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	22nd (-1)	3rd (nc)
Volleyball Magazine Poll	NR	NR
Pablo Rankings	29th (nc)	3rd (nc)
RichKern.com Poll	22nd (+1)	3rd (nc)
RPI	15th (-3)	3rd (-1)

NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT%
260th (+6)	17th (-4)	41st (+13)	167th (-13)	12th (-4)	9th (nc)

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT%	OPP HIT%
10th (nc)	1st (+1)	4th (+1)	6th (nc)	2nd (-1)	1st (nc)	4th (nc)

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT%
7th (-1)	2nd (nc)	4th (nc)	4th (-1)	2nd (nc)	2nd (nc)
OPP ACES	OPP ASSISTS	OPP BLOCKS	OPP DIGS	OPP KILLS	OPP HIT%
1st (nc)	6th (+2)	5th (nc)	5th (-1)	5th (nc)	5th (nc)

NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
BLOCKS	Leah Hinkey	74th (+34)
DIGS	Kelsey Robinson	245th (nr)
KILLS	Nikki Fowler	71st (-2)
KILLS	Kayla Jeter	227th (-13)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leah Hinkey	44th (+21)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Nikki Fowler	132nd (+51)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Kayla Jeter	175th (+8)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	DeeDee Harrison	239th (-13)
POINTS	Nikki Fowler	81st (-3)

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	8th (nr)
ASSISTS	Kelsey Mahoney	8th (nc)
BLOCKS	Leah Hinkey	4th (+2)
BLOCKS	DeeDee Harrison	12th (nr)
DIGS	Kelsey Robinson	9th (nc)
KILLS	Nikki Fowler	3rd (nc)
KILLS	Kayla Jeter	12th (nc)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leah Hinkey	6th (nc)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Nikki Fowler	11th (-2)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Kayla Jeter	12th (nc)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	DeeDee Harrison	18th (-1)
POINTS	Nikki Fowler	3rd (nc)

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	3rd (+2)
ASSISTS	Emily Steinbeck	9th (-1)
DIGS	Kelsey Robinson	7th (+1)
KILLS	Nikki Fowler	3rd (nc)
KILLS	Kayla Jeter	6th (-2)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leah Hinkey	6th (+3)

(nc) = no change   (nr) = not ranked   (+/-) = change from last week

The Lady Vols are about to begin a three match home stand, their longest of the year since opening the season at the Lady Vol Classic. First up is Louisville. Longtime readers know they’re one of my favorite teams. I lived there for several years before returning to Knoxville, and my son was born there. While it’s not fun to root against a team you like, it is great to get to see the Cardinals in person again.

• Tennessee is 12-7 vs Louisville all-time. The teams are 5-5 in their last 10 meetings.

• The Louisville and Tennessee out-of-conference series has been played every year since 2004. Until last year, the home team had won every match. In 2009, Tennessee came back from a two-set deficit to stun the Cardinals in Louisville (23-25, 21-25, 25-17, 25-9, 17-15), breaking the home win streak between the teams.

• In the last seven matches since 2001, neither team has swept the other. The last was a 15-8, 15-0, 15-7 win by Louisville in 1995. (That sweep was also notable for being one of only eleven times in program history that UT was blanked in a set.)

• The Lady Vols and the Cardinals have shared two common opponents so far this season:

	TENNESSEE	LOUISVILLE
Ohio	WIN 3-2 23-25, 25-19, 25-16, 23-25, 18-16	WIN 3-2 23-25, 25-22, 25-22, 16-25, 15-9
Kentucky	WIN 3-0 25-22, 25-15, 25-22	LOSS 2-3 25-14, 19-25, 22-25, 27-25, 10-15

• Tennessee and Louisville were familiar rivals in the 1980’s as well, facing each other 7 times during the decade. In fact, the teams actually co-hosted two tournaments together. In 1982, the Lady Vols and five other teams made the trip to Louisville for the Cardinal-Volunteer Invitational. The next year the Cardinals and four other teams headed to Knoxville for the Volunteer-Cardinal Invitational.

• The Lady Vols have overcome two-set deficits to win in five sets 14 times since 1975. Louisville is the only team against whom they’ve done it twice — in 1985 and 2009.

• UofL Players to Watch: Sophomore Lola Arslanbekova leads the team by far in kills with 3.62 per set. Freshman Emily Juhl and junior Anastasia Artemeva are also options both with about 2.50 kills per set each. Senior Amanda Simmons leads their blockers with 1.37 per set with junior Gwen Rucker just behind with 1.23. Several players handle receiving attacks with freshman Caitlin Welch getting the most this season with 3.47 digs per set — though senior Lindsey Mango is nearing the all the Cardinals’ career digs record. Freshman Taylor Brauneis does setting duty with 8.41 per set.

Louisville (14-5, 8-1 Big East)
Game time is Wednesday, October 27th at 7:00pm ET in Knoxville
Follow the match with GameTracker or online video

NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS
TEAMS	ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT%
UT	260th	17th	41st	167th	12th	9th
UofL	234th	179th	7th	293rd	149th	45th

Congratulations to Lady Vol Leah Hinkey who was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week! It’s her second time getting the honor in her career.

“Hinkey posted one of her best weeks of the season as she averaged 1.67 blocks per set while leading Tennessee to a split of SEC matches. Hinkey topped the squad with 10 total putbacks, including a season-high eight on the road at South Carolina on Sunday. With that effort, Hinkey moved into fifth place in SEC history with 538 career blocks during the rally scoring era. Hinkey also hit at an amazing .579 clip last week with 12 kills and just a single attack error in 19 swings. Hinkey had been errorless in three straight matches before making an error in the second set of the contest against the Gamecocks.”

After splitting matches with #1 Florida and South Carolina, the Lady Vols just slipped one notch in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll to #22.

• Tennessee is now 10-42-1 vs Florida and 31-25 vs South Carolina all time.

• After their loss to Florida, Tennessee is now 0-6 vs #1 teams.

• Tennessee’s win vs South Carolina was just their 2nd in Columbia in their last 5 visits.

• The Lady Vols had a big blocking weekend. Making it all the more remarkable is that both matches were finished in three sets. Against South Carolina, Tennessee had their best match of the year (of any length) with 12 total team blocks. Five players had 5 blocks or better over the two-match weekend:

Leah Hinkey had 10 (2 vs UF, 8 vs SC)
DeeDee Harrison had 8 (5 vs UF, 3 vs SC)
Leslie Cikra had 6 (4 vs UF, 2 vs SC)
Nikki Fowler had 6 (all vs SC)
Kayla Jeter had 5 (3 vs UF, 2 vs SC)

Record updates:

• Leah Hinkey is up to #5 in the SEC in both career block assists and total blocks (in the rally scoring era).

Double doubles:

• Nikki Fowler vs Florida (kills and digs)

Career highs matched or exceeded (excluding freshmen):

• Leslie Cikra: block assists

• Nikki Fowler: block assists (in a three-set match) and total blocks (in a three-set match)

• DeeDee Harrison: block assists (in a three-set match) and total blocks (in a three-set match)

• Leah Hinkey: assists (in a three-set match) and block solos (in a three-set match)

• Kayla Jeter: assists (in a three-set match) and block solos (in a three-set match)

The Lady Vols swept South Carolina this afternoon. I’m at my daughter’s volleyball tournament so don’t have the details yet. We’ve just finished up (her team lost in the championship finals) so after the trophy presentation, some pictures, and a celebration dinner for the little girl here I’ll finally get to see how the big girls at UT did and will have more then.

• Tennessee is 30-25 all time vs South Carolina and 7-3 in the last 10 meetings. The Lady Vols have a 4 match winning streak over the Gamecocks, including a 3-1 win earlier this year.

• Tennessee is 1-3 in their last 4 matches in Columbia.

• 14 of the last 20 matches with South Carolina, dating back to 2001, have gone to four or five sets. Tennessee is 9-5 in the longer matches and 4-2 in the sweeps.

• South Carolina has 9 true freshmen on the roster, which ties for the most in Division I.

• Tennessee’s second longest losing steak to a single team in program history includes a 14 match skid vs South Carolina (from 1994-2000).

• In the first meeting this season: Nikki Fowler double doubled (13 kills, 15 digs) and hit .444. Kayla Jeter had 13 kills. Kelsey Robinson had 10 kills and 4 aces. DeeDee Harrison had 6 blocks, 3 of them solo. Three setters all had double digit assists. Tennessee held South Carolina to a single total team block. The Lady Vols had 8 aces, their season high so far.

• SC Players to watch: Libero Hannah Lawing leads the SEC in digs (and is 46th in the nation) with 5.07 per set. Freshman Juliette Thévenin leads South Carolina and is 5th in the conference with 3.43 kills per set. She’s 9th in the SEC in service aces. Teresa Stenlund leads the team in blocks and hitting percentage. Setter Taylor Bruns ranks 6th in the conference in assists.

• Random note of the week: The three Tennessee coaches were all athletes themselves, two of them not just in volleyball. Dani Busboom won the national championship at Nebraska and was named the Big 12 Libero of the Year. In addition to volleyball, Rob Patrick played football at Miami OH and Gregg Whitis played golf for Olivet Nazarene.

South Carolina (2-8, 5-15)
Game time is Sunday, October 24th at 1:30pm ET in Columbia SC
Follow the match with GameTracker or online video
SC match notes (PDF)

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
TEAMS	ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT%	OPP HIT%
UT	6th	2nd	4th	3rd	2nd	2nd	5th
SC	11th	10th	11th	6th	10th	11th	11th

Tennessee stayed fairly close to the #1 team in the land but couldn’t close out a single set vs Florida, falling 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-20). The sweep is the first of the season vs the Lady Vols. Nikki Fowler got the double double with 10 digs and a match leading 15 kills. Kayla Jeter had 7 kills, 7 digs, and 3 blocks. Leah Hinkey had 6 kills. DeeDee Harrison led the match in blocks with 5 with Leslie Cikra just behind at 4. Kelsey Robinson had 12 digs. Emily Steinbeck and Kylann Scheidt notched 13 assists each.

UPDATE: KnoxNews.com story online here.

STATS | UT STORY | UF STORY

• Florida leads the all-time series vs Tennessee 41-10-1. UT is 2-8 in the last ten matches. The Gators won the last match earlier this season in Knoxville 3-1 (28-26, 25-23, 19-25, 25-17).

• Florida coach Mary Wise was the youngest Division I coach in NCAA history when she was hired at the age of 21 by Iowa State in 1981. Earlier this week she became the 16th head coach in Division I volleyball history to reach career victory #700.

• Florida has been dominant since coach Mary Wise took over the program in 1991. She’s only lost 16 matches to SEC teams in her career. LSU beat her three times during her first year on the job. But since then no conference opponent has won more matches against her than Tennessee.

• The Lady Vols have won 4 matches at Florida (1984, 1989, twice in 2004).

• If UT gets to five sets vs Florida, history says they have at good shot a winning. Tennessee has won 5 of those 7 matches played between the teams. The last time Florida won a five set match vs the Lady Vols was 1987.

• Tennessee’s longest losing steak to a single team in program history is a 28 match skid vs Florida (from 1991 to 2004).

• Florida is the #1 team in the county. No SEC team besides Florida has ever reached the top spot in the AVCA poll. Florida previously held the #1 position for 5 weeks in 1996.

• Tennessee is 0-5 vs #1 teams.

Tennessee vs #1
11/16/1982	#1 Hawaii	L 2-1 (15-7, 15-17, 15-5)
12/10/1983	#1 Hawaii	L 3-0 (15-6, 15-7, 15-4)
9/21/1984	#1 Pacific	L 3-0 (15-2, 15-10, 15-11)
11/17/1996	#1 Florida	L 3-1 (15-10, 12-15, 15-8, 15-9)
8/24/2007	#1 Nebraska	L 3-0 (30-15, 30-19, 30-18)
10/20/2010	#1 Florida

#1 Florida (16-1, 9-0)
Game time is Wednesday, October 20th at 8:00pm ET in Gainesville FL
Follow the match on ESPNU, with GameTracker or on WRUF 850’s online radio stream
UF match notes (PDF)

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 (+3)	3rd (nc)
Volleyball Magazine Poll	NR	NR
Pablo Rankings	29th (-1)	3rd (nc)
RichKern.com Poll	23rd (nc)	3rd (nc)
RPI	12th (-1)	2nd (nc)

NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT%
266th (-1)	13th (+2)	54th (+9)	154th (-1)	8th (+4)	9th (+1)

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT%	OPP HIT%
10th (nc)	2nd (nc)	5th (nc)	6th (nc)	1st (+1)	1st (nc)	4th (+1)

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT%
6th (+3)	2nd (nc)	4th (+2)	3rd (nc)	2nd (nc)	2nd (+1)
OPP ACES	OPP ASSISTS	OPP BLOCKS	OPP DIGS	OPP KILLS	OPP HIT%
1st (+1)	8th (nc)	5th (+2)	4th (+1)	5th (+2)	5th (nc)

NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
BLOCKS	Leah Hinkey	108th (+3)
KILLS	Nikki Fowler	69th (+1)
KILLS	Kayla Jeter	214th (-20)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leah Hinkey	65th (+45)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Nikki Fowler	183rd (+49)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Kayla Jeter	183rd (-27)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leslie Cikra	217th (+23)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	DeeDee Harrison	226th (nr)
POINTS	Nikki Fowler	78th (+3)
POINTS	Kayla Jeter	246th (-12)

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ASSISTS	Kelsey Mahoney	8th (+1)
BLOCKS	Leah Hinkey	6th (nc)
DIGS	Kelsey Robinson	9th (+1)
KILLS	Nikki Fowler	3rd (+1)
KILLS	Kayla Jeter	12th (-3)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leah Hinkey	6th (+3)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Nikki Fowler	9th (+3)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Kayla Jeter	12th (-1)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leslie Cikra	16th (+2)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	DeeDee Harrison	17th (nr)
POINTS	Nikki Fowler	3rd (nc)
POINTS	Kayla Jeter	11th (-1)

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	5th (+3)
ASSISTS	Emily Steinbeck	8th (nr)
DIGS	Kelsey Robinson	8th (+1)
KILLS	Nikki Fowler	3rd (+1)
KILLS	Kayla Jeter	4th (-1)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leah Hinkey	9th (nr)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Nikki Fowler	10th (nr)

(nc) = no change   (nr) = not ranked   (+/-) = change from last week

Most of the SEC is now at the half-way point in their 10-team 20-match round robin schedule. (Alabama and Mississippi State will get there tomorrow while Florida and South Carolina are starting the second half of SEC play this week without yet having faced each other.) While mathematically the race for the conference championship is still wide open, in reality it is probably down to four or five teams at the most.

Florida (9-0)

The long-time champs are once again the team best poised to make a run at the title. They have swept aside all comers so far. No one has yet to take two sets from them — only four teams have gotten one! They could lose two conference matches and still win a share of the championship. While a split title isn’t out of the question, the Gators would need a major end of season collapse for anyone else to win it outright. The downside for Florida is they will have to travel to LSU, Mississippi, and Auburn.

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT	OPP HIT
1st	4th	2nd	9th	4th	1st	1st

LSU (8-2)

The defending champs were in the best position to challenge the Gators again until the final game of the first half of the season when they dropped a 3-0 sweep to Mississippi. Now they (and everyone else) needs some help to get past Florida. The Tigers made swift work of most of the rest of the competition in their wins with only Tennessee giving them much trouble. But even so they’ll need to do even better and probably finish out perfect to get a chance to repeat.

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

Mississippi (8-2)

The Rebels have staged a huge comeback after last season when they finished at the very bottom of the SEC. Now, after an upset sweep over #12 LSU on TV this past weekend, Mississippi stands in second place in the conference. Like everyone else, they’ll need some help to get past Florida. But other than the Gators and the Lady Vols, Mississippi had no trouble handling the rest of the competition this year. Even if they can’t get past Florida, just getting an SEC West title would be huge for this team which has never won a conference or division championship.

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

Tennessee (7-3)

Like last year, an upset loss to a conference foe with a losing record has hurt Tennessee’s chances at the championship. The Lady Vols were literally three points away from beating both Florida and LSU. After a sweep of Mississippi, Tennessee would have been nicely placed for the second half of the season if not for a five-set loss to Georgia. But they aren’t out of it yet. Tennessee would need to finish the season without a loss and hope LSU and Mississippi (or any other two teams) could hang losses on Florida. That scenario would ensure at least a tie for the title, and it isn’t too far-fetched.

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT	OPP HIT
6th	2nd	4th	3rd	2nd	2nd	5th

Auburn (6-4)

The other Western Division Tigers have only lost to the teams above them on this list. While they need the most help of anyone listed here, they have the advantage that three of the four teams will have to trek to Alabama to play them.

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT	OPP HIT
7th	8th	8th	7th	8th	7th	4th

So what are Tennessee’s chances? I think they can beat every team in the conference this year — they were just an eight point swing over three matches away from accomplishing it in the first half of the season. Only their own errors and a problem with starting slow and having to work their way back into sets has hurt them. Maybe with a little more stability in the line-up (for the first time since starting the season 6-0, UT has had the same starters three matches in a row), some of those issues will be more easily dealt with. The hard part will be getting help from the rest of the SEC. Even if we win out, Florida will need at least two more losses for the Lady Vols to get on top of the conference. LSU and Mississippi are both capable of the upsets. And Florida having to go on the road for both matches will help as well.

The good news historically for Tennessee is that since the SEC switched to a double round robin format in 2006, the team has only done worse in the second half of the season once. The bad news is they have only done better in the second half once as well.

	FIRST 10 SEC GAMES	LAST 10 SEC GAMES
2006	6-4	4-6
2007	3-7	3-7
2008	6-4	9-1
2009	8-2	8-2
2010	7-3

• Leslie Cikra talks about the Alabama match, her height advantages, and the change from middle to outside in an article at KnoxNews.com.

• UT has match notes for tomorrow’s Florida game and a video interview with Coach Patrick online.

• Since launching them, I’ve added two features to the player match books. You can now sort out the SEC and out of conference matches. And (because I apparently can’t count to 48!) you can choose an option to highlight all of a player’s double doubles. I need to make a final page with links to all of these so you don’t have to go to each roster page to access them. Until then here are quick links to them all.

• Looks like I will be a no-show in Gainesville after all. Knowing my luck, since I won’t be there to see it they’ll get their first win over a #1 team in school history… and I am OK with that!

After a two sweep weekend the Lady Vols match their best jump in the coaches rankings this season, moving up 3 spots to #21 in the latest AVCA Poll.

We’ve got another mid-week match so I’ll keep this recap shorter than usual so I can get to work not only on the notes for Wednesday’s match but also, if I can squeeze it in, a mid-season look at the SEC race.

On a slightly related note, several people asked yesterday if I was going to be able to make the trip to Gainesville this week and I said I was not because it was a little too far a mid-week trip for me to be able to work around my wife’s schedule and the kids’ school. But now it’s looking hopeful — maybe a 50-50 chance I can make it. Which means I may have even less time to get all this done before then!

• Tennessee is now 38-7 vs Mississippi State and 28-12 vs Alabama all-time.

• With 1,103 in attendance, the Alabama match was the 9th largest home crowd in school history. This is the 4th time this season that Tennessee has had more than 1,000 people at a home match, besting the old record of 1,000+ matches in a season set last year at 3.

Record updates:

• Nikki Fowler moves to #5 all time on the school career kills list. She’s 112 attacks shy of #10 on the SEC career attack attempts list.

• Leah Hinkey is a volatile #9 on the UT career hitting percentage list. She’s also up to #6 on the SEC career assists list.

Double doubles:

• Nikki Fowler vs Alabama (kills and digs)

Career highs matched or exceeded (excluding freshmen):

• Leslie Cikra: solo blocks
• DeeDee Harrison: assists
• Kayla Jeter: solo blocks

The Lady Vols swept Alabama this afternoon (25-17, 25-21, 26-24). More tonight…

UPDATE: Tennessee spread the ball around today with 5 players getting 7 or more kills in the sweep. Nikki Fowler led with 11 kills and hit .450. She finished the double double with 11 digs. Leslie Cikra had 9 kills while hitting .412. She also had 3 blocks. DeeDee Harrison had 8 kills on .400, and also knocked down 3 blocks. Leah Hinkey had 7 kills, with a match high .500 hitting percentage and a match high 5 blocks. Kayla Jeter had 7 kills on 30 swings, adding in 5 blocks as well. Kelsey Robinson led the Lady Vols with 16 digs while Kelsey Mahoney led in assists with 22. Emily Steinbeck added 18 more. With 1,103 on hand the match is also another top ten crowd for the team this year.

STATS | UT STORY & VIDEO | UA STORY