Huge congratulations to Chloe Goldman on being named the 2009 Southeastern Conference Libero of the Year! She was also named to the All-SEC First Team. Goldman is just the third SEC player of the year in Tennessee history (2005 SEC Defensive Player of the Year Amy Morris, 2007 SEC Freshman of the Year Nikki Fowler). This award is long overdue and very much deserved. I’m sure all Lady Vol fans join me in congratulating Chloe and thanking her for all her hard work at Tennessee. She is going to be sorely missed and hard to replace!

The other awards went to:

• Player of the Year: Brittnee Cooper, LSU
• Freshman of the Year: Jasmine Norton, Arkansas
• Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Sarah Cline, South Carolina
• Coach of the Year: Fran Flory, LSU

UPDATE: Tennessee has more from Coach Patrick: “I am especially proud of Chloe. She is a perfect example of a player that sets a goal and works as hard as she can to achieve it. Since she first stepped foot on campus, she has always wanted to be the best libero in the SEC. Since then, she has taken every bit of coaching we’ve given her and applied it to a great work ethic, not only in our practices, but individually as well. She has put in countless hours of extra time in the gym to become the best player that she could possibly be. I’m glad that the coaches in our conference realized what a huge role she has played for us both this season and her entire career.”

Congratulations to Nikki Fowler and Chloe Goldman on making the All-SEC first team, Kayla Jeter and Farren Powe for making the All-SEC second team, and Leslie Cikra for making the SEC All-Freshman team!

UPDATES: Tennessee has the story. They point out that we’ve tied for the most players on the All-SEC team, also getting five players on in 1982, 2004 and 2005.

Coach Patrick reacts.

First Team All-SEC
Kristy Jaeckel, Florida
Kelly Murphy, Florida
Sarah Mendoza, Kentucky
Sarah Rumely, Kentucky
Brittnee Cooper, LSU
Samantha Dabbs, LSU
Marina Skender, LSU
Nikki Fowler, Tennessee
Chloe Goldman, Tennessee

Second Team All-SEC
Alyssa Meuth, Alabama
Jasmine Norton, Arkansas
Elyse Cusack, Florida
Colleen Ward, Florida
Valentina Gonzalez, Georgia
Lauren Rapp, Kentucky
BriAnne Sauer, Kentucky
Kayla Jeter, Tennessee
Farren Powe, Tennessee

SEC All-Freshman Team
Amanda Anderson, Arkansas
Jasmine Norton, Arkansas
Sarah Bullock, Auburn
Briana Bahr, Georgia
Stephanie Klefot, Kentucky
Whitney Craven, Mississippi
Leslie Cikra, Tennessee

The Lady Vols have jumped into the AVCA Coaches Top 25 Poll for the first time since mid-October 2006. Tennessee makes its debut this year at #24. This is the 52nd time over 8 seasons that UT has appeared in the poll. The highest Tennessee has ever been ranked is 6th, on the final 2005 list.

UPDATE: UT has more.

It’s Monday and you know what that means! It’s time for the SEC to award the Offensive Player of the Week award to Tennessee! For the fourth week in a row a Lady Vol is honored with the award. This time congratulations go to first time recipient Kayla Jeter! Jeter had a career high 23 kills and 25 points vs the #10 Kentucky Wildcats. She hit .422 and also notched an ace, a dig, and 2 blocks in the win.

UPDATES: UT has a lot more on the story, including this: “Since its emergence on the volleyball scene in 2004, Tennessee players have won more weekly accolades for their offensive performances than student-athletes from any other school”. Jeter was also named the Lady Vol Athlete of the Week. [corrected stat — I need to read more carefully!]

It’s almost time for the SEC yearly awards which means it’s prediction time! You may get some early insight or you might see me make a fool of myself. Either way you get something for nothing so let’s get to it!

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

This is a tough one. Two weeks ago I would have thought Tennessee didn’t have a candidate in the race. But now that Nikki Fowler has won the weekly award a record three times in a row and four times this year she has to be considered a front runner. Third in points, and third in SEC matches in kills, she’s one of just two players in the conference to reach 29 kills in a game. Defeating Florida and Kentucky in the final week of the season can’t have hurt either. LSU’s Marina Skender and Brittnee Cooper lead the way for LSU but I think Cooper gets the edge. She leads the conference in hitting percentage and blocks and is in the top ten in kills. She’s won the weekly award twice and also won the defensive weekly award once. She also has the conference championship on her side. I’m going with Sarah Mendoza as Kentucky’s best shot. She’s first in the SEC in kills in all matches and second in points, and has won the weekly award once. Florida’s Kelly Murphy has 9 triple-doubles this year. In SEC matches she’s 2nd in hitting percentage and 10th in kills. She won the weekly award once.

I think this one comes down to Fowler’s domination of the weekly awards, Mendoza’s topping of the charts, and Cooper’s first championship for LSU in almost 20 years. Cooper’s the only senior of the group so that might help a bit. Toss up between Fowler and Cooper, with the slight edge to Cooper and her championship season.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

To me this should be a no brainer. Unfortunately it’s never that simple! Chloe Goldman has had a phenomenal career, set just about every school record, is 3rd in the conference in single season digs, and is currently 5th in SEC career digs. She holds more weekly awards all-time than the 2007 and 2008 winner of the annual award. Yet she has never won a yearly award nor been named to an All-SEC team. This is the last chance the coaches have to honor her and they better get to it! Rant over now, but she actually has the numbers to back up the award again this year. She’s first in the conference in digs in all matches and second in SEC matches. Just above her there is UK’s BriAnne Sauer who has just 13 more digs. Goldman has only 15 reception errors to Sauer’s 16 — though Goldman is on a 12 match streak with no RE’s. The two are in a virtual tie statistically. Goldman should hold the tie breaker in career accomplishments and the two UT wins over the Wildcats this year. The only other possible candidates here are Elyse Cusack and Sarah Cline. Cusack has the career accomplishments but hasn’t had as good a year as the other two — and c’mon, she’s won it once it already! Cline is right there with the rest but South Carolina’s record will not work in her favor. Cusack has won the weekly award three times this year, while Goldman and Sauer have won it twice, and Cline once.

If Fowler wins the Offensive award that could hurt Goldman’s chances. But I think — hope! — the SEC coaches will look at the great season Goldman has had, look at the whole of her career, and rectify their looking over her for other awards in the past. Goldman wins.

FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR

For at least the third year in a row there is no real competition for this award. Arkansas’ Jasmine Norton has won the weekly award six times this year, is one of only two players to notch 29 kills in a match this season, and leads the SEC in conference match kills. Norton wins.

COACH OF THE YEAR

Fran Flory has to be the favorite here with LSU becoming the only SEC team other than Florida to win an outright SEC championship since 1990. Kentucky’s Craig Skinner may also be in the running, as the only team to beat LSU in the conference this year and with their high national ranking. Flory wins.

• Tennessee is in the 2009 NCAA Tournament and will face Duke in the first round.

• Tennessee is 9-10 vs Duke all-time with the last meeting during the first round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament where the #25 Blue Devils won in Knoxville 3-1 (30-22, 26-30, 30-25, 30-27).

• Tennessee will host the first & second rounds of the tournament! UT vs Duke and Louisville (dangit!) vs #13 (and eleventh seeded) Minnesota.

• Full bracket online here (PDF).

• Tennessee is 1-3 all-time vs Minnesota. The last meeting was a 3-2 win in the second round of the 2005 tournament vs the #17 Gophers in Knoxville (30-19, 24-30, 20-30, 30-27, 15-11).

• Tennessee is 12-7 vs Louisville all-time, winning the last meeting earlier this year 3-2 (23-25, 21-25, 25-18, 25-9, 17-15).

• Tennessee is hosting the opening round of the tournament for the 7th time in school history.

• Duke (27-5) #2 in ACC
• Louisville (21-10) Big East tournament champion
• Minnesota (24-8) #3 Big Ten

• Tennessee played 8 teams this year that made the NCAA Tournament. In those matches they went 6-5. [record fixed]

• The Lady Vols are 7-1 in NCAA Tournament matches in Knoxville — the lone loss was to Duke in 2006.

• Tennessee has the story! According to UT the dates will be December 4th and 5th, with UT taking the court Friday at 7pm.

• Minnesota has their story on the tournament up.

• Louisville has posted about their tourney appearance.

• With ranks of 13th, 19th, 27th, and 38th, Knoxville is the only host site in the first round where none of the four teams competing are ranked 40th or worse in the most recent RPI.

• Duke has the news.

The third senior whose career we’ll look back on is Carol Cheade. In the past few weeks Coach Patrick has had an awfully lot of things to say about this player who didn’t see as much playing time as the other seniors. He’s always talking up certain players like Cheade on his “Machine Team”, the non-starters who scrimmage with the starters during practices, whom he says are a huge part of the team’s success. In a recent article he said he would not be surprised if anyone on the current roster entered coaching — but he only mentioned Cheade by name. And in his last “Chalk Talk” he said the great thing about Cheade was since she was such a well rounded player that she was the backup for every position on the front row. So don’t let the relative shortness of this piece fool you. I can only recap what she’s done during matches, but her impact on the team has been much greater than that.

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Just a reminder that the teams that will compete in this year’s NCAA Tournament will be announced today. The selection show will air at 3pm on ESPNews.

Our next senior career recap is for the explosive Farren Powe who, despite having issues with injuries over the years, has nevertheless made a name for herself at the net with her forceful blocking and her quick attacks.

Powe played in five matches her first year. Her debut came in a sweep of Lehigh on September 9th, 2009. Powe had a fantastic outing with 9 kills, 4 blocks, and a .471 hitting percentage.

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Thankfully, my camera decided to cooperate this past Sunday! You’ll find 39 photos from Senior Day here.

Keeping our senior week reports going, for the next few days we’ll look back at the careers of the players leaving Rocky Top this year. And we’ll start with Chloe Goldman, a player who has left an indelible mark on Lady Vol volleyball.

Goldman played in 20 matches her freshman year, mostly as a server and defensive specialist. She debuted in the season opener at the Lady Vol Classic against Virginia on August 25th, 2006, where she got the first 2 of what would become a school record number of digs that match. And, without the limitations of the libero jersey she would eventually don, scored the first (and only!) block of her career.

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Happy Thanksgiving! I’m too stuffed with food and giddy over last night’s win to do much work today. But we’ll continue our week long report on how thankful we are for our seniors — how about that segue! The official Tennessee site has been showcasing the seniors this past week in a series of articles. Be sure to check them all out here: Chloe Goldman, Kylie Marshall, Farren Powe, and Carol Cheade.

Tennessee almost squandered a two set lead but held on to defeat the 10th ranked Kentucky Wildcats in five (25-16, 25-14, 24-26, 17-25, 16-14). The loss deprives Kentucky of a share of the SEC title, meaning LSU is the champion outright. More later!

UPDATES: WOW! That might — might — top the Florida win last week! The team was down 10-14 in the 5th set but managed to fight their way back to victory! Tennessee finishes the regular season in 2nd place in the SEC East! What an amazing season from these amazing women!

OK, time to calm down and get to the dry statistics! Leah Hinkey had an incredible 13 blocks! That’s the 5th best total in school history! Nikki Fowler finishes the regular season with 14 straight double-doubles, getting 17 kills, 12 digs, and 4 blocks tonight. Kayla Jeter had a huge night with 23 kills and a .422 hitting percentage. Chloe Goldman had 27 digs. Kylie Marshall had 20 digs and 6 blocks — and served the final five points of the match down 11-14! Kelsey Mahoney got a double-double with 49 assists and 10 digs — she also had a piece of the match winning block with Hinkey! Farren Powe had 4 blocks. Jasmine Brown and Amanda Friday had solid performances with almost no errors while playing in all five sets. Leslie Cikra and DeeDee Harrison didn’t see a lot of playing time but played error-free ball! There will probably be even more about this match later!

More stats of interest: UT held Kentucky to a .171 hitting percentage while hitting .224 themselves. UK had 12 service errors and only 1 ace to Tennessee’s 5 errors on 3 aces. The Wildcats had 1 block solo and 15 block assists; the Lady Vols had 5 solos and 26 block assists. (Oh yeah — the box score is here!)

I should probably save some of these stats for the recap, but who cares! Let’s just do it now! This was the 750th recorded win in school history. It is just the 3rd time the Lady Vols have defeated 2 top ten teams in the same season (the 2004 squad did it twice and the 2005 team did it 4 times). Now 12-1 at home, the 2009 team has tied for the most home wins in a regular season (the 2004 team also went 12-1). And, 16 wins is the new school record for most SEC wins in the regular season. In the past 20 years the Lady Vols have only reached 23 regular season wins once (in 2004).

Tennessee has the story and some audio from Coach Patrick (though I’m having trouble getting that to work). LSU has announced their conference championship.

Kentucky has their take on the match up now.

• The Lady Vols will be looking for the program’s 750th recorded win tonight.

• Tennessee is 25-39 vs Kentucky all-time and 5-5 during the last 10 meetings. Tennessee won the last meeting earlier this year 3-1 (25-23, 23-25, 25-23, 25-22).

• For the second year in a row, the road to the SEC championship goes through Tennessee on the last day of the season. Kentucky can win a share of the title with LSU by defeating the Lady Vols. Last year the exact same scenario occurred, with UK needing a win over Tennessee to split the title with Florida in the last regular season match. UT dashed their title hopes with a 3-2 win.

• With the 65th meeting between UK and UT since 1973, this match-up is the oldest rivalry for both schools.

• The #10 Wildcats will be the 6th ranked opponent Tennessee has faced this year. In only 6 previous seasons have the Lady Vols played more than that. Tennessee has only defeated 3 or more ranked teams in a single season 3 times before: 1982 (6-3), 2004 (6-2), and 2005 (5-4). Under Coach Patrick the team has defeated 17 ranked opponents. Prior to his tenure the team had only defeated 8 — and 6 of those wins were in 1982 alone. From 1984 to 2000, the Lady Vols only defeated 1 ranked team in 75 attempts.

• Tennessee is 11-1 at home this year. In school history the Lady Vols have finished the season with 1 home loss or less only 6 times: 1979 (10-1), 1980 (6-0), 1981 (14-1), 1982 (10-1), 2004 (14-1), and 2005 (13-1). [updated]

• Kentucky has not recorded a sweep of Tennessee since 1995.

• I’ve been reporting on school career records fairly often, but several top ten UT single season marks are being set as well.

– Chloe Goldman already owns the top 2 spots on the single season digs list. After this past weekend she now owns the top 3 spots. She’s 2 digs away from besting her 2008 total.

– Goldman’s 2009 digs per set number now stands as the second best in a single season in school history, just below her 2007 average.

– Nikki Fowler’s 2008 performance is currently #10 on the single season attacks list. She’s 12 attacks away from topping that number this year.

– Fowler is just 7 digs away from tying for the 10th spot on the single season digs chart.

– Farren Powe is now #7 on the single season blocks per set list.

– Powe is only .020 away from the top ten on the single season hitting percentage list.

– Leah Hinkey is 0.08 away from getting a third season onto the top ten single season blocks per set list.

– Kylie Marshall is 41 digs away from the top ten on the single season digs list.

• Check out the official match notes from Tennessee (PDF) and Kentucky.

#10 Kentucky (27-3, 17-2)
Game time is Wednesday, November 25th at 7pm ET in Knoxville
Follow the match with live stats or with free live video.

Leah Hinkey was named to the SEC Community Service Team. The program highlights an athlete from each school who gives back to her community in superior service efforts. The full list follows. More info soon!

UPDATE: UT has the story. Hinkey has worked with Holiday Dinner for the Homeless, Teams for Toys, Habitat for Humanity, and the Boys and Girls Club’s April Play Day.

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