Tennessee gets the sweep vs Mississippi State tonight (25-16, 25-17, 25-18). The Lady Vols held the Bulldogs to an oppressive .081 hiiting percentage while hitting an impressive .391 themselves. More later…

UPDATE: Sorry for the delay. Watched a movie with the wife after the match tonight and I have to be up at 6:45am to get ready for my daughter’s volleyball game in the morning, so check out the info below to get the stats, story, and a video interview about win. I’ll recap after the Sunday match!

STATS | UT STORY & VIDEO | MSU STORY

• Coach Patrick will hold his “Chalk Talk” 45 minutes before each game this weekend. All fans in attendance can join in by meeting in the Ray Mears room at the appropriate time.

• On Sunday kids 12 and under will receive a voucher for a free hot dog and drink with their $1 admission.

• Also on Sunday, the team will be holding a clinic after the match for kids 8th grade and under. Registration is required.

• ESPN has a (rare!) piece on volleyball up this week. The article discusses parity in the NCAA ranks, including the regularity of top 25 teams getting beat and how that didn’t happen nearly as often in the past.

• Last but certainly not least, UT is having a “Dress Like Coach Patrick” contest! The fan who best channels the head coach’s recent… um, style… at tonight’s match will win two tickets to the Mississippi football game and a behind-the-scenes tour of Neyland Stadium! So break out the orange pants and white shoes and come support the Lady Vols tonight! (To be fair to Coach Patrick, it could have been a lot worse…)

UPDATE: Completely forgot to mention the official match notes from Tennessee are online. Always good info in there to check out! Also available is a video preview with Coach Patrick.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel has an in-depth piece featuring Kayla Jeter and DeeDee Harrison, their background and relationship, and their family connections. Great article and a cool photo — don’t miss this one!

There’s been a lot of changes since last year when I made my first post on the SEC and Twitter. Today every school has specific accounts for the volleyball team and/or their coach. Below is a list of all those I know of (let me know if I’ve missed any). Not included are players (they deserve their privacy) or assistant coaches (just too many to keep track of).

I’ve also created a Twitter list you can follow. If you’re not a Twitter user but don’t want to be left out I’ve added a widget to the sidebar of this page where you can check out all the updates. (One note about the Twitter list: It does not include Alabama. Apparently sometime after I started following them last year the person that runs their Twitter account banned me! Therefore, I’m also not allowed to add them to lists. Problem fixed and Alabama is in the list!)

	@AlabamaVB
	@RobertPulliza
	@AUVolleyball
	@GatorZoneVB, @Gatormary
	@GeorgiaVB
	@KentuckyVB, @UKVBManager
	@lsuvolleyball
	@OleMissVB, @CoachGetzin
	@mstateVB, @jennyhazelwood
	@gamecockvolley
	@UTVolleyball, @RobPatrickUT

• Tennessee is 37-7 all-time vs Mississippi State. They are 9-1 in the last 10 matches and are on a 4 match winning streak.

• Mississippi State has only won one match vs Tennessee since 1997. They have not won in Knoxville since 1995.

• 9 of the last 13 matches between the two teams have been 3-0 sweeps by the Lady Vols.

• MSU Players to Watch: The Bulldogs have a quartet of players who are in the top ranks of the conference at their positions. Senior middle blocker Ashley Newsome is second in the SEC in blocks with 1.25 per set. She ranks 4th in the school record books. The only other senior on the team, Kayla Woodard, is tops in SEC matches with 4.61 digs per set. She recently topped the 1,000 career digs mark and ranks 5th in MSU history in that category. Caitlin Rance is the 3rd best in the conference in kills with 3.77 per set. Freshman setter Paris Perret is 3rd in the conference with 9.32 assists per set.

• Mississippi State alumna and head coach Jenny Hazelwood is the only current SEC coach to also have attended an SEC school. She played for State from 1996-99 and currently ranks 8th in the SEC record book for career assists. She’s looking for her first win against Rob Patrick this weekend. As a player, her MSU team defeated Tennessee during the 1996 regular season then later that year did it again knocking them out of the SEC tournament. In 1997, Coach Patrick took over the UT program and the Lady Vols defeated the Bulldogs during the remainder of Hazelwood’s playing career. As a head coach, she is 0-3 vs Tennessee, with 2 losses vs the Lady Vols last season and 1 loss in 2006 when she was the head coach at Centenary.

• Tennessee is 27-12 all-time vs Alabama. They are tied with 5 wins each in their last 10 matches, though Tennessee comes in with a 4 match winning streak.

• UA Players to Watch: Alabama’s Kayla Fitterer tops the SEC in aces and is 6th in kills with 3.46 per set. Along with Alyssa Meuth and Briann Vande Griend, the three have combined for over 500 kills. Kelsey Anderson ranks 3rd in the conference with 4.75 digs per set. And Kayla Schmidt ranks 10th in assists and 7th in aces.

• Tennessee football fans are very familiar with the phrase “The Third Saturday in October” . From 1928-1991 that was the traditional day the Tennessee vs Alabama football game was held and it became the name of the rivalry as well. Since 1992, the game has had its day mandated more by SEC divisional scheduling than tradition. Though the name remains, in the past 10 years the football game has been played on the actual third Saturday in October only 3 times. The volleyball teams, however, are doing a much better job of keeping the spirit of the tradition alive. In the past 10 years a Tennessee vs Alabama volleyball match has been played on the third Friday or Sunday in October 7 times.

• Random note of the week: Rob Patrick is in his 14th season as head coach of Tennessee. He is the longest serving coach in UT history. He is the third longest serving head coach at a single school currently in the SEC, behind Mary Wise (20 years as Florida) and Judy Green (15 years at Alabama).

Mississippi State (10-8, 2-5)
Game time is Friday, October 15th at 7:00pm ET in Knoxville
Follow the match with GameTracker or with free online video
MSU match notes (PDF)

Alabama (1-6, 9-8)
Game time is Friday, October 17th at 1:30pm ET in Knoxville
Follow the match with GameTracker or with free online video
UA match notes (PDF)

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
TEAMS	ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT%	OPP HIT%
UT	9th	2nd	6th	3rd	2nd	3rd	5th
MSU	8th	11th	4th	6th	11th	9th	9th
UA	7th	8th	10th	4th	8th	10th	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	24th (-2)	3rd (nc)
Volleyball Magazine Poll	NR	NR
Pablo Rankings	28th (-5)	3rd (nc)
RichKern.com Poll	23rd (-1)	3rd (nc)
RPI	11th (-2)	2nd (nc)

NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT%
265th (-26)	15th (+6)	63rd (-12)	153rd (+17)	12th (+3)	10th (-2)

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

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT%
9th (-4)	2nd (nc)	6th (-1)	3rd (+1)	2nd (+1)	3rd (nc)
OPP ACES	OPP ASSISTS	OPP BLOCKS	OPP DIGS	OPP KILLS	OPP HIT%
2nd (nc)	8th (nc)	7th (-4)	5th (nc)	7th (-1)	5th (+1)

NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
BLOCKS	Leah Hinkey	111th (-18)
KILLS	Nikki Fowler	70th (+27)
KILLS	Kayla Jeter	194th (+16)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leah Hinkey	110th (+3)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Kayla Jeter	156th (-22)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Nikki Fowler	183rd (-14)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leslie Cikra	240th (nr)
POINTS	Nikki Fowler	81st (+19)
POINTS	Kayla Jeter	234th (+10)

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ASSISTS	Kelsey Mahoney	9th (+1)
BLOCKS	Leah Hinkey	6th (nc)
DIGS	Kelsey Robinson	10th (nr)
KILLS	Nikki Fowler	4th (nc)
KILLS	Kayla Jeter	9th (nr)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leah Hinkey	9th (-1)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Kayla Jeter	11th (nc)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Nikki Fowler	12th (+3)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leslie Cikra	18th (nr)
POINTS	Nikki Fowler	3rd (nc)
POINTS	Kayla Jeter	10th (nc)

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	8th (-3)
DIGS	Kelsey Robinson	9th (nr)
KILLS	Kayla Jeter	3rd (-1)
KILLS	Nikki Fowler	4th (+1)

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

• The Lady Vols are now 13-14 vs Arkansas all time and 17-32 vs LSU.

• Kelsey Robinson’s 27 digs vs Arkansas matched the 2nd highest total for a freshman in school history. Jennifer Elliott scooped up 29 vs Georgia in 1999, and Maureen Skalitzky had 27 in a match vs Florida in 1986. Robinson’s total is the 25th most by anyone in program history and the 17th highest in a five-set match.

• Two days after her performance in Arkansas, Robinson dug up 24 vs LSU. That total was good for the 7th most by a freshman in school history, behind Elliot, Skalitzky, Robinson herself, Kylie Marshall (26 vs LSU in 2006), Morgan Miltner (25 vs South Carolina in 2002), and Andrea Peterson (25 vs Georgia in 1998). It was also the 25 highest total by anyone in program history for a four-set match.

• Nikki Fowler is the first player at UT to ever reach the 4,000 attack attempts mark. Her next milestones for that stat include: 155 more to reach the SEC top 10 career attacks list; 439 more to become the only player at UT to ever reach 1,000 attacks in four seasons.

• Tennessee pulled off a huge –and rare — comeback after being down two sets vs Arkansas. Since 1975, UT has rallied from a two-set deficit to win just 14 times. They’ve accomplished the feat only 3 times in the last 13 years.

• Arkansas was the 11th opponent the Lady Vols have held under a .200 team hitting percentage. The match marked the 9th time Tennessee has hit .299 or better this year.

• How close were the Lady Vols to defeating now #12 LSU? Just like the loss vs now #1 Florida, 3 points was all they needed. A 2 point swing in the first set and a 1 point swing in the second would have given Tennessee the match. In terms of actual points, Tennessee only scored 7 points less than LSU over the entire match: 103-96.

• Tennessee’s loss at LSU was their worst match of the season in terms of errors. The team committed a total of 48. Their previous high was 47 in the Georgia loss — but that came in a five-set match. Since this was just a four-set match, their average of 12 errors per set is easily the most of the year, surpassing the previous high of 9.4 per set vs Georgia.

• In the Lady Vols’ four losses this season, they have only been been out-killed in 1 match (Florida). They’ve been out-killed in 2 of their victories (Ohio and Pittsburgh).

The following includes matches from the past two weeks since I skipped that recap.

Record updates:

• Nikki Fowler is up to #6 on the school career kills list and #7 on the school career digs list.

• Leah Hinkey moves up to #7 on the SEC career assisted blocks chart and #6 on the SEC rally scoring career blocks chart.

Double doubles:

• Kayla Jeter vs Kentucky (kills and digs)

• Nikki Fowler vs Kentucky (kills and digs)

• Nikki Fowler vs Mississippi (kills and digs)

• Nikki Fowler vs Arkansas (kills and digs)

• Kelsey Mahoney vs LSU (assists and digs)

• Nikki Fowler vs LSU (kills and digs)

Career highs matched or exceeded (excluding freshmen):

• Leslie Cikra: assists, digs, digs (in a four-set and five-set match), solo blocks, assisted blocks (in a four-set match), and total blocks (in a four-set match)

• Nikki Fowler: attacks (in a four-set match)

• DeeDee Harrison: attacks, digs, digs (in a five-set match), solo blocks (in a five-set match), assisted blocks (in a three-set match), and total blocks (in a three-set match),

• Kayla Jeter: attacks (in a three-set match), assists (in a four-set match), aces (in a five-set match), digs, digs (in a four-set and five-set match), and solo blocks

• Emily Steinbeck: attacks (in a four-set match), assists (in a three-set match), aces (in a four-set match), digs (in a five-set match), and points (in a four-set match)

The Lady Vols are down to #24 in the AVCA poll after their loss to now #12 LSU.

Congratulations to Kelsey Robinson who was named the SEC Freshman of the Week!

In the first two starts of her career at the libero position, Robinson surpassed the 20-dig mark in both contests, averaging a stellar 5.67 digs per frame as UT split a pair of hard-fought SEC contests on the road. Primarily an outside hitter earlier in the season, Robinson donned the libero jersey for the first time this weekend as she continues to recover from an ankle sprain. She finished with totals of 51 digs, eight assists and two aces over the span of the weekend. She was also one of the team’s top passers, successfully handling 97.3 percent of the serves that came her way with just two reception errors in 74 attempts. In UT’s come-from-behind victory over Arkansas on Friday, Robinson scooped up a career-high 27 attacks. She followed up that performance with another strong effort in UT’s, four-set loss at LSU on Sunday, notching 24 digs along with a pair of aces and three assists.”

In a very tight match, #15 LSU got by #22 Tennessee 3-1 (25-23, 30-28, 23-25, 25-20). I’ll have the weekend recap up soon. (Sorry for the long delay — my internet went down after the second set and I didn’t get it back up for several hours.)

The Lady Vols fell into a 0-2 deficit to Arkansas before storming back to win the next 2. In the 5th they gave Arkansas 2 match points but eventually were able to escape with the 5-set victory and their SEC hopes intact (22-25, 23-25, 25-20, 25-20, 17-15)…

UPDATE: Nikki Fowler tied for the third most kills of her career with 24. She only had 2 errors on 50 attacks for an amazing .440 hitting percentage! She got the double double with 11 digs, and also had 3 blocks. In her first time in the libero jersey, Kelsey Robinson dug up 27 balls — that ties for the second most by a freshman in UT history! Kayla Jeter had 18 kills, 9 digs, and 3 blocks. Leah Hinkey had 11 kills, and 4 blocks. DeeDee Harrison had 9 kills and 5 blocks. Leslie Cikra had 9 kills as well, while hitting .421. All three setters reached double digit assists again: Emily Steinbeck had 30 (and 9 digs), Kelsey Mahoney had 19, and Kylann Scheidt had 16. All but one Lady Vol saw action in tonight’s match.

STATS | UT STORY | UARK STORY

• The Lady Vols are 12-14 vs Arkansas all time and 8-2 in the last 10 meetings. Tennessee is on a 5 match winning streak in the series.

• Arkansas didn’t start their volleyball program until 1994. But in those 16 years they have been on top of the SEC West 11 times.

• Arkansas has played in 7 five-set matches this season, which ties for the most by any SEC team. They’ve gone 3-4 in those matches.

• Arkansas players to watch: Jasmine Norton has been tearing up the court since joining the SEC ranks last year. She was the 2009 SEC Freshman of the Year. She recently became just the 20th player in Arkansas history to reach 700 kills — and she did it in just a season and a half! Norton has over 400 career digs, which with her kills have notched her 20 double doubles. She’s also a dangerous server, with over 50 aces to her name. Twice this year she has served up 5 or more in a single match.

 • The Lady Vols are 17-31 vs LSU all time and 3-7 in the last 10 meetings. LSU is looking to continue their 2 match winning streak this weekend.

• Since 1989, defending champion LSU and Tennessee are the only two SEC teams besides 18-time champion Florida to have won the conference.

• LSU has topped the SEC West 5 years in a row.

• LSU players to watch: LSU is a very balanced team that can hurt you from all over the court — they are in the top 2 in the conference in 6 statistical categories. Angela Bensend ranks 17th in the nation with an incredible 4.4 kills per set. Michele Williams, Desiree Elliott, and Tania Schatow have a combined 143 total blocks. The SEC’s leading setter Brittney Johnson is also one of the top hitters, with a .348 percentage. And 4 separate players have over 120 digs each.

• The three teams facing each other this weekend have had a big impact on the conference record book. Of the 20 individual season and career records tracked by the SEC, 12 of them are topped by a Tennessee, LSU, or Arkansas player. On the remaining 6 charts that they don’t top, one of their players is 2nd on 4 of them.

• The Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex will be well represented this weekend, with at least two players on each team hailing from the area. Tennessee has Nikki Fowler and Kelsey Mahoney. Arkansas has Jasmine Norton (from Rowlett), Amanda Anderson (from Euless), and Clarissa Pavey (from Plano). LSU has Meghan Mannari (from Frisco), Angela Bensend (from Plano), and Madie Jones (from Plano). Jones attended the same high school as Fowler.

• Both coaches UT faces this weekend are former coaches at Kentucky. LSU’s Fran Flory was the Wildcats head coach for 5 years in the 1990s. Arkansas’ Robert Pulliza was an associate head coach in Lexington for 3 years in the 2000s.

• Random note of the week: Tennessee is the only team in the conference to have at least 5 players on the SEC Academic Honor Roll every year since 1996.

Arkansas (9-8, 3-3)
Game time is Friday, October 8th at 8:00pm ET in Fayetteville AR
Follow the match with live stats, or pay audio and video, or on Cox Sports Television (check this PDF for stations in your area)

#15 LSU (14-1, 5-1)
Game time is Sunday, October 10th at 2:30pm ET in Baton Rouge LA
Follow the match with live stats or pay video

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	23rd (+5)	3rd (nc)
RichKern.com Poll	22nd (+2)	3rd (nc)
RPI	9th (+4 from RKPI)	2nd (+1 from RKPI)

NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT%
239th (nc)	21st (+4)	51st (-1)	170th (+39)	15th (+5)	8th (+3)

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

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	ASSISTS	BLOCKS	DIGS	KILLS	HIT%
5th	2nd	5th	4th	3rd	3rd
OPP ACES	OPP ASSISTS	OPP BLOCKS	OPP DIGS	OPP KILLS	OPP HIT%
2nd	8th	3rd	5th	6th	6th

NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
BLOCKS	Leah Hinkey	93rd (-9)
KILLS	Nikki Fowler	97th (-2)
KILLS	Kayla Jeter	210th (nr)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leah Hinkey	113th (+12)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Kayla Jeter	134th (+4)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	DeeDee Harrison	186th (+35)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Nikki Fowler	169th (-18)
POINTS	Nikki Fowler	100th (-10)
POINTS	Kayla Jeter	244th (nr)

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES
ASSISTS	Kelsey Mahoney	10th (nc)
BLOCKS	Leah Hinkey	6th (-1)
KILLS	Nikki Fowler	4th (nc)
KILLS	Kayla Jeter	9th (nr)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Leah Hinkey	8th (-2)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Kayla Jeter	11th (-3)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	DeeDee Harrison	12th (nc)
HITTING PERCENTAGE	Nikki Fowler	14th (-5)
POINTS	Nikki Fowler	3rd (+1)
POINTS	Kayla Jeter	10th (nr)

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – CONFERENCE MATCHES
ACES	Kelsey Robinson	5th
KILLS	Kayla Jeter	2nd
KILLS	Nikki Fowler	5th

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

Congratulations to Kayla Jeter who adds two more awards to her growing collection. She was named the AVCA National Player of the Week. She was also named a CVU.com Top Performer.

Today I’m adding match-by-match stats for each player to the roster page. Not only can you view info for every match a player has seen action, but you can interact with it as well. Clicking the headers (like “K” for kills) will sort every match by that stat. And using the pull down menus at the top of the page you can do more advanced sorting. For example, it could show every three set match Nikki Fowler has played in where UT lost at home listed from most digs to fewest — if for some reason you wanted to know!

These “match books” (for lack of a better name) can be accessed by clicking on the Roster page, choosing a player, clicking the Stats tab, and clicking their match book link. (Or you can view a list of them all here.) Please bear with me if there are any bugs! This was a big project with a lot of files and numbers, and lots of places where something could go wrong. I’ve checked it out in several browsers, but only extensively in Safari. Feel free to email me with any problems.

UPDATE: I’ll also be updating this occasionally. Since launching I’ve gone in and added an option to sort by SEC and out-of-conference matches.