M during the 2010 NCAA Tournament. The last scheduled first meeting with another team was Gardner-Webb in 2008.

• American has won the Patriot League Championship 9 times in the last 10 years. Last year they had a school record tying 23 match win streak that was only broken when they lost in the NCAA Tournament.

• In 2010 Virginia Tech achieved two program firsts: they defeated a top 25 opponent and they reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time.

• The Lady Vols’ only loss to one of this weekend’s opponents came at Virginia Tech in 1995, 3-1.

• Nikki Brice and one of the American players both played for Troy High School in Fullerton CA.

• Random note of the week: Tennessee was one of only 20 teams — and the only SEC team — that made it to the very first NCAA Tournament back in 1981. (Had to do this one quick since Texas A&M could be on that list soon!) The Lady Vols are one of just 13 schools that made it to all of the first 4 NCAA Tournaments.

Seton Hall (2011: 3-3; 2010: 13-18)
UT leads all time series 2-0.
UT won the last meeting in 2002 3-0 (30-22, 30-28, 30-25).
Game time is Friday, September 9th at 4:00pm ET

American (2011: 3-3; 2010: 29-3 Patriot League Champs, NCAA 1st Round)
The teams are meeting for the first time.
Game time is Saturday, September 10th at 10:30am ET

Virginia Tech (2011: 3-3; 2010: 20-12 NCAA 2nd Round)
UT leads all time series 14-1.
UT won the last meeting in 2010 3-0 (25-18, 25-17, 25-21).
Game time is Saturday, September 10th at 7:00pm ET

Live stats for the weekend should be available here. And I believe Tennessee will be running another live blog as well.

UPDATE: Official match notes from Tennessee, Seton Hall, and American are now online. UT will be live blogging this weekend. Check the official site for details.

It’s almost official. The SEC has voted to accept Texas A&M into the conference. There is one sticking point. The Big 12 and all its member schools must agree not to sue. The SEC had those assurances but now one school (believed to be Baylor) has withdrawn its consent.

When finalized the SEC will still probably want to add one more team to reach 14. Previous rumors included Florida State and Clemson, while more recent talk includes Missouri and West Virginia. (Can I suggest Louisville? East Carolina? Maybe even Baylor?)

UPDATE: OK, now things are just getting crazy! Head over to ESPN for the latest on this. I’m done with this story until the final decision!

Two 20+ kill matches in a weekend didn’t earn her a weekly SEC award so Kelsey Robinson went out and got three 20+ kill matches in a weekend and the conference just couldn’t ignore that! Congratulations to Robinson on her first of (probably many!) SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors.

PrepVolleyball.com is in the process of counting down (in batches of 10) their annual Senior Aces list of the top volleyball recruits in the class of 2012. Congratulations to Lady Vol commit Bianca Arellano who was listed in the latest group as the #30 recruit in the nation! PrepVolleyball says she is “perhaps the fastest player in the country on her side of the net” and can “deliver perfect sets and be a well above average blocker”.

Another recruit in the news, congratulations to 2013 commit Ashley Mariani who a few weeks ago was named an Honorable Mention on LoneStarVolleyball.com’s All-Texas Team!

UT may be getting a little bit of respect from the AVCA Coaches Poll voters after the dis they served up last week. After falling two spots in the previous poll despite three wins, this week the Lady Vols only fall one spot to (an unofficial) #27 after two tough losses — one of which came at the hands of the new #4 team in the nation.

In other systems: Tennessee dropped from #21 to #23 in the RichKern.com Poll. And in the first Pablo Ranking of the year the Lady Vols appear at #30. UPDATE: Oops! Pablo has not yet been updated for 2011.

• Tennessee is now 2-4 vs Illinois all time, 2-2 vs Dayton, and 4-7 vs Houston.

• Kelsey Robinson was named to the All Tournament Team.

• Before the Illinois tournament the Lady Vols had not lost two matches in the same weekend since September 2009.

• Coach Rob Patrick is four wins away from #300. With three matches this weekend in Virginia, it’s possible he could reach the milestone at home the next weekend.

• Tennessee has defeated at least one ranked opponent five years in a row and in seven of the last eight years.

• The last three times Tennessee has played back to back ranked teams they have lost the first match and won the second one.

• The 2 hour 27 minute four set match vs Illinois was the third longest non-five set match of the past ten years. Tennessee played a 3 hour four set match vs Kentucky in 2007. That match was delayed for an hour due to a leaky roof. Also in 2007, a three set Alabama match is listed as having taken almost 3 hours (though I can’t find any reason for the length and don’t remember anything out of the ordinary so that might be a typo on the box score).

• UT scored 10 aces against Dayton. That’s the first time the team has reached double digit aces since they served up 16 vs Appalachian State in August 2007, and the first time against a ranked team since at least 2001.

• Due to graduations and injuries, sophomore Kelsey Robinson has had to shoulder more of the offensive load than just about any player in some time. But she has handled the responsibility like a pro:

– Only two other players in program history have had more than 24 kills and 24 digs in a single match.

– Robinson is just the third player since 2001 with more than 20 kills and 20 digs in a single match.

– She’s the fastest player to 100 kills in a season this decade, accomplishing the feat in just five matches.

– Robinson has the second highest kills per set through six matches since 2001.

– Four of her matches this year rank in the top ten matches of the past ten years in total attacks.

– Did I mention she’s just a sophomore?!

• The Lady Vols have been keeping most of their matches interesting this year! Four of the last six matches have gone to five sets. That doesn’t happen often:

FIVE SET MATCHES CLUSTERED TOGETHER
Sept-Oct 1985	4 out of 6	2-2
Oct 1991	4 out of 6	2-2
Oct 2002	4 out of 5	3-1
Nov-Dec 2008	4 in a row	3-1
Aug-Sept 2011	4 out of 6	3-1

Double doubles:

• Mary Pollmiller vs Illinois (assists and digs)
• Kelsey Robinson vs Illinois (kills and digs)
• Carly Sahagian vs Illinois (kills and digs)
• Mary Pollmiller vs Dayton (assists and digs)
• Kelsey Robinson vs Dayton (kills and digs)
• Kelsey Robinson vs Houston (kills and digs)

Career highs matched or exceeded (excluding freshmen):

• Jasmine Brown: digs (in a 4-set match)
• Leslie Cikra: digs (in a 5-set match)
• DeeDee Harrison: attacks (in a 4-set match)
• Ellen Mullins: kills, attacks, digs, points (in a 5-set match)
• Kelsey Robinson: kills, attacks, solo blocks, total blocks (in a 4-set match), points (in a 4-set match)
• Carly Sahagian: kills (in a 4-set match), attacks (in a 4-set match), aces, digs (in a 4-set match), solo blocks, points (in a 4-set match)

Tennessee couldn’t extend its five set match winning streak tonight, as they lose to Houston 3-2 (25-19, 22-25, 23-25, 25-20, 15-8). Stats and more later tonight or tomorrow morning.

UPDATE: Kelsey Robinson has had 20+ kills in five out of six matches this season, getting 22 vs Houston. She also notched double doubles in those five matches, with 14 digs in this one. Tiffany Baker had 14 kills and hit .400. Shealyn Kolosky and Carly Sahagian each had 9 kills andd hit .389 and .368 respectively.Ellen Mullins picked up 17 digs while Nikki Brice had 10. And Mary Pollmiller put up 59 assists. Look for more in the weekend recap.

UT STORY STATS AND VIDEO | HOUSTON STORY

Playing its 3rd five set match of this young season, Tennessee defeated #21 Dayton (25-17, 25-23, 14-25, 23-25, 15-12). The Lady Vols took the first two sets. But Dayton took the next and after falling behind 17-12 in the fourth, rallied back furiously to take that set and the first 5 points of the fifth set. Fortunately UT was able to put things back together in time to win the match!

Kelsey Robinson had 28 kills (the 25th most in school history) and 19 digs. Leslie Cikra started for the first time this season and made an immediate impact with 14 kills while hitting .323. DeeDee Harrison had 4 blocks. Mary Pollmiller led in assists with 58, while Ellen Mullins led the defense with 20 digs. More tonight!

UPDATE: The story from Tennessee and Dayton are online, plus a video interview with Coach Patrick. One more match tonight!

In a match that had more back and forth than a seesaw, Illinois finally was able to get a run going to defeat Tennessee 3-1 (31-29, 25-23, 23-25, 25-19). Stats soon…

UPDATE: For the third time this season 3 players had double doubles: Kelsey Robinson with 17 digs and her third 20+ kill match of the season with 22, Carly Sahagian with 11 kills and 17 digs, and Mary Pollmiller with 49 assists and 11 digs. DeeDee Harrison (along with Robinson) led the team with 4 blocks. Tiffany Baker had 11 kills, hit .333, and had 3 blocks. Ellen Mullins had 17 digs while Nikki Brice added in 11 more.

The match had 18 ties in the first set, 14 in the second, and 9 in the third, before Illinois surged ahead in the fourth. The game lasted almost 2 and a half hours, which is long for a 4 set match. With 2,619 in attendance it was one of the top attended Lady Vols matches of the decade. No word on if the temperature in the un-air conditioned gym set any records…

UT STORY, STATS, & VIDEO | UI STORY

• A radio broadcast of tonight’s match will probably be streamed online by a local radio station in Illinois, WDWS. It’s possible they may black out Illinois sports matches from the internet stream (it happens all the time with NCAA football) but hopefully volleyball flies under that radar!

• Whatever happens with the radio broadcast, don’t miss UT’s first live blog of a volleyball match.

• Gametracker and pay video are available as well.

• How about one more random stat before the match starts? Since 2001, Tennessee is 3-4 vs teams ranked #7. Hopefully we can even that record up tonight!

• I’ve updated the Tennessee opponents Twitter list. You can follow it (or just check out the link) to see what this weekend’s opponents are talking about on Twitter.

• The official match notes and stories from Tennessee, Dayton, and Houston have been added to those of Illinois in my match notes post below.

• The official Tennessee site says they’ll be live blogging the tournament this weekend. Check out the page at match time for more info on that.

UPDATE: Here’s the link to UT’s live blog page.

This weekend the Lady Vols head out of Knoxville for the first time this year to face #7 Illinois, #21 Dayton, and Houston.

• Coach Patrick’s teams are 10-4 in their first match of the season on the road.

• Tennessee is a combined 7-11 vs the three teams they’ll be playing in the Illini Classic.

• All four teams started their season 3-0 after winning their season opening tournaments.

• The Lady Vols face two ranked opponents this weekend. This is the first time the team has played back to back matches vs ranked opponents since 2007, when they did it twice — both times going 1-1 (a loss to #1 Nebraska and a win over #21 Utah, then later in the year a loss to #7 Florida and a win over #18 LSU).

• Tennessee is 27-123 vs ranked opponents all time, with almost all of those wins (19) coming in the Rob Patrick era.

• The Lady Vols go into a match unranked for the first time since late 2009. The last time Tennessee was unranked they beat two top 25 teams in the span of a few days: #13 Florida and #10 Kentucky.

• Illinois is the only team to have defeated Tennessee in the Lady Vol Classic in the past 7 years, while Dayton is the only team besides Tennessee to have won the tournament in that time.

• Four Lady Vols will have a bit of a homecoming, heading back to their home state of Illinois: Kelsey Robinson, Carly Sahagian, Shealyn Kolosky, and assistant coach Rachel Cooper.

• The three Lady Vols from Illinois will face off against many former club mates from Sports Performance. Kolosky went to the same high school as one of the Illini. And even Mary Pollmiller, all the way from Colorado, has a club mate on Dayton’s team.

• It has been 28 years since the Lady Vols last defeated the Illini.

#7 Illinois (2011: 3-0; 2010: 24-9, NCAA Sweet Sixteen)
UI leads all time series 3-2.
UI won the last meeting in 2008 3-2 (22-25, 25-21, 25-22, 21-25, 15-11).
Game time is Saturday, September 2nd at 8:00pm ET
Illinois match notes (PDF) | Tournament home page

Follow the match with Gametracker or watch a live video feed (fee required). The game will also be broadcast on local WDWS AM 1400 (check the website for possible audio feed).

#21 Dayton (2011: 3-0; 2010: 28-4, A10 Champions, NCAA 2nd Round)
UD leads all time series 2-1.
UT won the last meeting in 2008 3-2 (18-25, 25-23, 22-25, 25-21, 15-13).
Game time is Saturday, September 3rd at 1:00pm ET
Dayton match notes

Follow the match with Gametracker or watch a live video feed (fee required).

Houston (2011: 3-0; 2010: 19-13)
UH leads all time series 6-4.
UT won the last meeting in 2010 3-0 (25-13, 25-17 25-22).
Game time is Saturday, September 3rd at 6:30pm ET
Houston story

Follow the match with Gametracker or watch a live video feed (fee required).

• Also be sure to check out the official Tennessee match notes

UPDATED

Since the last rumors of Texas A&M joining the SEC came out more info has become available. It looks like the SEC didn’t completely shut the door on the Aggies earlier, but rather wanted them to properly exit the Big 12 before applying for membership. Texas A&M has spent the last few weeks doing just that and today ESPN is reporting that they have officially notified their current conference that they plan to leave mid-2012 if accepted by another conference. Could the Aggies be playing at Thompson Boling Arena next year? And will the SEC add another team to even out the divisions?

After a great weekend of Lady Vol volleyball — which included three victories, a tournament championship, a #2 attendance record, a huge comeback win, and several amazing individual performances (all despite four sudden injuries the week before first serve) — the volleyball gods are not smiling on Rocky Top today.

Sophomore Kelsey Robinson won tournament MVP honors after helping UT go 3-0 this past weekend with 4.92 kills per set, 0.38 aces per set, 0.69 blocks per set, and 5.69 points per set. Yet she lost SEC Player of the Week to another sophomore who also went 3-0, won tournament MVP, but had lesser stats in every category except aces per set (where she was ahead by only 2 one-hundredths).

Tennessee was tied with Michigan in the previous AVCA poll at #24. UT defeated three teams in the top 75 of the last Pablo Rankings. Michigan got three wins vs teams below the top 75. Michigan stayed put at #24. Tennessee dropped out. My bet is that since Tennessee was listed behind Michigan on the poll (due to their places in the alphabet), lazy coaches just automatically dropped the bottom team off to move someone else in without bothering to check stats. So Tennessee’s 19 week streak in the polls just misses breaking the school record.

I’m just a fan so it’s my duty to complain about alleged slights to my team, right?! But looking at the bright side, it was a pretty amazing weekend. And it could fuel some motivation as Tennessee goes to Illinois this weekend to face the #7 team in the country!

CONSECUTIVE WEEKS RANKED
2009 – 2011	19
1982 – 1984	19
2004 – 2005	17
2005 – 2006	11