• Tennessee is now 2-1 vs Ohio all time, 4-0 vs Villanova, and 3-1 vs Maryland.
• Lady Vol fans got their money’s worth this weekend, as the Ohio and Maryland matches both rank among the top 12 longest matches of the past decade.
• In the past two years, three players double doubled in the same match only two times. The 2011 squad has matched that total in just the first three games of this season.
• Tennessee is 14-1 in their last 15 regular season matches vs out of conference opponents. In their last 25 such matches they’re 21-4.
• The Lady Vols have started the season 3-0 four years in a row. The team has gone undefeated in the Lady Vol Classic 7 out of the last 8 years. They’ve won their season opener 9 of the last 10 years. And they’ve won the home opener 13 out of the last 14 years.
• With the 3 wins this weekend Coach Patrick is just 5 away from career win #300.
• The last time UT opened the season with a five set match was 2001 — a 3-2 loss to Bowling Green. Tennessee’s last five set win to open a season was a 3-2 win vs Utah in 1994.
• Kelsey Robinson’s 27 kills vs Ohio are the 7th most by a Lady Vol in the rally scoring era (2001-), and the 33rd most overall in program history. Her 66 attack attempts are the 5th most since 2001, and her 5 aces are the 8th best at UT in that time. Totaled up she scored 32 points, the 6th most by a Lady Vol in the last 10 years.
• The Maryland match was the second highest attended home game in school history, with 1,938. The #1 match on the list, with 3,311 present, was actually played as the lead in to an event to celebrate the Tennessee basketball teams. So in terms of crowds that actually came to watch volleyball, Saturday’s match could be considered #1 and, either way, is a hugely impressive number for the program. Among the top 10 UT highest attended home matches, UT is 7-3.
• Since 1975, Tennessee has rallied from a two-set deficit to win just 15 times. It’s just the fourth such win for Tennessee in the past 15 years, and the first at home since 1996.
• The last time Tennessee fought off 4 match points in a row before coming back to win a game was November 2009 vs #10 Kentucky. That was also the last time Tennessee was not ranked in the AVCA poll.
Double doubles:
• Tiffany Baker vs Ohio (kills and digs)
• Kelsey Robinson vs Ohio (kills and digs)
• Carly Sahagian vs Ohio (kills and digs)
• Mary Pollmiller vs Maryland (assists and digs)
• Kelsey Robinson vs Maryland (kills and digs)
• Carly Sahagian vs Maryland (kills and digs)Career highs matched or exceeded (excluding freshmen):
• Jasmine Brown: aces, digs (in a 5-set match)
• DeeDee Harrison: attacks, assists, digs (in a 5-set match)
• Ellen Mullins: assists, digs
• Kelsey Robinson: kills, attacks, aces, solo blocks, assisted blocks, total blocks, points
• Carly Sahagian: kills, attacks, hitting percentage, assists (in a 5-set match), aces, digs, assisted blocks, total blocks, points
Some photos from the 2011 Lady Vol Classic are now posted. Look for the weekend recap tomorrow.
A huge comeback win from two sets down for the Lady Vols tonight vs Maryland (20-25, 22-25, 29-27, 25-22, 15-5). It’s just the fourth such win for Tennessee in the past 15 years. Much more later.
UPDATES: It was an amazing effort from the team today, especially thrilling as it was in front of the second largest home crowd in Lady Vol history! Down 2 sets, they started off the 3rd in an 8-1 hole. They fought off 4 match points before finally taking the set and eventually the next two.
And in the excitement after the match I forgot to mention that Tennessee wins the Lady Vol Classic! Carly Sahagian and Mary Pollmiller were named to the All-Tournament Team while Kelsey Robinson was named MVP.
Robinson double doubled with 24 kills and 24 digs while Sahagian did the same with 18 kills and 12 digs while hitting .441. Shealyn Kolosky led the blocking with 6. Pollmiller had 51 assists. Ellen Mullins had 19 digs.
I’ll have a lot more on the numbers from this match (and the others) in the weekend recap coming sometime in the next day or two. Until then, check and the stats and roster pages for updated info.
Tennessee fought a scrappy Villanova squad and pulled off a 3-0 win (25-18, 27-25, 25-19). Stats and pictures (if I figured out my camera settings!) tonight.
Don’t forget about the 7pm match later today vs Maryland. If you can’t make it to Thompson Boling Arena, be sure to check out the live video feed. See the link to the official site on the left for details.
UPDATE: UT STORY STATS AND VIDEO | VILLANOVA STORY
With four players out with injuries (Jeter out for season; Mahoney, Cikra, and Scheidt back much sooner hopefully), Tennessee had to work extra hard for this 3-2 win over Ohio (23-25, 25-13, 18-25, 25-17, 15-7).
UPDATES: There are several things Tennessee needs to work on until they get some of the injured players back. But there were a lot of things to be excited about too. I said last year that Kelsey Robinson was a better all around player than Nikki Fowler was at the same point in her freshman season. And as a sophomore, Robinson is definitely continuing that trend! In fact the whole sophomore class shined tonight. Carly Sahagian has really taken her game up several notches since last year. Both have added a lot of power as well. Ellen Mullins showed some amazing speed and ability to be wherever she needed to be on the court. And all three have really improved their serves in the offseason. Among the newcomers, Tiffany Baker and Shaelyn Kolosky seemed pretty solid. But the big surprise was Mary Pollmiller who looked amazing guiding the offense — and playing the rest of the court in a 5-1 too.
Three players double doubled — Robinson with 27 kills and 13 digs, Sahagian with 12 kills and a match leading 21 digs, and Baker with 10 kills and 14 digs (Pollmiller just missed making the list). Sahagian also led the team in blocks with 6. Kolosky hit .429 and had 5 blocks. Mullins had 18 digs. Pollmiller had 56 assists. Lots of career highs to go around too but I’ll save those for the weekend recap (or you can check them out on the roster pages).
Robinson’s 27 kills was the 7th most by a Lady Vol in the rally scoring era, and the 33rd most overall.
The official site has more info, stats, video, and photos.
Tennessee plays two matches tomorrow. Check the match notes below for details.
Today a new chapter begins, but it hasn’t been written yet. No one knows what will happen but we do know that right now before the first serve sails over the net the potential for great things is alive and inside players and teams all over the country. Conference championships and more are out there for any team that wants to take them. Any one on any day can be the best if they believe it and then put the work in to make it happen. On this first day of the season, new banners could be hanging from the rafters of any court in the land by the last day of the season. The hope that this is the year — that’s why we watch, that’s why they play.
Good luck Lady Vols!
• See what the competition is up to by following this list of our weekend opponents on Twitter.
• Be sure to check out the official UT match notes (PDF) for this weekend (beautifully done by the new volleyball media relations staff). Match notes from Ohio and Villanova are also available.
• A video preview of the weekend with Coach Patrick is online.
• You can get up to 4 free tickets to tonight’s match by using the coupon on this page (PDF).
• Coach Patrick will give a “Chalk Talk” to fans 45 minutes before home games this year (not sure if that includes tomorrow morning’s match). It taks place in the Ray Mears room of Thompson Boling Arena (ask an usher if you need help). New fans and volleyball experts alike will enjoy this opportunity to ask questions and listen to the coach (and current AVCA President) talk about the team and volleyball in general.
• The first 400 fans will receive Lady Vol “FanFans” — whatever that is!
• Plenty of free parking is available on the top level of the garage adjacent to the arena. It’s marked as the G5 lot and the G30 lot and is easily accessible off Lake Loudon Blvd (on this map, the entrance to the lot is right below the “S30” in the center of the map). If you can’t see the upper arena doors from where you’re parked or if you have to climb the arena ramp you’re in the wrong spot! (Here’s a map with the parking areas marked — look for G5/30).
• Congratulations to Kayla Jeter on being named one of 30 national finalists for the 2011 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award. The honor recognizes “student-athletes who excel both on and off the court… and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence – community, classroom, character and competition”.
• ESPN has posted their annual “Five Things…” piece on college volleyball.
• UT is finishing up the video profiles of the Lady Vols. The newest ones feature Leslie Cikra and Tiffany Baker.
Just one day left! Tomorrow the Lady Vol Classic begins, where Tennessee will face Ohio, Villanova, and Maryland.
• The Lady Vols are 30-8 all time in season opening matches. In the opening week of the season the team is 74-33. Under Coach Rob Patrick the team is 11-3 in season opening matches and 36-6 in the opening week of the season.
• Tennessee is 27-6 all time in home opening matches. Under Coach Patrick they are 12-2. The team has not lost its home opener since 2001.
• UT hasn’t lost a season opener at home since 1978.
• In August matches the Lady Vols are 26-4. At home the team is an undefeated 11-0.
• Tennessee is 31-6 in the Lady Vol Classic under Coach Patrick. The Lady Vols have only lost one match in their home tournament since 2004.
• The Lady Vols will face 14 different teams they met last year. Besides the usual 10 SEC opponents, Tennessee will get rematches with Ohio, Houston, Virginia Tech, and Louisville. UT defeated all 4 of those out of conference foes last year.
• After this weekend Tennessee will not face another out of conference opponent at home in the regular season.
• Maryland assistant coach Mitch Kallick was the volunteer assistant coach for Tennessee in 2006. Three other coaches UT faces this weekend also have some SEC experience: two as assistant coaches and one as a player.
• Maryland assistant coach Christine Landry attended the same high school as Lady Vol Kelsey Robinson. (In fact there will be a bit of a West Chicago suburbs reunion this weekend with those two, Carly Sahagian, Shealyn Kolosky, two Maryland players and an Ohio player all having gone to high schools within a few miles of each other.)
• For just the second season in Lady Vol volleyball history there is no opponent from the state of Tennessee on the schedule.
Ohio (2010: 22-13, MAC Tournament Champion, 2nd Round NCAA)
All time series tied 1-1.
UT won the last meeting in 2010 3-2 (23-25, 25-19, 25-16, 23-25, 18-16).
Game time is Friday, August 26th at 7:00pm ET
Follow the match with Gametracker or watch a live video feedVillanova (2010: 23-7)
UT leads all time series 3-0.
UT won the last meeting in 2004 3-1 (25-30, 30-26, 30-26, 30-24).
Game time is Saturday, August 27th at 10:00am ET
Follow the match with Gametracker or watch a live video feedMaryland (2010: 19-13)
UT leads all time series 2-1.
UT won the last meeting in 2003 3-1 (30-28, 15-30, 30-25, 30-17).
Game time is Saturday, August 27th at 7:00pm ET
Follow the match with Gametracker or watch a live video feed
Some sad news from UT Sports today: senior Kayla Jeter will miss the 2011 season due to an ACL injury. All our best wishes go out to Kayla during her recovery!
Assuming Tennessee doesn’t match the program record low for wins in a season (7 – set in 1977 and 1995), head coach Rob Patrick should reach his 300th win this year. He just needs 8 more victories to reach that mark. Today we’ll take a quick look back at a few of his other milestone matches.
vs ECU – Sept. 14, 2002
Patrick came to Tennessee in 1997, after a three year stint at Stanford as an assistant coach. In the 10 years prior to his arrival, the Lady Vols had only had three winning seasons. Things quickly turned around. Patrick’s first year was a 15-19 effort, but it was the last losing season of his first decade at the helm.
His 100th win came on September 14, 2002, against (the only team I love as much as UT!) East Carolina. The team was 7-1 going into the match having swept the Rose Hill Classic in New York City and going 2-1 in the Catamount Clash in Cullowhee NC. The Lady Vols had beat Virginia the night before in their first home match of the year. Tennessee jumped out to a 24-12 lead in the first set vs the Pirates, before easing off a bit and taking the game 30-22. The team hit .333 in winning the second set 30-21. The third set saw more of the same with the Lady Vols keeping about a 9 point advantage for most of the game, winning it 30-22. Janelle Hester had 16 kills on the night, as did Michelle Piantadosi. Hester and Heather Harrington had 4 blocks a piece. Julie Knytych set up 40 assists. The Lady Vols would go on to finish the season 20-11.
vs Arkansas – Sept. 17, 2006
Win #200 came in 2006. The Lady Vols had swept the Lady Vol Classic and the Pitt Invitational while only losing to USC in the LAX Tournament in Los Angeles, and were into the first weekend of SEC play. Patrick’s first attempt at the milestone ended in a loss vs LSU. On September 17, the team faced Arkansas. The first set was a slugfest, with both squads hitting over .400. Arkansas had the advantage with three set points at 29-26. But UT fought them all and took the game 32-30. The second set seemed to be going the same way with the Lady ‘Backs up 25-23, until the Lady Vols rattled off 7 of the next 10 points to win 30-28. Arkansas took the third set 30-24 with the help of 15 Tennessee errors. In the fourth UT turned that score around to take the match 3-1. Yuliya Stoyanova earned her 4th consecutive double double with 22 kills and 12 digs. Kelsey Fautsch knocked down 19 kills. Freshman Leah Hinkey led both sides with 8 blocks. Annie Sadowski scooped up 14 digs. And Chelsea Noble helped out with 63 assists — the 10th most in school history. Tennessee finished the year 19-12.
vs Auburn – Oct. 3, 2008
On October 3, 2008, Patrick cemented his place in Lady Vol history by winning his 230th match as head coach, surpassing Bob Bertucci as the winningest coach in program history. Tennessee came into the match vs Auburn at 8-6. The Tigers got within 6 in the first set but UT was too much for them, winning 25-15. The second set was a much closer affair with the lead changing several times before the Lady Vols pulled out a 25-23 win. Auburn put up a fight in the third set, which featured 10 ties. But Tennessee finished the sweep with a 28-26 final set. Farren Powe had 15 kills and no errors while hitting .625. Kelsey Mahoney led the team with 21 assists and Chloe Goldman led the defense with 13 digs — both also added in 3 aces each. Carol Cheade put back 4 blocks. The team finished 2008 with a 22-10 mark.
I’m sure Patrick would be the first to say these milestone wins are more about the people around him than himself. In fact, he did say just that in 2008: “I give all the credit for this record to the hard work, energy, sweat and time that all of these people have put into the Tennessee volleyball program… I could not have accomplished this without each and every one of them”. And he’s absolutely right. But let’s be honest. Coaches take more than their fair share of lumps when things aren’t going well. The fun of milestones is it gives fans a chance to reflect on the good times and how far the team has come and to show their appreciation to the person in charge.
The only question now is when will Patrick reach #300?
(Check out more milestone wins on the stats page. Images linked to originals at the official site.)
UPDATE: Patrick reached career win number 300 on September 16, 2011, vs Georgia.
• The Knoxville News Sentinel has a story (featuring Kylann Scheidt) about the improving state of local volleyball in Knoxville and around the rest of Tennessee.
• Volleyball Magazine has released their Top 20 poll, and while the Lady Vols didn’t technically make the cut they are receiving enough votes to make them an unofficial #22.
• Don’t forget about the team’s new Facebook page. Besides being able to comment and talk to other Facebook and Lady Vol fans the page also includes photos and videos not being posted to the official site.
• The profiles of team members continues over on the UT website, with the latest addition being Mercedes Vaughn. UPDATES: Mary Pollmiller and Shealyn Kolosky’s profiles are up.
• Tennessee has picked up another 2012 commitment: Megan Hatcher from Webb School and K2 Volleyball Club here in Knoxville.
• The Lady Vols are ranked #19 in the preseason RichKern.com Poll.
• The SEC has posted a list of the top 10 individual performances of 2010, with Kayla Jeter getting recognition for her play vs Kentucky and Mississippi.
• UT continues to post video profiles of each player on their site with Ellen Mullins being the latest. UPDATE: Stephanie Stoll’s video is online now.
Congratulations to Kayla Jeter on being named to the 2011 Preseason All-SEC Team! The rest of the squad includes:
Kayla Fitterer, Alabama
Jasmine Norton, Arkansas
Kristy Jaeckel, Florida
Kelly Murphy, Florida
Becky Pavan, Kentucky
Stephanie Klefot, Kentucky
Desiree Elliott, LSU
Michele Williams, LSU
Regina Thomas, Ole Miss
Kayla Jeter, Tennessee
For the 7th time in school history Tennessee will start off the season ranked, this time as the 24th best team in the nation according to the just released AVCA Poll. The only other SEC team on the list is #9 Florida, with unofficial #27 LSU and #35 Kentucky also receiving votes. Besides the ranked SEC schools, this year the Lady Vols will also face #8 Illinois, #19 Dayton, and #33 Louisville.
The Lady Vols have now tied the school record for most consecutive weeks ranked, matching the 19 polls in a row they were named on from 1982-1984. Their current streak began November 30, 2009.
CONSECUTIVE WEEKS RANKED 2009 – 2011 19 1982 – 1984 19 2004 – 2005 17 2005 – 2006 11
The SEC coaches have cast votes in their annual poll and have picked Florida to win the overall conference title this year. The Gators received 9 votes with Tennessee picking up the other 2. In the division races, Florida was pegged to take the East while LSU is expected to win the West.
2011 SEC PRESEASON POLL EAST 1 Florida 12 2 Tennessee 19 3 Kentucky 26 4 Georgia 39 5 South Carolina 44 WEST 1 LSU 10 2 Mississippi 22 3 Arkansas 31 4 Auburn 34 5 Alabama 48 6 Mississippi State 50