A few photos from the Ohio tournament this past weekend are now online. (I’ve gotten a lot better with this camera since I posted the first photos of the team with it in 2007 — but I think it’s about time to retire this one and look for a new one!) Recap tomorrow.

The Lady Vols leave Ohio with a win, getting past Pitt in four (25-19, 21-25, 26-24, 25-17). I’ve got a six hour drive ahead so look for further updates either late tonight or tomorrow morning!

UPDATE: I’ll do the weekend recap either tomorrow or Monday. But just wanted to mention that Leslie Cikra and Kayla Jeter were very deservedly named to the All-Tournament Team.

Congratulations to future Lady Vol Tiffany Baker who was just named the #4 recruit in the country on the PrepVolleyball Senior Aces list. The site says of her: “one of the top outside hitters in the nation”, “a natural blocker in the middle and now stifles any right side attack”, and “defensively, she has great range and potential to be an asset in all six rotations”. Baker’s ranking is the highest a UT recruit has ever appeared on the list since 2003.

The Lady Vols go to five again but this time pull out the win over Ohio (23-25, 25-19, 25-16, 23-25, 18-16). More later…

UPDATE: Three players had 13 kills. Leslie Cikra, Nikki Fowler (who got the double with 13 kills), and Kayla Jeter (who scored 6 of them in the final set). Leah Hinkey and DeeDee Harrison had 9 kills and 3 blocks each. Kelsey Mahoney got a double double with 31 assists and 10 digs. Emily Steinbeck had 26 assists. Ellen Mullins got 11 digs in the libero jersey. And Kelsey Robinson did a bit of everything with 8 kills, 9 digs, and 3 aces.

STATS | UT STORY AND VIDEO

Tennessee got off to a two set lead but Northwestern fought back to take the match (19-25, 17-25, 25-8, 26-24, 15-11). More later…

UPDATE: Despite the loss, some nice individual performances. DeeDee Harrison hit an incredible .700 with 16 kills on 20 attacks with just 2 errors. Nikki Fowler double doubled with 13 digs and 18 kills — the match high for either team. She hit .317 and had 4 blocks. Kelsey Robinson picked up her first career double double with 11 kills and 15 digs — that was also the match high for either team. Leah Hinkey had 11 kills and a match tying high 5 blocks. She hit .588 for the match. Kayla Jeter had 8 kills. Kelsey Mahoney had 29 assists and Emily Steinbeck 21.

STATS | UT STORY

Tennessee has already swept through both a home and an away tournament. They hit the road for one more this weekend before starting SEC play. At the Baymont Inn & Suites Invitational in Athens OH, the Lady Vols will face off against Northwestern, Pitt, and Ohio.

• An assistant at every school we face this weekend played against Tennessee during their collegiate career:

– Pitt’s Eysha Ambler played for Jacksonville State. In 2000, she scored 9 kills and 2 blocks against the Lady Vols. The Gamecocks lost 3-0.

– Ohio’s Meghan Keck played for Auburn for two seasons. In 2000, she had 34 assists and 6 digs vs Tennessee. In 2001, she had 19 assists 3 digs, and a kill. The Lady Vols won both matches 3-0.

– Northwestern’s Kirstine Jensen info is a little more iffy since I don’t have stats for that far back. Ohio State says she played there from 1992-95, meaning she was on the team that defeated Tennessee 3-1 in 1992.

• SEC connections with our out of conference opponents’ head coaches continue this week. Northwestern’s Keylor Chan went to Florida. He was an undergraduate assistant coach for the team in the mid-1990s and also played on the men’s club team. Ohio’s Ryan Theis was an assistant coach at Florida from 2006 to 2008.

• There are some other interesting coaching connections this weekend. Ohio head coach Ryan Theis was an assistant at Northwestern. Northwestern assistant coach Kirstine Jensen was an assistant at Ohio. Ohio assistant coach Meghan Keck was a volunteer assistant at Northwestern. Pitt assistant coach Matt Jennings replaced Keck at DePaul University when she left for Ohio.

• A 3-0 victory over Northwestern would break the record for the longest sweep streak in school history.

• Tennessee’s longest single season winning streak (of 3/5 set matches) is 14 in a row.

• For the second weekend in a row Tennessee goes into a tournament without an all-time series lead over any of its opponents.

• The trip to the state of Ohio will be homecoming of sorts for three Lady Vols: Kayla Jeter from Solon, Leslie Cikra from Chagrin Falls, and Rob Patrick, who is originally from Cleveland and attended college in Oxford.

• Random note of the week: Emily Steinbeck is the first senior setter at Tennessee since 2005.

Northwestern (4-1)
Northwestern leads the all time series 2-4.
Tennessee won the last meeting in 1992, 3-1 (12-15, 15-6, 16-14, 15-10).
Game time is Friday, September 10th at 10:00am ET
Follow the match with Gametracker
NU match notes (PDF)

Ohio (5-2)
Ohio leads the all time series 0-1.
Ohio won the only meeting in 2005, 3-0 (30-20, 30-24, 30-27).
Game time is Friday, September 10th at 7:00pm ET
Follow the match with Gametracker

Pitt (1-6)
The all time series is tied 8-8.
Tennessee won the last meeting in 2006, 3-1 (28-30, 30-23, 30-27, 30-19).
Game time is Saturday, September 11th at 12:00pm ET
Follow the match with Gametracker

Congratulations to Nikki Fowler on being named the SEC Offensive Player of the Week. From the press release:

Fowler was named the MVP of the Houston Invitational after leading the 14th-ranked Lady Vols to sweeps of all three of their opponents. She paced Tennessee with 39 kills for the weekend, while hitting .348 and averaging 4.33 kills, 2.78 digs and 0.56 blocks per set and was also one of the team’s top passers with a .977 reception percentage. She had just one reception error in 44 attempts. Fowler opened the weekend with an astounding 21 kills in a three-set victory over Big 12-foe Oklahama, hitting at a .400 clip in that match with just three errors in 45 swings. The 21 kills mark are the most by an SEC player in a three-set match this season. Fowler also had nine digs, two blocks and a pair of assists against the Sooners. She led the Lady Vols to a sweep of then-No. 13 Florida State the following day with nine kills, seven digs and a pair of blocks and helped UT complete its second consecutive perfect weekend with a nine-kill, nine-dig performance against Houston on Saturday night.

UPDATES: The Lady Vols Twitter account reminds us that some history was made here: “Fowler has now won the award eight times in her career, more than any other player in SEC history. She had been tied at seven with three-time SEC Player of the Year Aury Cruz from Florida.”

The official site has much more, including the fact that Fowler just repeated as Lady Vol Athlete of the Week as well.

After another successful weekend, including a sweep of a higher ranked team, the Lady Vols have climbed to #14 in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll. It’s Tennessee’s highest ranking since September 2006.

• Tennessee is 2-1 vs Oklahoma, 7-9 vs Florida State, and 4-6 vs Houston.

• At 6-0 the Lady Vols are off to their best start since 2004. It’s the 5th best start in Tennessee history.

• Tennessee’s 6 consecutive sweeps ties the school record for the most straight set wins in a row. And until this year the team had never started a season with more than 5 sweeps in a row.

• The Lady Vols have beaten at least one ranked opponent in 6 of the last 7 seasons. They move to 18-22 against the Top 25 in that time frame. In the 21 years prior to that, Tennessee only defeated 3 ranked foes. They’ve won 3 of their last 4 matches vs ranked teams.

• Tennessee had 55 kills vs Oklahoma. Since 2007, that’s the 3rd highest total in a three set match.

• Nikki Fowler became the first player at UT in 16 years to reach 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career. She joins Kristy Dobson, Stephanie Ehlers, and Sonja Thomas in reaching that mark.

• In last week’s recap I pointed out that Tennessee had held about half their opponents over the past two seasons (and all three to that point this season) to under a .160 hitting percentage. The Lady Vols continue their defensive domination this week, again holding all three opponents under .160.

• With the win over Oklahoma, members of the 2010 squad have now defeated teams representing 17 conferences since 2006 (when senior Leah Hinkey was a freshman; not counting the SEC; including independents). With the win over Houston, they got their 35th out of conference victory. The team is 35-15 OOC in that time.

– ACC: 5-4 – Atlantic Sun: 3-0 – Atlantic 10: 3-0 – Big East: 6-1 – Big South: 1-0 – Big Ten: 1-4 – Big 12: 1-1

– C-USA: 4-0 – IND: 1-1 – MAC: 1-0 – MCC: 1-0 – MVC: 0-1 – MWC: 1-1

– OVC: 1-0 – Pac 10: 0-1 – Patriot: 1-0 – Southern: 3-0 – Sun Belt: 1-1 – WCC: 1-0

I didn’t list the following items in the last recap so these include numbers for the past two weeks.

Record updates:

• Nikki Fowler moves up to #11 on the school career kills list, #4 on the kills per set list, #4 on the career attack attempts list, and enters the career digs top ten at #10.

• Leah Hinkey moves to #3 on the UT total blocks list and is closing in on #7 and #6 on the SEC chart.

Double doubles:

• Nikki Fowler vs Xavier and Chattanooga (kills and digs)

• Kelsey Mahoney vs Oklahoma (assists and digs)

Career highs matched or exceeded (excluding freshmen):

• Jasmine Brown: assists, aces, and points

• Leslie Cikra: kills (in a 3 set match), hitting percentage, assists, digs, assisted blocks, points (in a 3 set match)

• Nikki Fowler: kills (in a 3 set match), attacks (in a 3 set match), and points (in a 3 set match)

• Amanda Friday: kills, attacks, assists, aces, digs, and points

• DeeDee Harrison: kills, attacks, hitting percentage, assists, digs, solo blocks, assisted blocks (in a 3 set match), total blocks (in a 3 set match), and points

• Leah Hinkey: assists (in a 3 set match), digs (in a 3 set match), and solo blocks (in a 3 set match)

• Kayla Jeter: solo blocks

• Emily Steinbeck: attacks (in a 3 set match), aces, and points

The Lady Vols swept through the competition to win the Houston Invitational. In the final match Tennessee defeated Houston 3-0 (25-13, 25-17, 25-22). Nikki Fowler and Kelsey Robinson had 9 kills each, while DeeDee Harrison had 8 (and hit .500) and Leslie Cikra had 7. Amanda Friday, Fowler, and Robinson all had 9 digs each. Leah Hinkey had 4 blocks. Kelsey Mahoney had 21 assists. A tournament recap will be up soon.

UPDATE: Nikki Fowler took the MVP award, while Leslie Cikra and Kelsey Robinson make the All-Tournament team.

STATS | UT STORY AND VIDEO | UH STORY

UT took down their first ranked opponent of the year, knocking off #13 Florida State in 3 (25-20, 25-23, 25-20). Leslie Cikra led the team with 10 kills, hitting .450. Nikki Fowler had 9. She also notched 7 digs, putting her over 1,000 for her career. She’s jut the fourth Lady Vol to ever reach that number and 1,000 kills. Kelsey Robinson and Kayla Jeter also had 9 kills, both hitting over .400. Leah Hinkey led the blockers with 6, while Jeter added in 4 more. Amanda Friday had 10 digs. Emily Steinbeck and Kelsey Mahoney each had 18 assists.

STATS | UT STORY AND VIDEO | FSU STORY

Tennessee takes out Oklahoma in straight sets (25-23, 25-19, 25-18) at the Houston Invitational. Nikki Fowler had 21 kills on 45 attacks for a .400 hitting percentage. Leah Hinkey hit .556. Five players had 2 or more blocks (led by DeeDee Harrison I believe) and five people had 8 or more digs (led by Kelsey Robinson). Kelsey Mahoney had a double double with 22 assists and 10 digs. More soon…

UPDATE: Box score is out and player stats are updated — so much nicer than before! Fowler is just 4 away from the 1,000 digs club. She only had 3 errors on 45 attacks, which is the lowest she’s had on that many swings since her freshman year. Hinkey has hit over .450 in 3 out of 4 matches this year. UT keeps up the pressure defensively, holding OU to .111 hitting while going .345 themselves.

STATS| UT STORY AND VIDEO | OU STORY

After sweeping through their home tournament the Lady Vols hit the road for the first time this season, heading to Texas for the Houston Invitational. Tennessee match notes and an interview with Coach Patrick are online over at the official site.

• The Lady Vols have not seen much of Oklahoma and Florida State over the years. While the Seminoles were a regular foe at one time, the teams have not faced off since 1989. We’ve seen the Sooners more recently, but much less often. The only times the teams have met were in 1981 and 1997.

• Tennessee faces their first ranked opponent of the season: #13 Florida State. Over the last six seasons, the Lady Vols are a respectable 17-22 against the Top 25.

• As the Lady Vols are the #17 team in the country, our competition will be playing a ranked team too. Oklahoma has never beaten a ranked team at a neutral site. Houston has not beaten a ranked team since 2003.

• We may be playing non-conference teams this weekend, but our opponents are well versed in SEC volleyball:

Florida State head coach Chris Pool was the Arkansas head coach from 1994-2007, and led them to 11 SEC Western Division titles and the 1997 SEC Tournament Championship. Both his assistants served under him at Arkansas as well.

First year Houston head coach Molly Alvey served the last five seasons as assistant and associate head coach as Mississippi. The team went to their first two NCAA Tournaments during her time there. Her assistant coach, Nicole Miller, was a graduate assistant at Mississippi and a former player at South Carolina.

Oklahoma head Coach Santiago Restrepo didn’t work in the SEC, but as a former head coach at Southern Miss he undoubtedly recruited against them. His assistant coach Sam Ojie was also a southeastern guy, having coached at Tulane and Central Florida before serving at Georgia in 2006.

•  13 players for OU, FSU, and UH are from outside the United States.

•  Some might think Houston is the underdog among the teams in this tournament. In fact, they actually hold the advantage against all three. They are 9-5 all time vs Florida State, 7-2 vs Oklahoma, and 6-3 over Tennessee.

• While the Lady Vols did not win during their last visit to the state of Texas, you can’t say it was a bad experience. The team lost to Washington 3-0 in the 2005 Final Four in San Antonio. Tennessee was just the fifth school in the Eastern Time Zone to have played in a National Semifinals.

• The Texas natives on the UT(K) roster might see some familiar names across the court tonight. Plano West alum Nikki Fowler will be facing a former high school cross town rival. Oklahoma’s Chrissy Disarro was also a member of the class of 2006, but at Plano East. Former Texas Advantage Volleyball Club member Kelsey Mahoney will go up against clubmate Francie Ekwerekwu.

• Hopefully Smokey can handle this: Tennessee’s schedule is cat-heavy this season! They’ll start off the 10-match feline portion of their schedule this weekend against the Cougars. Next week will feature all an all-cat lineup of opponents as the team will face the Wildcats, Bobcats, and Panthers. Then comes the SEC schedule where we’ll play another Wildcats team and two Tiger teams.

Oklahoma (3-1, 2009: 18-12)
The all time series is tied 1-1.
Oklahoma won the last meeting in 1997 3-0 (15-3, 15-5, 15-7).
Game time is Friday, September 3rd at 4:30pm ET
Follow the match with Gametracker
Oklahoma match notes (PDF)

#13 Florida State (3-0, 2009: 13-3)
Florida State leads the all time series 9-6.
Florida State won the last meeting in 1989 3-0 (15-10, 16-14, 15-11).
Game time is Saturday, September 4th at 11:00am ET
Follow the match with Gametracker
Florida State match notes (PDF)

Houston (1-2, 2009: 9-23)
Houston leads the all time series 6-3.
Tennessee won the last meeting in 2008 3-2 (25-12, 25-19, 20-25, 19-25, 15-10).
Game time is Sunday, September 4th at 8:30pm ET
Follow the match with Gametracker

• Tennessee is 3-0 vs Xavier, 15-3-1 vs Chattanooga, and 14-1 vs Virginia Tech.

•  Tennessee is 30-8 in season opening matches and 27-5 in home opening matches. They’ve won 9 straight home openers. The Lady Vols have never lost a match at home in August. They’ve now started the season with 3 wins in a row 13 times in school history, and 3 seasons in a row.

• The Lady Vols have a reputation for suffocating offenses recently, and that tradition continues. Chattanooga’s .032 hitting percentage was the second lowest by a Tennessee opponent in the past year, and the the seventh lowest over the past two years. All three teams this weekend were held under .160 — a feat Tennessee’s defense has accomplished 33 times over the 67 matches since 2008.

• With 1,307 on hand, the Virginia Tech match was the fifth highest attended home match in Lady Vol history, and the largest ever for a non-conference home game.

• With 10 kills but just 9 digs versus Virginia Tech, Nikki Fowler’s impressive double-double streak ends at 18 matches in a row. Dating back to the Auburn match last October, Fowler had 297 kills and 239 digs. Over those matches she averaged 4.37 kills per set and 3.51 digs per set. 5 of the 18 matches were against Top 25 teams. Since 2001, the most consecutive double-doubles after Fowler’s streak is 7.

• With all the behind-the-scenes work I did this week, I haven’t had time to do the career high updates yet. I’ll start recapping those next week.

We got our first look at the new 2010 Lady Vols a few days ago (and I admit to being impressed by what we’ve seen so far). But even now as all of us are meeting this year’s new team, the 2011 squad is taking shape. What high caliber kid have the coaches come across who committed to coming to compete with Carly, Kelsey, Kelsey, Kylann, Kayla, and the rest of the college crew here in K-town?

Kalyn Helton is a 6’1″ outside hitter at Red Bank High School in Chattanooga TN. In 2008, her team was third in the state before finishing the job last year and winning the state championship. Helton was named All-City, – Region, and -State. She led the Chattanooga area in kills with 778, and also had 560 digs, 154 aces, and 34 blocks. Helton plays club at Choo Choo City (where current Lady Vol Jasmine Brown is an alumna). At the recent AAU Girls’ Junior National Volleyball Championship her team went 7-3, coming in 44th out of 133 teams in the 17 Club division. On choosing Tennessee Helton said, “What I really liked was the coaches and players. Everybody is really friendly, very believable. I just liked the fact it’s the highest level of volleyball there is. They’re picked to finish first in the SEC this year. I really liked their academics, too, and what they had to offer me there. And it’s only about an hour and a half away from home”. Her mother, who is also her high school coach and the 2009 state AA coach of the year, said “As her coach, I know she’s very talented, but I’ve also watched her work and improve. The Tennessee coaches asked me what I thought was her strength, and I told them it’s her discipline and work ethic. She’s determined to get better, and always has been… As a parent, to have been able to watch her accomplish all those things, I really can’t describe it. I’m just so proud of her, and trying to sit back and take it all in with her.”