As we wait for the NCAA committee to announce the tournament bracket, I thought it would be interesting to look back at the season by looking at the losses. It’s been an incredible year for Tennessee volleyball. But it was close to being even better. A flip of 4 or less points in 5 different matches would have changed the season. Move just 14 points from the opponents to UT and the team is 29-1! Three matches we lost could have been sweeps with just a 10 point swing. I know you can’t really judge matches like this, but it’s interesting to think about.
(Please note that I don’t want to take away from how well the team did this year at all. In fact, I see this as more evidence of just how good the team really did since most of the few losses were so very close.)
To all the up and coming volleyball players out there: when your coaches tell you that every point matters… believe them!
The last senior left to profile is perhaps one of the best to ever play the game at Tennessee. Nikki Fowler’s name is all over the school record book in several different categories. She has more SEC offensive weekly awards than any one in conference history. And she even has a few All-American honors on her resumé. She’s definitely played more than just about anyone else at UT. She’s been in all 123 matches of her career and 456 of 459 sets. That’s second only to All-American Julie Knytych (2002-05) who never missed a set in her four year career. But just as much as all her honors and distinctions, it’s her character and disciplined attitude that defined her time on Rocky Top.
Fowler started her college career in one of the most difficult manners possible – against the defending national champion and #1 team in the country in their home state with 10,000 people watching. It wasn’t a performance to remember but she was able to shake it off and help lead the Lady Vols to an upset win the next day over #21 Utah. In just the second match of her career she came close to not only the school’s first triple-double, but a quadruple-double – scoring 10 kills, 9 assists, 7 digs, and 7 blocks, with 2 aces as well. This match was a preview of what was in store for the next four years — Fowler proved early on that she’s a threat wherever she is in the rotation.
[ click to continue article… ]
Senior Leah Hinkey has been around longer than either of the other seniors on the team this year. And in those years she has earned praise for her play, respect for her leadership, affection for her heart and determination during hard times, and admiration for her resilience in overcoming them.
Hinkey started her career in front of the home crowd at the Lady Vol Classic in 2006 against Virginia. The freshman knocked down 13 kills and 4 blocks in her debut. With a .458 hitting percentage, the fans got an early peek at how dangerous Hinkey could be for the opposition.
[ click to continue article… ]
The NCAA and SEC have updated their weekly statistical rankings of players and teams for the 2010 season. The national stats rank 328 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.
POLLS NATIONAL SEC AVCA Poll 21st (nc) 3rd (nc) Volleyball Magazine Poll nr (-) nr (-) Pablo Rankings 25th (nc) 3rd (nc) RichKern.com Poll 21st (nc) 3rd (nc) RPI 14th (+2) 2nd (+1)
NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS ACES ASSISTS BLOCKS DIGS KILLS HIT% 295th (nc) 15th (-2) 36th (+11) 169th (-17) 9th (-3) 9th (-2)
SEC TEAM RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES ACES ASSISTS BLOCKS DIGS KILLS HIT% OPP HIT% 11th (-1) 1st (nc) 3rd (nc) 5th (+1) 1st (nc) 2nd (-1) 3rd (nc)
SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES ACES ASSISTS BLOCKS DIGS KILLS HIT% 9th (nc) 2nd (nc) 2nd (nc) 5th (+1) 2nd (nc) 2nd (nc) OPP ACES OPP ASSISTS OPP BLOCKS OPP DIGS OPP KILLS OPP HIT% 1st (nc) 3rd (+1) 3rd (nc) 3rd (nc) 4th (-1) 2nd (nc)
NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS BLOCKS Leah Hinkey 65th (-6) BLOCKS DeeDee Harrison 248th (nc) DIGS Kelsey Robinson 249th (-11) KILLS Nikki Fowler 108th (-14) KILLS Kayla Jeter 244th (+2) HITTING PERCENTAGE Leah Hinkey 32nd (+4) HITTING PERCENTAGE Kayla Jeter 181st (-21) HITTING PERCENTAGE Nikki Fowler 184th (-14) HITTING PERCENTAGE DeeDee Harrison 185th (-9) POINTS Nikki Fowler 131st (-22)
SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES BLOCKS Leah Hinkey 3rd (nc) BLOCKS DeeDee Harrison 13th (nc) DIGS Kelsey Robinson 9th (-1) KILLS Nikki Fowler 6th (-2) KILLS Kayla Jeter 10th (+3) HITTING PERCENTAGE Leah Hinkey 4th (+2) HITTING PERCENTAGE Kayla Jeter 12th (-1) HITTING PERCENTAGE Nikki Fowler 13th (-1) HITTING PERCENTAGE DeeDee Harrison 14th (-1) POINTS Nikki Fowler 5th (-1)
SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES ASSISTS Emily Steinbeck 9th (nc) BLOCKS Leah Hinkey 3rd (+1) DIGS Kelsey Robinson 7th (+1) KILLS Kayla Jeter 5th (-2) KILLS Nikki Fowler 7th (-1) HITTING PERCENTAGE Leah Hinkey 5th (-1) (nc) = no change (nr) = not ranked (+/-) = change from last week
Tennessee finished their SEC slate with a sweep of Kentucky (25-22, 25-17, 25-21). More later tonight…
UPDATE: A large and loud group of Tennessee fans made the trip to Lexington to see the Lady Vols finish off the regular season. DeeDee Harrison had 11 kills and hit an impressive .529. Nikki Fowler notched another double double with 10 kills and 13 digs. She also had 4 blocks. Leah Hinkey and Kayla Jeter had 9 kills each while Leslie Cikra added in 7 more. Hinkey also had 5 blocks while Jeter put down 3 of her own. Kelsey Robinson had 11 digs. Ellen Mullins had 9. Emily Steinbeck and Kylann Scheidt had 23 and 17 assists respectively.
I am still struggling to catch up here and a trip to Lexington tonight and Thanksgiving tomorrow do not help! Notes now, national stats tonight or tomorrow, and the last senior profiles Friday and Saturday before we go into tournament mode on Sunday. That’s the plan, let’s see if I can actually do it!
• Tennessee is 27-39 vs Kentucky all-time. The last 10 meetings between the teams have been split with 5 wins each. UT has a 4 match winning streak going in tonight.
• The UT/UK series is the longest running continuously played rivalry in Tennessee’s history — the teams have played each other at least once every year since at least 1978.
• Despite a disappointing start, the Wildcats have turned things around late. After an 8-9 start, UK has gone 9-3, including winning 6 of their last 7.
• The Lady Vol win earlier this season was the first time either team had swept the other in 8 outings. Kentucky hasn’t swept Tennessee since 1995.
• Tennessee is 6-3 at Memorial Coliseum since 2001.
• Since 1978, the Lady Vols are 19-13 in regular season finales (not counting season ending championship tournaments like the SEC and NCAA for example). Before Coach Rob Patrick took the helm, the team had not won a regular season finale in 10 years. Since then the team is 12-1.
• With a win tonight and a loss by LSU in Arkansas, Tennessee would end the season in 2nd place in the SEC.
• Earlier this year: Tennessee got a sweep of Kentucky in a nationally televised game (25-22, 25-15, 25-22). With 13 kills and her first double digit digs count (13 also), Kayla Jeter notched her first career double double. Nikki Fowler doubled up as well with 10 kills and 15 digs. DeeDee Harrison had 10 kills, hit .444, and had 4 blocks. Leah Hinkey hit .333. Amanda Friday had 10 digs in the libero jersey. And Emily Steinbeck led in assists with 22, with Kylann Scheidt coming in at 16. Coach Patrick debuted his now infamous, but admittedly undefeated, orange pants.
• Random note of the week: Kelsey Robinson is the first player with that surname since All-American Beverly Robinson was on the court for the Lady Vols in the early 1980’s. Ellen Mullins shares a last name with former Lady Vol Ann Mullins — her sister. Every one else on the team are the first players for Tennessee with their last names.
• UT match notes, a video preview, and more are available at the official UT site.
Kentucky (17-12, 11-8)
Game time is Wed., November 24th at 7:00pm ET in Lexington KY
Follow the match with Gametracker or with online pay video
UK match notes (PDF)
SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES TEAMS ACES ASSISTS BLOCKS DIGS KILLS HIT% OPP HIT% UT 9th 2nd 2nd 5th 2nd 2nd 2nd UK 8th 5th 3rd 4th 5th 4th 5th
Tennessee once again stayed put at #21 in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll. The Lady Vols have been ranked for 14 consecutive weeks this year which ties the school record for weeks ranked in a single season and consecutive weeks ranked in a single season.
WEEKS RANKED SINGLE SEASON CONSECUTIVE WEEKS RANKED SINGLE SEASON CONSECUTIVE WEEKS RANKED TOTAL 2010 14 2010 14 1982 – 1984 19 2004 14 2004 14 2004 – 2005 17 1983 14 1983 14 2009 – 2010 16 2006 8 2006 8 2005 – 2006 11 2005 7 1982, 1985, 2005, 2005 3 1985 3
The Lady Vols got a four set victory over Mississippi today (25-15, 13,-25, 25-20, 25-20). More tonight.
UPDATE: Kayla Jeter earned the 2nd double double of her career with 13 kills and 10 digs. Leah Hinkey had 11 kills and a team high .333 hitting percentage. Kelsey Robinson had 9 kills and 10 digs. Leslie Cikra had 7 kills and 2 blocks. Hinkey and DeeDee Harrison had 4 blocks each. Nikki Fowler led the team with 14 digs. Her 2 blocks in this match give her 335 career blocks — putting her into the school record books at #10 in that stat. Ellen Mullins added 13 digs. Emily Steinbeck had 29 assists while Kylann Scheidt had 15.
• The Lady Vols are 36-6 all-time vs Mississippi and 8-2 in their last 10 meetings. Tennessee has a five match winning streak.
• Tennessee’s winning percentage over the Rebels is their best vs any other SEC opponent:
TENNESSEE vs the SEC 29-12 (.707) 14-14 (.500) 26-13-1 (.650) 10-42-1 (.189) 29-24 (.547) 27-39 (.409) 17-33 (.340) 36-6 (.857) 39-7 (.849) 31-25 (.554) • The Lady Vols have only lost a single match vs Mississippi in Oxford — a five setter in 2007.
• Florida has clinched the SEC title outright, while LSU has the Western Division title in hand. Everyone else is playing for placement below the top spot (and potential NCAA berths).
• Tennessee will finish the season in 2nd place in the SEC East. They’ve now placed second or better in the East 6 times since the conference went to divisions in 1995. With a win over Mississippi, Tennessee would guarantee themselves no worse than 3rd place in the overall SEC standings. Two Lady Vol victories and two LSU losses would put Tennessee in a tie for 2nd place in the SEC.
• Mississippi is having one of their best seasons. They will finish the season in 2nd place in the SEC West for the third time since the conference went to divisions in 1995. With a win over Tennessee, they would finish 3rd in the overall SEC standings for just the second time in the past 25 years — that would tie for their highest finish in that time frame. With a win the Rebels would also reach 20 wins for the fourth time in the last 25 years, and finish the regular season with single digit losses for just the third time in school history.
• Last season, Mississippi was last or second to last in the conference in four out of six major statistical categories. This season they’re having a great year and, as you can see below, are in the top half of the SEC in almost every category. The area where they’ve made the biggest improvement is in digs. They went from #10 in conference matches last year to #2 this year. Conversely, Tennessee’s biggest drop from 2009 was in digs. The Lady Vols went from #1 in the SEC last year to #6 this year. Now I’m not necessarily saying that Chloe Goldman, the 2009 Libero of the Year, moving from Knoxville to Oxford had anything to do with these facts… but it’s an awfully big coincidence if she didn’t!
• Last time vs Mississippi: Tennessee defeated the Rebels in three (25-22, 25-16, 25-22). Kayla Jeter had 16 kills, 9 digs, and 2 blocks. Nikki Fowler had a double double with 10 kills and 12 digs. Leah Hinkey’s 5 kills on 10 attempts with no errors was good for .500. She also led the team with 4 blocks. Leslie Cikra just about matched her with 4 kills on 10 attempts with no errors and 3 blocks. Carly Sahagian and DeeDee Harrison put down 5 kills each. Emily Steinbeck had 20 assists. Kylann Scheidt had 17 assists. UT hit .343 as a team while holding the Rebels to .180.
• Official UT match notes and more are available here.
Mississippi (19-9, 13-6)
Game time is Sunday, November 21st at 2:30pm ET in Oxford MS
Follow the match with GameTracker or a paid video feed
SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES TEAMS ACES ASSISTS BLOCKS DIGS KILLS HIT% OPP HIT% UT 9th 1st 2nd 6th 2nd 2nd 2nd UM 4th 4th 5th 2nd 4th 7th 6th
The NCAA and SEC have updated their weekly statistical rankings of players and teams for the 2010 season. The national stats rank 328 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.
POLLS NATIONAL SEC AVCA Poll 21st (nc) 3rd (nc) Volleyball Magazine Poll nr (-) nr (-) Pablo Rankings 25th (-3) 3rd (-1) RichKern.com Poll 21st (-1) 3rd (nc) RPI 16th (-1) 3rd (nc)
NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS ACES ASSISTS BLOCKS DIGS KILLS HIT% 295th (-8) 13th (-4) 47th (-12) 152th (-16) 6th (nc) 7th (nc)
SEC TEAM RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES ACES ASSISTS BLOCKS DIGS KILLS HIT% OPP HIT% 10th (nc) 1st (nc) 3rd (+1) 6th (-2) 1st (nc) 1st (nc) 3rd (nc)
SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES ACES ASSISTS BLOCKS DIGS KILLS HIT% 9th (nc) 2nd (nc) 2nd (nc) 6th (-2) 2nd (nc) 2nd (nc) OPP ACES OPP ASSISTS OPP BLOCKS OPP DIGS OPP KILLS OPP HIT% 1st (nc) 4th (-1) 3rd (-2) 3rd (nc) 3rd (nc) 2nd (+1)
NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS BLOCKS Leah Hinkey 59th (+12) BLOCKS DeeDee Harrison 248th (nr) DIGS Kelsey Robinson 238th (-5) KILLS Nikki Fowler 94th (-9) KILLS Kayla Jeter 246th (-10) HITTING PERCENTAGE Leah Hinkey 36th (-6) HITTING PERCENTAGE Kayla Jeter 160th (+16) HITTING PERCENTAGE Nikki Fowler 170th (-35) HITTING PERCENTAGE DeeDee Harrison 176th (-9) HITTING PERCENTAGE Leslie Cikra 243rd (-19) POINTS Nikki Fowler 109th (-10)
SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES ASSISTS Kelsey Mahoney 8th (+1) BLOCKS Leah Hinkey 3rd (+1) BLOCKS DeeDee Harrison 13th (nr) DIGS Kelsey Robinson 8th (nc) KILLS Nikki Fowler 4th (nc) KILLS Kayla Jeter 13th (-1) HITTING PERCENTAGE Leah Hinkey 6th (-3) HITTING PERCENTAGE Kayla Jeter 11th (+1) HITTING PERCENTAGE Nikki Fowler 12th (-2) HITTING PERCENTAGE DeeDee Harrison 13th (-2) HITTING PERCENTAGE Leslie Cikra 18th (-2) POINTS Nikki Fowler 4th (nc)
SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES ASSISTS Emily Steinbeck 9th (-2) BLOCKS Leah Hinkey 4th (+1) DIGS Kelsey Robinson 8th (-2) KILLS Nikki Fowler 6th (-1) KILLS Kayla Jeter 7th (nc) HITTING PERCENTAGE Leah Hinkey 4th (-1) (nc) = no change (nr) = not ranked (+/-) = change from last week
Due to problems with the senior day photos which took longer than usual to edit and then something going wrong with the blog (still haven’t figured out the problem there), I’m way behind on updates to the site. You’re due the weekly stats update, another senior profile, and notes for the upcoming matches. They are coming! I’m just a day or two behind now.
Photos from Sunday’s Senior Day match vs Arkansas are now online. Apologies for the different exposure and lighting issues. I finally got a new camera last week! I used it to take photos of Friday’s match but they didn’t turn out very good. Sunday I tried fiddling with different settings to see what worked best. So some photos used different settings than others — but at least they turned out OK. I think I found the settings that work best, but I guess I won’t know for sure until we get back to Thompson Boling Arena next year!
There’s a problem with my blogging software so I can’t upload these images as I usually do. But you can view the image files manually here, and a zip file with the full resolution photos is here (73 MB). I’ll try to get this fixed as soon as possible.
[ click to continue article… ]
Congratulations to future Lady Vols Tiffany Baker and Alston Kearns on being named to the 2010 AVCA Under Armour Girls High School All-America Team. Baker, a middle blocker from Hebron High School in Carrollton TX, was named to the first team, while Kearns, from Apex High School in Apex NC, was named an Honorable Mention.
• The Lady Vols are now 17-33 vs LSU all time and 14-14 vs Arkansas.
• Tennessee has won 12 of the 14 final home matches of the regular season under Coach Rob Patrick.
• This year the Lady Vols went 12-2 at home. That’s the 7th most home wins in school history (the 3rd most in the last 25 years), and the 7th least home losses in school history (also the 3rd least in the last 25 years).
• Tennessee held Arkansas to a .000 hitting percentage, the best defensive effort of the year in that stat. It’s the 9th lowest the team has held any opponent since 2001, and the 3rd lowest they’ve held an SEC foe in that time frame.
• With a final total of 13,761 for the season, the Lady Vols shattered the home attendance record of 11,585 set last season.
• With 6 losses on the year and only 3 chances for a loss remaining, Tennessee will have single digit losses at season’s end. The Lady Vols have now achieved that feat 8 times in program history and 5 times under Coach Patrick.
• Since I didn’t do a random stat last week, here is possibly the most random stat of the year! As of this week Leah Hinkey has played in 123 matches and 456 sets in her career. Get it? 123-456… Sorry… I’ll try to do better next week…!
Record updates:
• Nikki Fowler has moved up to 8th in the SEC in career attacks.• I’ve neglected keeping track of single season records for awhile, so let’s remedy that! The numbers below are all time single season records (including 15-point side out scoring, and 25- and 30-point rally scoring) and are current as of today but could change by season’s end.
– HITTING PERCENTAGE: #4 Leah Hinkey, #21 Kayla Jeter, #23 Nikki Fowler, #25 DeeDee Harrison
– BLOCKS PER SET: #19 Leah Hinkey
– DIGS PER SET: #10 Kelsey Robinson
Double doubles:
• Kelsey Robinson vs LSU (kills and digs)Career highs matched or exceeded (excluding freshmen):
• Leslie Cikra: block solos, block assists, total blocks (in a four set match)• DeeDee Harrison: block assists (in a four set match)
• Leah Hinkey: assists (in a four set match), block solos (in a three set match), and block solos (in a four set match)
• Kayla Jeter: hitting percentage, assists (in a four set match), aces (in a three set match), block solos, block assists (in a four set match), totla blocks (in a four set match)
Former Lady Vol head coach Bob Bertucci has announced his resignation from Temple after 16 years with the Owls. Bertucci is the winningest coach in Temple history, won seven A-10 regular season titles, and earned four automatic NCAA Tournament bids, advancing to the Sweet 16 in 2002. He was the head coach of Tennessee from 1979-1986 and had a 229-115 record — the winningest coach here until Rob Patrick recently broke that record. He led the Lady Vols to four NCAA tournaments and three SEC titles.
During his college coaching career he has been named the Eastern Collegiate Volleyball League Coach of the Year in 1978 (with Army), the Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year in 1984 (with Tennessee), the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Coach of the Year in 1988, 1990 and 1992 (with Rutgers-Newark), and the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year in 1997, 1999, and 2000 (with Temple). Over his 32 year career his teams went 667-383. He’s also known for his many volleyball camps and books, and as a lecturer. In 2007, Bertucci was inducted into the YMCA Volleyball Hall of Fame.