Congratulations to Leslie Cikra and Jasmine Brown on being named to the 2010 SEC Freshman Academic Honor Roll!

Just a quick heads up that we’re just one month away from the Lady Vols volleyball team’s first match of the season against Xavier on August 27th! More news coming soon including info on: the honor roll, the TV schedule, and another 2011 recruit.

Gyms at colleges across the nation have started to see action this week as returning players and new recruits hit the court to get ready for the 2010 season. And I’m sure you’d all like to know how Tennessee is preparing. Well I got nothing for you there! But I can continue our quick looks at some of the recruits Tennessee has commitments from for the season after next. Keep in mind (from what I understand about recruiting rules — which admittedly is not much) verbal commitments are not binding so this all could change.

Alston Kearns is a 5’6” libero from Apex High School in Apex NC. After falling one match short of the state championship game in 2008, a senior-less Apex squad went 20-4 and won their conference in 2009 but was knocked out of the state tournament in the second round. Kearns was named to the All-Conference team for the second year in a row. She plays club for Triangle Volleyball. Her team qualified for the the recent USAV Girls’ Junior National Championships where they finished 15th in the 18 Open division. As a sophomore, PrepVolleyball.com named her an Honorable Mention on their 2009 Defensive Dandies list. A year later she moved up to Third Team on the list, where they added, “She guts it out like no other… Kearns has set a new bar for NC dandies…” Kearns also plays sand volleyball and and was a 2009 All-District second baseman in softball for Apex.

Is it too early to start talking about 2011? Probably! But that won’t stop us! Over the next week or so we’ll take a quick look at some of the recruits Tennessee has commitments from for the season after next. Keep in mind (from what I understand about recruiting rules — which admittedly is not much) verbal commitments are not binding so this all could change.

Tiffany Baker is a 6’3” middle blocker/outside hitter from Hebron High School in Carrollton TX. Last season her team made it to the Class 5A regional semifinals. Baker was named to the 6-5A All-District team and unanimously chosen as MVP. According to her coach, “She is just a stud… She plays hard, is smart and really excels not only on the court but in the classroom.” The coach added that although she gets attention because of her offense and power, she also has “great finesse for her height”. She plays club for Dallas Premier Volleyball. This week her team is playing in the 17 Open division of the USAV Girls’ Junior National Championships, where they are currently 7-1 with a good chance at the title. Baker was named one of PrepVolleyball’s top 50 recruits for 2011.

Let’s try to get catch up this back log of stories that piled up while I was slacking off and taking care of some real life stuff the past few months!

• Congratulations to Lady Vol seniors Carol Cheade, Chloe Goldman, Kylie Marshall, and Farren Powe who are now officially graduates of the University of Tennessee.

• Blount Today has some photos of a few of the Lady Vols visiting a clinic at Eagleton Middle School.

• Tennessee’s annual volleyball camp for girls entering 5th through 12th grade starts in less than two weeks. Info available at the official site.

• With the previously announced sites, the NCAA has now announced regional and championship sites through 2014:

2010: regional sites Washington, Penn State, Texas, Dayton; championship site Kansas City MO

2011: regional sites Florida, Minnesota, Hawaii, Kentucky; championship site San Antonio TX

2012: regional sites Cal, Nebraska, Texas, Purdue; championship site Louisville KY

2013: regional sites USC, Kentucky, Florida, Illinois; championship site Seattle WA

2014: regional sites Washington, Iowa State, Louisville, Minnesota; championship site Oklahoma City OK

Congratulations to Nikki Fowler and the the USA A2 Blue team who won the Open Division gold medal at the USA Volleyball Open National Championships earlier this month!

The Knoxville News-Sentinel’s Mike Strange has compiled a list of the top individual performances by a University of Tennessee athlete this past school year. On a tough list filled with players who reached national championship heights in their sports, Chloe Goldman came in at #10 for her record breaking senior season for the Lady Vol volleyball team.

Congratulations to recruits Carly Sahagian and Kelsey Robinson who won the AAU Girls’ Junior National Volleyball Championship in the 18 Open division with their team from Sports Performance Volleyball Club last week. Both were named to the tournament’s All-American Team (PDF), with Robinson garnering MVP honors. PrepVolleyball.com subscribers can read full match details. And good luck to the other recruits playing in the USA Volleyball Girls’ Junior National Championships this week!

Tennessee’s 2010 recruiting class was ranked 4th nationally by PrepVolleyball.com (subscription required). Only perennial volleyball powers USC, Penn State, and Stanford were rated as better. The website noted the newest Lady Vols (Ellen Mullins, Kelsey Robinson, Carly Sahagian, and Kylann Scheidt) will “address the areas of ball-control, outside hitting and setting”. The official site has much more.

Head coach Rob Patrick: “A lot of hard work went in to putting this class together and our recruiting coordinator Gregg Whitis deserves a majority of the credit for identifying and recruiting the talent to fill the current and future needs of our program. It’s great to see that Tennessee is being recognized for bringing some of the best prospects in the nation to our program. This can only help us in the future, both on the court and in recruiting as great players like to play with great players. We have a lot of outstanding teams here at Tennessee and our goal in every sport is to win national championships. In order to accomplish that, you need some of the best players and we feel that this class will help us get closer to reaching that goal.”

Hello! It’s been awhile! I’ve taken advantage of the offseason to get a lot of things done, but unfortunately it was all stuff unrelated to volleyball! But I’m back now and ready to go.

We’re about two months away from first serve which will give me plenty of time to get things fixed up around here. The layout and graphics you see now are not at all final. It’s kind of a mix of old and new at the moment, so you’ll probably notice things changing while I get things up and running. News updates will be starting again this week as well.

I created a splash screen you may have seen if you visited the site recently. (I wanted to make it obvious when you visited that I hadn’t forgotten about the site!) Part of the image is also being used as the page background right now. I think it turned out really well! If you’d like a copy to use as your computer wallpaper you can get it here: small or large.

Thanks for your patience as I get back up to speed.

Tennessee has revealed the schedule for the upcoming 2010 volleyball season. In addition to the other 10 SEC schools, the Lady Vols will face Xavier, Virginia Tech, Chattanooga, Houston, Florida State, Oklahoma, Ohio, Northwestern, Pittsburgh, and Louisville. Coach Rob Patrick said, “We always want to put together a schedule that will challenge us early in the year in order to prepare our team for SEC play. We want it to be challenging, but also allow set it up so that we are able to provide opportunities for our younger players to get time on the court when they can gain some experience being successful”.

Over 100 photos of the Lady Vols from this past weekend’s SEC beach tournament are now online. (By forgoing any image adjustments and labeling I was able to get these up much faster than usual!) You can check out the slideshow here. At the bottom of that page you can download the large full resolution originals.

The 3rd Annual SEC Coaches Beach Volleyball Championship took place this weekend in Siesta Key, Florida. Ten Lady Vols represented Tennessee in the event. Unlike the first two years of the tournament, the team wasn’t able to win one of the divisions. But they still did very well in what’s becoming an ever more competitive field. Nikki Fowler and Kayla Jeter went 8-0 in pool play, before losing in the quarter finals of the Gold division. Kylie Marshall (filling in for DeeDee Harrison) and Emily Steinbeck made it to the semifinals of the Silver division. And Amanda Friday and Leslie Cikra made it to the second round of their division. Always impressive Leah Hinkey was teamed up with newcomer Kylann Scheidt, who looked great in her debut as a Lady Vol. It was very cool to see Kelsey Mahoney — who spent most of the past season in the back row as setter in a 6-2 system — getting to step out of her usual role and look so powerful blocking and attacking. And Jasmine Brown is an extremely athletic player! She was all over the court, diving across the sand, and (most impressively for the 5’8” freshman) soaring above the net! Check out the Fiesta on Siesta Key live blog (by Phil Bush) for more info on the event. (UPDATE: See the official site for pre- and post-tournament notes from Scheidt.)

I have lots of photos to sort through so give me a day or two to do that. Until then, click the player names above to see a few of the pics.

The Lady Vols will be in Siesta Key FL this Saturday to compete in the Third Annual SEC Coaches Beach Volleyball Championship at the Second Annual Fiesta on Siesta Key. Unlike previous years, only six of the eleven SEC schools will be participating this time out. The official site has the details and the five pairs that will compete for Tennessee (Nikki Fowler & Kayla Jeter, Leah Hinkey & Kylann Scheidt, Kelsey Mahoney & Jasmine Brown, Amanda Friday & Leslie Cikra, DeeDee Harrison & Emily Steinbeck).

The Tennessee volleyball team took home two awards out of eight nominations at the 4th Annual Volscars. Kylie Marshall won the Female Supporting Role Award and the team picked up the Comeback of the Year Award for their fifth set win against #10 Kentucky to end the regular season. Other nominees were: Female Big Orange Heart Award: Amada Friday; Miss Tennessee Award: Nikki Fowler; Lady Vol Coach of the Year: Rob Patrick; Female Best Athlete Award: Chloe Goldman; Team of the Year Award; Best Supporting Staff Award: Kari Kebach (volleyball athletic trainer).