• The Lady Vols are 38-23 all time vs Georgia and 9-1 in their last 10 meetings. 8 of those 9 wins were sweeps. Tennessee has won the last 5 meetings in a row.
• The Lady Vols are 24-13-1 all time vs Auburn and 8-2 in their last 10 meetings. Auburn is looking to extend their last win into a 2 match winning streak.
• The Lady Vols have dominated the recent series’ with both their opponents this week. Tennessee’s set record vs Georgia since 1999 is 63-22 and is 51-16 vs Auburn.
• It has been 10 years since a UT/UGA match was decided in 4 sets.
• Nikki Fowler and Georgia’s Erika Clark were teammates at Skyline Juniors Volleyball Club. Both are seniors and both are outside hitters. Earlier this year Fowler became just the 4th player in UT history to record both 1,000 career kills and digs. With just 29 more kills, Clark will accomplish the same feat at Georgia.
• The Lady Vols will play their 4th match of the season in a city named Athens this weekend when they take on Georgia. Earlier this year the team went 2-1 in Athens, Ohio.
• Tennessee’s loss at Auburn last year was their first on Auburn’s court since 1998.
• This year Tennessee and Auburn both received their highest preseason SEC ranking in the last decade. The Lady Vols were picked 1st in the East while the Tigers were picked 2nd in the West.
• Tennessee and Auburn are pretty even in several statistical categories:
SEC RANKINGS TENNESSEE AUBURN
HITTING PERCENTAGE 1st 3rd OPP. HITTING PERCENTAGE 6th 5th BLOCKS 5th 6th DIGS 6th 7th • The one statistical area where both Georgia and Auburn are way ahead of Tennessee is in service aces. The Bulldogs are 2nd, the Tigers are 3rd, while Tennessee is 8th. Unfortunately, the SEC doesn’t seem to publicly track team reception stats. But we can gauge how Tennessee is doing by looking at how they handled the SEC’s #1 serving team, Florida.
• Nikki Fowler is just 66 attempts away from the Tennessee record for attacks.
• Random note of the week: Tennessee jerseys #10 and #55 have been worn by multiple All-Americans. Kristen Andre and Chloe Goldman wore #10, while Julie Knytych wore and Nikki Fowler wears #55. Other UT All-American jersey numbers are: #1 Yuliya Stoyanova, #3 April Chapple, #5 Beverly Robinson, #14 Amy Morris, #24 Sarah Blum, and #30 Michelle Piantadosi.
• The official UT match notes and a video preview of the weekend matches with Coach Rob Patrick are online here.
Georgia (8-5, 0-2)
Game time is Friday, September 24th at 7:00pm ET in Athens GA
Follow the match with Gametracker
UGA match notes (PDF)
Auburn (10-4, 1-1)
Game time is Sunday, September 26th at 2:30pm ET in Auburn AL
Follow the match with Gametracker
UA 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 20th (-2) 3rd (-1) Volleyball Magazine Poll 19th (-1) 3rd (-1) Pablo Rankings 17th (-3) 2nd (nc) RichKern.com Poll 17th (+1) 2nd (nc) RKPI 6th (+1) 2nd (nc)
NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS ACES ASSISTS BLOCKS DIGS KILLS HIT% 219th (+9) 28th (-6) 41st (-5) 152nd (+10) 13th (-1) 15th (-9)
SEC TEAM RANKINGS ACES ASSISTS BLOCKS DIGS KILLS HIT% OPP HIT% 8th (+1) 3rd (-2) 5th (-1) 6th (nc) 1st (nc) 1st (nc) 6th (-3)
NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS BLOCKS Leah Hinkey 56th (-6) BLOCKS DeeDee Harrison 244th (nr) KILLS Nikki Fowler 122nd (-39) HITTING PERCENTAGE Leah Hinkey 128th (-24) HITTING PERCENTAGE DeeDee Harrison 129th (+41) HITTING PERCENTAGE Kayla Jeter 212th (-47) HITTING PERCENTAGE Nikki Fowler 228th (-16) POINTS Nikki Fowler 125th (-41)
SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS ASSISTS Kelsey Mahoney 7th (+2) BLOCKS Leah Hinkey 4th (nc) BLOCKS DeeDee Harrison 13th (nr) KILLS Nikki Fowler 4th (nc) HITTING PERCENTAGE Leah Hinkey 6th (nc) HITTING PERCENTAGE DeeDee Harrison 7th (+4) HITTING PERCENTAGE Kayla Jeter 10th (nc) HITTING PERCENTAGE Nikki Fowler 12th (+2) POINTS Nikki Fowler 6th (-2) (nc) = no change (nr) = not ranked (+/-) = change from last week
• Tennessee is now 30-25 all time vs South Carolina and 10-41-1 all time vs Florida.
• 3 players reached double digit assists against South Carolina. That hasn’t happened since at least 2001 (the last year I have stats for).
• 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.
• How close were the Lady Vols to defeating Florida? A 1 point swing in the first set and a 2 point swing in the second would have given Tennessee the match. In terms of actual points, Tennessee only scored 6 points less than Florida over the entire match: 97-91.
• If Tennessee had won it would have been their second in a row over the Gators, a feat they have only accomplished 4 times in 52 outings.
• No one Florida has played all season — including the 5 top 25 teams they’ve faced — had receivers handle the Gator serve better than the Lady Vols. Before this match Florida ranked 43rd in the country in aces per set and had had at least 7 aces in every match this year except one. Here are the Florida service statistics vs all their ranked opponents:
FLORIDA SERVING VS THE TOP 25 ACES ERRORS
vs #9 Iowa State (four sets) 3 9 vs #2 Nebraska (five sets) 8 13 vs #15 Colorado State (four sets) 7 7 vs #1 Penn State (four sets) 7 15 vs #22 Kentucky (four sets) 7 8 vs #18 Tennessee (four sets) 1 14 • Florida was the first team this season to hold Tennessee under a .245 hitting percentage.
• Tennessee has had 99 team blocks in their 11 matches so far this season. That’s good for 9 per match or 2.48 per set, ranking the team among the top 50 in the nation.
• If you missed it the first time or just want to see it again, the video of Kylann Scheidt’s digging a ball with her foot has been posted online!
Record updates:
• Nikki Fowler moves to #3 on the UT all time attack attempts list. She is 20 away from 2nd place and just 66 attempts away from the school record.• Fowler is up to #8 on the school career digs list.
Double doubles:
• Nikki Fowler vs South Carolina (kills and digs)• Emily Steinbeck vs Florida (assists and digs)
Career highs matched or exceeded (excluding freshmen):
• Leslie Cikra: digs (in a four-set match)• Amanda Friday: aces (in a four-set match), digs (in a four-set match), points (in a four-set match)
• DeeDee Harrison: kills (in a four-set match), attacks (in a four-set match), digs (in a four-set match), solo blocks, total blocks (in a four-set match), points (in a four-set match)
• Leah Hinkey: aces (in a four-set match)
• Kayla Jeter: kills (in a four-set match), assists, solo blocks, points (in a four-set match)
• Emily Steinbeck: assists (in a four-set match), aces (in a four-set match), digs, points (in a four-set match)
UPDATED
Tennessee is down two spots to #20 in the latest AVCA poll after its loss to Florida yesterday.
Tennessee stays with the #3 team in the country for most of the match but falls short in the end 3-1 (28-26, 25-23, 19-25, 25-17). More soon.
UPDATE: The fourth largest home crowd in UT history, some booming kills from Kayla Jeter and Leslie Cikra, some big blocks by Leah Hinkey and Nikki Fowler, some massive digs by Amanda Friday, and even a kick from Kylann Scheidt weren’t quite enough to get past Florida. Jeter tied for the most kills by either team in the match with 19. Hinkey and Fowler had 6 and 5 blocks respectively. Fowler led the team with 15 digs. Kelsey Robinson had 11 while Emily Steinbeck and Friday had 10 each. Steinbeck’s 28 assists finished her double double. Scheidt had 19 assists.
Tennessee gets past South Carolina in four (26-24, 22-25, 25-15, 25-16). My phone is about dead so more when I get home!
UPDATE: Nikki Fowler led in digs (15) and hitting percentage (.444) and tied for the kills lead with Kayla Jeter (13). Kelsey Robinson had 10 kills, 8 digs, and an impressive 4 aces. Carly Sahagian had 8 kills. Leah Hinkey and DeeDee Harrison had 6 kills each. Hinkey hit .429. Harrison had a dominating 6 blocks — 3 of them solo! Amanda Friday had 11 digs. And three setters all had double digit assists: Emily Steinbeck with 21, Kelsey Mahoney with 13, and Kylann Scheidt in her debut with 12.
Here are a few extra notes for the upcoming matches against South Carolina and Florida:
• If you’re not already, be sure to always check out the official UT match notes. They’ve started adding some cool new info this week on top of all the great stuff they usually have — some of which I may be blatantly ripping off in the coming weeks! Notes from South Carolina and Florida are also online.
• The official site posted a video interview with Coach Rob Patrick earlier this week, discussing the Ohio tournament results and the opening of SEC play.
• If you thought UT had a lot of promotions already set up for this weekend, get ready for even more! Besides those mentioned below here are the rest:
— vs South Carolina: you can get 4 tickets, 4 hot dogs, and 4 small drinks (which really aren’t that small!) for just $12
— vs Florida: bring a donation of school supplies and receive free admission
— at either match: get in free by free by showing your UT vs Florida football ticket• 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 of if you have to climb the arena ramp you’re in the wrong spot! With a football game tomorrow, it’s probably best to make sure you’re in an approved area. (Here’s a map with the parking areas marked — look for G5/30).
Coach Rob Patrick was a guest on the Doc, Jeff, & Heather in the Morning show on local radio station WNML this morning. Among the topics discussed: the upcoming weekend, the benefits of not being too senior-heavy, whether freshmen are recruited to play immediately, rankings and their meaning, the growth of volleyball in Tennessee, and how the SEC has become a good volleyball conference. Archives of the show should be on the radio station’s website later today in the 9:00am to 9:30am segments.
• Tennessee is 29-25 vs South Carolina all-time. The Lady Vols are 7-3 in the last ten meetings. UT won the last outing 3-0 (25-10, 25-19, 25-14).
• Florida leads the all-time series vs Tennessee 40-10-1. UT is 2-8 in the last ten matches.
• For the first time since 2006, and just the third time since the early 1990’s we can say: Tennessee won the last meeting vs Florida! (3-1: 22-25, 25-23, 25-15, 25-22)
• Tennessee is 18-18-1 in their first match of the season vs another SEC opponent. They’ve done slightly better under Coach Rob Patrick, going 7-6.
• Florida has been dominant since coach Mary Wise took over the program in 1991. She’s only lost 16 SEC matches 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.
• If the Lady Vols get 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 two longest losing steaks to a single team in program history are a 28 match skid vs Florida (from 1991 to 2004) and two 14 match streaks, one of which was vs South Carolina (from 1994-2000).
• The Lady Vols have won their last six televised matches.
• Finding interesting coaching connections has been fun so far this season, so let’s keep it going with some featuring this week’s SEC head coaches.
UT head coach Rob Patrick was an assistant coach at Stanford from 1994 to 1996. In his first year there, Stanford opened the 1994 season at the SunBank Invitational — in Gainesville FL. The hosting #7 Florida Gators (with their head coach of four years Mary Wise) and the visiting #1 Cardinal swept through their opponents before meeting each other for the title. Stanford won in four.South Carolina head coach Ben Somera was a volunteer and then assistant coach at (Stanford’s Pac-10 rival) Southern Cal from 1993 to 1995. The teams faced each other six times from 1994 to 1995 (the two years they coached at the same time). Stanford won each matchup, and in both years knocked USC out of the NCAA Tournament.
• Promotions: You can get into the South Carolina match free by showing your UT vs Florida football ticket. You can get into either weekend match free by donating two non-perishable food items. The first 500 fans to the Florida match will receive free rally towels. Kids 12 and under will get a voucher for a free hot dog and small drink at the Florida match.
• Random note of the week: Four Lady Vols list psychology as their major or potential area of study: Leah Hinkey, Amanda Friday, Alyssa Hilby, and Carly Sahagian.
South Carolina (2-7)
Game time is Friday, September 17th at 7:00pm ET in Knoxville
Follow the match with Gametracker or online video#3 Florida (6-1)
Game time is Sunday, September 19th at 2:00pm ET in Knoxville
Follow the match with Gametracker, on TV channel CSS, or on Florida’s radio feed
The NCAA and SEC have started 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. (Most SEC rankings include matches through 9/14, while NCAA stats are through 9/12)
POLLS NATIONAL SEC AVCA Poll 18th 2nd Volleyball Magazine Poll 18th 2nd Pablo Rankings 14th 2nd RichKern.com Poll 18th 2nd RKPI 7th 2nd
NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS – TENNESSEE ACES ASSISTS BLOCKS DIGS KILLS HIT% 228th 22nd 36th 162nd 12th 6th
SEC TEAM RANKINGS – TENNESSEE ACES ASSISTS BLOCKS DIGS KILLS HIT% OPP HIT% 9th 1st 4th 6th 1st 1st 3rd
NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS BLOCKS Leah Hinkey 50th KILLS Nikki Fowler 83rd HITTING PERCENTAGE Leah Hinkey 104th HITTING PERCENTAGE Kayla Jeter 165th HITTING PERCENTAGE DeeDee Harrison 170th HITTING PERCENTAGE Leslie Cikra 203rd HITTING PERCENTAGE Nikki Folwer 212th POINTS Nikki Folwer 84th
SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS ASSISTS Kelsey Mahoney 9th BLOCKS Leah Hinkey 4th DIGS Kelsey Robinson 10th KILLS Nikki Fowler 4th HITTING PERCENTAGE* Leah Hinkey 6th HITTING PERCENTAGE* Kayla Jeter 10th HITTING PERCENTAGE* DeeDee Harrison 11th HITTING PERCENTAGE* Leslie Cikra 13th HITTING PERCENTAGE* Nikki Folwer 14th POINTS* Nikki Folwer 4th * through 9/12
Time to take a break from staring at stats by taking a look into the future! That’s right — all the way to the year 2011! What will that distant far off time be like? America has it’s first black president, people communicate instantaneously through electronic mail and textual messaging, and telephones with computers built right into them can fit in your pocket! Still no flying cars though. Also in 2011, Tennessee will have a pretty good recruiting class, including the latest in our look at the future Lady Vols.
Nikki Brice is a 5’8″ DS/libero from Fullerton CA. She attends Troy High School, where she has helped her team win back to back league championships. She’s been named All-League her sophomore year, and All-League and All-County her junior year. The team has made it to the state quarter- or semi-finals every year since her freshman season. She plays for the TCA Volleyball Club, where her teams have placed in the top 20 at the Girls Junior Olympic/National Championships every year since 2007 — including a 2nd place finish in 2009 and a 3rd place in 2007. Earlier this week PrepVolleyball named her in their Senior Aces list of the top 250 recruits in the nation.
Congratulations to Kayla Jeter on being named the Lady Vol Athlete of the Week!
After getting their first loss of the season against Northwestern this past weekend, Tennessee dropped 4 spots to #18 in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll.
UPDATES: UT is #18 in the RichKern.com poll and #14 in the first Pablo Ranking of the season. They are also #18 in the Volleyball Magazine poll.
The Lady Vols faced some tough opponents at the Baymont Inn & Suites Invitational this past weekend. But they played hard at the twine and kept the ball off the chalk. They prevented Ohio from Posterizing and Pitt from going downTown. And with the help of some Fowler Power they were able to limit their intake of mashed potato sandwiches. (You had to be there!)
• Tennessee is 2-5 all time vs Northwestern, 1-1 vs Ohio, and 9-8 vs Pitt.
• Tennessee’s 8-1 pre-SEC schedule record is their best since 2006, when they also went 8-1.
• With 6 straight sweeps and having won the first 2 sets of their seventh match, the Lady Vols shattered the school record for most consecutive sets won to start the season with 20 in a row. The previous record was 13.
• The Lady Vols just missed breaking the school record for most consecutive sets won (any time in a season). That record still stands at 21, set in 2004.
• Tennessee’s first set loss of the season not only snapped their record breaking run, it also set a less impressive record. Northwestern held the Lady Vols to just 8 points in the third set of their match. That is the least points scored by Tennessee in a full set in the rally scoring era.
• One of the most interesting things about this year’s team is the fact that they have so many potential offensive weapons to go to. There isn’t just one or two stars and a host of bench warmers. How good are they? In the last three weekends, 6 of the 7 hitters that played won All-Tournament honors.
Record updates:
• Nikki Fowler jumps three spots to #8 on the UT career kills list.Double doubles:
• Nikki Fowler vs Northwestern (kills and digs)• Kelsey Robinson vs Northwestern (kills and digs)
• Nikki Fowler vs Ohio (kills and digs)
• Kelsey Mahoney vs Ohio (assits and digs)
• Kelsey Robinson vs Pittsburgh (kills and digs)
Career highs matched or exceeded (excluding freshmen):
• Leslie Cikra: kills, aces, assisted blocks (in a 4-set match), total blocks (in a 4-set match), and points• Amanda Friday: assists (in a 5-set match) and digs
• DeeDee Harrison: kills, attacks, hitting percentage, solo blocks, assisted blocks (in a 4-set match), total blocks (in a 4-set match), and points
• Leah Hinkey: aces (in a 4-set match)
• Kayla Jeter: assists and solo blocks
• Emily Steinbeck: attacks (in a 4-set match)
Congratulations to the four Tennessee recruits who made PrepVolleyball’s Senior Aces list: #4 Tiffany Baker (more on her here and here), #83 Shealyn Kolosky (more here), Alston Kearns (more here), and Nikki Brice (her “more” story is almost done — look for it later this week). Those four, along with All-State player Kalyn Helton (more here), give Tennessee another stellar recruiting class!