Tennessee took down Mississippi State in 3 sets this afternoon (25-18, 25-21, 25-22). Nikki Fowler had 16 kills and 10 digs for her second double-double of the weekend. Farren Powe had 11 kills and hit .686. Chloe Goldman had 17 digs and Kylie Marshall had 10. Marshall and Leah Hinkey had 7 kills each. Kelsey Mahoney had 24 assists and Emily Steinbeck had 17.

Sorry for the delayed updates this weekend. I got back from Alabama at 3am Saturday morning. I had wanted to go the extra 80 miles from Tuscaloosa to Starkville but my daughter was having a sleepover last night and as much as I would have preferred to be 3 states away from a houseful of loud and giggly 9 year old girls, I just couldn’t make my wife handle that alone! The house is empty and quiet now so I’ll try to get caught up on the website updates tonight.

Tennessee fights off a fiesty Alabama squad and their own errors to get the victory in Tuscaloosa 3-1 (26-24, 25-22, 22-25, 25-23). Chloe Goldman is the all time school digs leader. Nikki Fowler joins the 1000 kills club and had a double double with 14 kills and 15 digs. No updates from me for awhile. I’ll get home late tonight and sleep in tomorrow! So be sure to check out the official site for the details — because it was an interesting match!

Tennessee heads to Tuscaloosa on the Third Saturday Friday in October to take on Alabama, before going 80 miles west to face Mississippi State Sunday.

• Tennessee is 25-12 vs Alabama. In their past 10 matches the Lady Vols are 4-6 vs the Crimson Tide. Tennessee won the last meeting 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-22).

• Tennessee is 35-7 vs Mississippi State. In their last 10 matches the Lady Vols are 9-1 vs the Bulldogs. Tennessee won the last meeting 3-0 (25-16, 25-16, 25-17)

• Tennessee’s Farren Powe and Alabama’s Sarah Machen were teammates on the 2004 and 2005 Alabama State Champion McGill-Toolen Catholic High School volleyball teams.

• Tennessee leads the conference in holding their opponents to a low hitting percentage. Alabama and Mississippi State are on the bottom of the SEC in that stat.

• Tennessee’s only loss to MSU in the past 12 years was in 2007. Their previous loss was in 1996.

• New Mississippi State head coach Jenny Hazelwood was a four year starter for the Bulldogs in the late 1990’s. She is the only current head coach in the SEC that was also a player in the conference. She still ranks #7 on the SEC career assists chart.

• Tennessee posted the 3rd biggest turnaround in Division I in 2008, going from 11 wins the previous season to 22 last season. The #1 biggest turnaround last year was made by another Tennessee team — Austin Peay. The Lady Govs went from 8 wins the previous season to 22 in 2008. Mississippi State wasted no time snatching their coach to help turnaround their own program. And it probably wasn’t a tough sell considering she was a four year starter for the Bulldogs in the late 1990’s…..

Alabama (6-12, 4-4)
Game time is Friday, October 16th at 7pm ET in Tuscaloosa AL
Follow the match with live stats, free online video, or a live internet radio feed.

Mississippi State (5-14, 1-7)
Game time is Sunday, October 18th at 2:30pm ET in Starkville MS
Follow the match with live stats or a subscription video feed.

• Tennessee is now 37-23 vs the Bulldogs and 24-12-1 vs the Tigers.

• Since at least 2002 (as far back as I have box scores) Tennessee has never played a match where three players (with at least three attacks) hit better than .600 until this weekend vs Georgia. Farren Powe hit .700 (7-0-10), Leah Hinkey hit .667 (6-0-9), and Kayla Jeter hit .611 (11-0-18)

• The Lady Vols held Georgia to a -0.10 hitting percentage. That’s just the 8th time since 2002 a UT team has held an opponent to a negative hitting percentage.

• For the match against Georgia, Tennessee only had 7 hitting errors. That’s the 3rd lowest tally since 2002.

• Tennessee has swept 9 of the 12 teams they have beaten this year. Undefeated at home, the team has swept 6 of their 7 opponents at Thompson Boling Arena.

• Chloe Goldman’s career digs total is now 1,473 — one short of Kristy Dobson’s all-time school record.

• With 38 assists this weekend, Kelsey Mahoney has crossed the 1,000 career assists mark.

• Nikki Fowler had a double-double vs Auburn.

• Career highs matched or exceeded this weekend:
– Leslie Cikra: digs, block solos, block assists, and total blocks
– Chloe Goldman: aces
– Kayla Jeter: hitting percentage and aces
– Farren Powe: hitting percentage
– Emily Stienbeck: aces and points

The NCAA and SEC have updated their weekly statistical rankings of players and teams for the 2009 season. The national stats rank 329 teams and the top 250 players in each category. All stats (except hitting percentage) are “per set”, not totals. Tennessee’s ranks in the polls are also listed. Numbers in parentheses are the changes from last week.

AVCA: 39th nationally (NR); 4th SEC (NR)
NCAA RPI: 20th nationally (+6 from RKPI); 4th SEC (UNCH from RKPI)
Pablo Rankings: 31st nationally (+5); 4th SEC (UNCH)

NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS – TENNESSEE

Aces: 182nd (+21)
Assists: 146th (+3)
Blocks: 18th (+1)
Digs: 61st (-2)
Hitting Percentage: 123rd (+24)
Kills: 141st (+8)

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – TENNESSEE – ALL MATCHES

Aces: 5th (+4)
Assists: 7th (+1)
Blocks: 1st (UNCH)
Digs: 2nd (UNCH)
Hitting Percentage: 8th (+1)
Kills: 8th (UNCH)
Opponent Hitting Percentage: 1st (UNCH)

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – TENNESSEE – SEC MATCHES

Aces: 9th (+5)
Assists: 8th (UNCH)
Blocks: 1st (UNCH)
Digs: 2nd (-1)
Hitting Percentage: 4th (+1)
Kills: 8th (UNCH)
Opponent Hitting Percentage: 1st (+2)

NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS

Blocks: Farren Powe – 27th (-8)
Blocks: Leah Hinkey – 115th (+5)
Digs: Chloe Goldman – 48th (+12)
Hitting Percentage: Farren Powe – 97th (-2)
Hitting Percentage: Leah Hinkey – 109th (-11)
Kills: Nikki Fowler – 210th (-10)
Points: Nikki Fowler – 147th (-4)

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES

Assists: Kelsey Mahoney – 10th (NR)
Blocks: Farren Powe – 1st (UNCH)
Blocks: Leah Hinkey – 6th (+3)
Digs: Chloe Goldman – 1st (+1)
Hitting Percentage: Farren Powe – 6th (UNCH )
Hitting Percentage: Leah Hinkey – 8th (-1)
Kills: Nikki Fowler – 8th (UNCH)
Points: Nikki Fowler – 6th (-1)

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – SEC MATCHES

Aces: Emily Steinbeck – 7th (NR)
Blocks: Farren Powe – 1st (UNCH)
Blocks: Leah Hinkey – 5th (+2)
Digs: Chloe Goldman – 1st (+2)
Hitting Percentage: Farren Powe – 7th (-2)
Hitting Percentage: Leah Hinkey – 8th (-2)

The Southeastern Conference is starting to make a little headway in the latest AVCA poll. Kentucky moves up to 8th. After being swept by LSU last night, Florida falls to 9th. The Tigers jump into the poll at 23rd. Tennessee is getting votes as well and is an unofficial 39th.

Tennessee sweeps Auburn but had to eke out some close sets to do it (25-23, 25-23, 25-20). The Lady Vols remain undefeated at home after seven matches at Thompson Boling Arena — six of which were sweeps. More soon.

UPDATE: With 14 today, Chloe Goldman’s career digs total is now 1,473 — one short of Kristy Dobson’s all-time school record. Kylie Marshall also had 14 digs and Nikki Fowler had 10. Kayla Jeter led in kills with 12, while Fowler had 10 (completing a double-double) and Marshall had 7. Jeter and Marshall both hit in the .300’s; Jeter at .385 (12-2-26) and Marshall at .333 (7-1-18). Farren Powe had 6 blocks in the match, Leslie Cikra had 5, and Leah Hinkey had 4. Kelsye Mahoney had 20 assists and Emily Steinbeck had 14.

Here is the story and stats from Tennessee and Auburn.

For those coming to the match today (and those who haven’t decided!) you might get to see some Tennessee history being made. The Lady Vols’ libero, Chloe Goldman, is just 16 digs away from breaking the school record for career digs which has stood for 18 years! Also, outside hitter Nikki Fowler is 16 kills away from becoming just the 17th Lady Vol to join the 1,000 career kills club.

If that’s not enough, how about free admission! Just wear pink and you get in free today!

Tennesse takes down Georgia tonight in three (25-11, 25-15, 25-17). More very soon.

UPDATE: THREE Lady Vols hit over .600 in the match! Farren Powe hit .700 (7-0-10), Leah Hinkey hit .667 (6-0-9), and Kayla Jeter hit .611 (11-0-18) [Sorry for the error! — the corrected stats are now listed above]. Nikki Fowler added 8 more kills and Kylie Marshall 7. Chloe Goldman had 3 aces. Her 23 digs are the 5th most in a 3-set match in Lady Vol history. Hinkey and Fowler both had 3 blocks while Carol Cheade and Leslie Cikra had 2 each. Kelsey Mahoney had 18 assists and Emily Steinbeck had 14.

As a team Tennessee hit .367. The league leading Lady Vols held Georgia to -.010. The match was the second shortest of the year at an hour and 21 minutes — one minute longer than the Arkansas match.

Tennessee has several promotions going on this weekend for those attending one of the matches.

• Free admission to either match if you show your UT vs Georgia football ticket (or stub).

• $1 admission to the Georgia match for all home school kids and family

• $1 admission to the Auburn match for Boy and Girl Scouts.

• Free admission to the Auburn match if you wear pink to support Dig for the Cure.

• At all home matches Coach Patrick will give a “Chalk Talk ” to fans 45 minutes before match time.

• At all Sunday home matches kids 12 and under get a free hot dog and soft drink.

Tennessee begins the second half of the season this week, taking on Georgia and Auburn.

• Tennessee is 36-23 vs the Bulldogs. Tennessee won the last meeting 3-0 (25-17, 25-12, 25-16).

• Tennessee is 23-12-1 vs the Tigers. Tennessee won the last meeting 3-2 (23-25, 25-11, 25-19, 20-25, 16-14).

• The Lady Vols are 9-1 in their last 10 meetings against Georgia. All nine wins were sweeps. Since 2004, Tennessee has only given up 3 sets to the Bulldogs. Georgia has not won in Knoxville since 2001.

• Georgia is a very young team this year. They have no seniors on their team this season and just 3 juniors.

• Georgia’s Erika Clark was a teammate of Lady Vol Nikki Fowler in the Skyline Juniors volleyball club class of 2007. Both are outside hitters who lead their teams this season in kills and attacks. Auburn’s Sarah Bullock and Katherine Culwell (both freshmen) are also Skyline Juniors alumni.

• The Lady Vols are also 9-1 in their last 10 meetings against Auburn. Tennessee’s set record vs Auburn since 1999 is 46-13.

• The last time Tennessee and Auburn met, a tripped fire alarm delayed the 5th set of the match for half an hour as the building was evacuated and the fire department called in.

• That delayed 3-2 win against Auburn was the first 5 set match between the teams since 1993.

• Heading into the first match vs Auburn last year libero Chloe Goldman was 45 digs away from breaking into the top ten of UT’s all-time digs list. This weekend Goldman is just 39 digs away from taking the top spot on that list.

Georgia (11-5, 2-3)
Game time is Friday, October 9th at 7pm ET in Knoxville
Follow the match with live stats or on SportsSouth.
Georgia match notes (PDF)

Auburn (11-5, 3-2)
Game time is Sunday, October 11th at 1:30pm ET in Knoxville
Follow the match with live stats or a free video feed.

The NCAA and SEC have updated their weekly statistical rankings of players and teams for the 2009 season. The national stats rank 329 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 a few polls. Numbers in parentheses are the changes from last week.

Pablo Rankings: 36th nationally (+3); 4th SEC (UNCH)
RKPI: 26th nationally (+6); 4th SEC (UNCH)

NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS – TENNESSEE

Aces: 203rd (-3)
Assists: 149th (-3)
Blocks: 19th (-7)
Digs: 59th (-12)
Hitting Percentage: 147th (+11)
Kills: 149th (+3)

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – TENNESSEE – ALL MATCHES

Aces: 9th (-1)
Assists: 8th (+1)
Blocks: 1st (UNCH)
Digs: 2nd (UNCH)
Hitting Percentage: 9th (UNCH)
Kills: 8th (UNCH)
Opponent Hitting Percentage: 1st (UNCH)

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – TENNESSEE – SEC MATCHES

Aces: 11th
Assists: 8th
Blocks: 1st
Digs: 1st
Hitting Percentage: 5th
Kills: 8th
Opponent Hitting Percentage: 3rd

NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS

Blocks: Farren Powe – 19th (-11)
Blocks: Leah Hinkey – 120th (-13)
Digs: Chloe Goldman – 60th (+13)
Hitting Percentage: Farren Powe – 95th (+12)
Hitting Percentage: Leah Hinkey – 98th (-42)
Kills: Nikki Fowler – 200th (-3)
Points: Nikki Fowler – 143th (-14)

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – ALL MATCHES

Blocks: Farren Powe – 1st (UNCH)
Blocks: Leah Hinkey – 9th (-2)
Digs: Chloe Goldman – 2nd (UNCH)
Hitting Percentage: Farren Powe – 6th (+2)
Hitting Percentage: Leah Hinkey – 7th (-5)
Kills: Nikki Fowler – 8th (+1)
Points: Nikki Fowler – 5th (+1)

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS – SEC MATCHES

Assists: Emily Steinbeck – 10th
Blocks: Farren Powe – 1st
Blocks: Leah Hinkey – 7th
Digs: Chloe Goldman – 3rd
Digs: Nikki Fowler – 9th
Hitting Percentage: Farren Powe – 5th
Hitting Percentage: Leah Hinkey – 6th

It’s hard to believe (probably because the team has been on the road for 2/3’s of the year) but we’re already at the mid-point of the season. Which means it’s time to put undue pressure on people by looking ahead at who could get into the record books! This is all speculation, of course, based on how the players have done so far and extrapolating that out to the rest of the year. In other words — don’t take it too seriously! And apologies if I’ve forgotten anyone.

• Chloe Goldman is just 39 digs away from becoming UT’s all-time digs leader. Kristy Dobson’s current record of 1,474 has stood since 1991.

• Goldman is also closing in on the top 10 of the SEC all-time digs list. At her current rate she could reach #7.

• Goldman is already the school’s all-time leader in digs per set. She is so far above everyone else on the list that even if she played as much as she did in the first half of 2009 but never got another dig, she would only fall to #2!

• On the single season digs chart Goldman holds the top two spots for her performances in 2007 and 2008. At her current rate she would reach the 4th spot for 2009.

• Already at #1 and #3 on the single season digs per set list, Goldman would rank #4 this year if she stays at her current pace.

• Nikki Fowler is 25 kills away from becoming just the 17th Lady Vol to record 1,000 kills in a career. At her current pace she could break into the top 5 all time by the end of 2010.

• Fowler could end this season with about 900 career digs. Just a junior, she would be well placed to join the top 10 career digs list next year.

• Fowler could become just the 4th player in school history to record both 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career.

• With her current rate of attempts, Fowler may jump into the top 10 career attacks list this season.

• Fowler is already #3 on the career attacks per set chart and #8 on the career kills per set chart.

• Farren Powe will try to stake claim to a spot on the top 10 career hitting percentage list. She currently sits at 10th with teammate Leah Hinkey just .001 points behind her.

• Powe has been flirting with a number that could make her the first person to break Sarah Blum’s hold on the top four spots of the single season blocks per set list. Right now she is at #6, just 0.03 points off Blum’s #4 spot.

• Powe is currently at 8th on the career blocks per set list, but could move up to 5th with just a 0.02 point upward swing.

• 2009 could be the year Powe breaks into the top 10 single season hitting percentage chart where she is currently ranked #9.

• Kylie Marshall could reach #4 or #5 of the career digs list before she leaves Rocky Top. If she gets 31 more digs than she got in the first half of the season she’d get to #3! Right now she sits at #6.

• In her four seasons at UT so far Marshall has played in every single match and all but 5 sets — that’s 107 matches and 402 of 407 sets! In school history only Julie Knytych (2002-2005) has played in every set of a 4 year career. The next best is Kristy Dobson (1988-1991) who played in about 98% of her sets (I don’t have the exact percentage). Marshall has currently played in 98.8% of the sets played during her career.

• Marshall is currently 6th in career digs per set.

• Leah Hinkey is skippping in and out of the top 10 career hitting percentage list. She currently sits at 11th with teammate Farren Powe just .001 points ahead of her.

• 2009 could also be the year Hinkey breaks into the top 10 single season hitting percentage chart where she is currently ranked #10.

• Hinkey is currently 6th all time in career blocks. At her current pace she could make it to 5th by the end of the year, and maybe as high as 3rd by the end of 2010.

• Hinkey could end this season just about 60 block assists shy of entering the SEC career block assists top 10 list. Keeping up her current pace she could end her career at 5th in the conference.

• Already at #2 on the career blocks per set chart, Hinkey could play the rest of the season without a block and still end her junior year at #5.

• Kelsey Mahoney is just 3 assists away from 1,000. Even with splitting the setting duties during her first two seasons she should break into the UT all-time assists list this year.

OK, this one is a little out there and way off in the future, but still interesting. A year and a half into her career, Mahoney has just 46 attacks. As she’s a setter she’s not expected to be attacking all over the place so nothing unusual there. However, when she does have the rare attack she is pretty good — 19 kills with just 4 errors or a .326 hitting percentage. At her current pace she could finish her career with just over 100 attacks. 100 attacks just happens to be the minimum needed to get on the career hitting percentage list where Mahoney could be ranked in the top 5! (This is assuming 100 attacks is all time and not per year or something similar.)

Oops — I missed this one! But better late than never. Congratulations to Lady Vol Nikki Fowler on being named a national Top Performer by the Collegiate Volleyball Update (PDF) last week! In addition to that honor, she also picked up the previously reported SEC Offensive Player of the Week and the Lady Vol Athlete of the Week awards.

• Tennessee is now 12-7 vs Louisville, 28-25 vs South Carolina, and 9-40-1 vs Florida.

• Chloe Goldman’s 26 digs vs South Carolina ranks as the 12th best performance in a four-set match in Lady Vol history.

• Tennessee fell to Florida 3-0. The Lady Vols went 15 matches into the season before being swept by an opponent. Since 1983 (when all matches were played best 3 out of 5), that is the fourth furthest a UT team has gone into its schedule without a 3 set sweep. The 2004 team made it through the entire season without one. And in 2003 and 2006, they made it to 16 matches before being swept — both times, as now, by Florida.

• Tennessee’s win vs Louisville was the first time a visiting team has won a match in the annual series since 2004.

• Tennessee fought back from a two set deficit against Louisville. It was the 13th win after being down 0-2 in school history — the last being November 2005 vs #7 Notre Dame. You’d have to go back to September 1996 against LSU to find the next example. And it was the second time the Lady Vols have defeated Louisville in that fashion, having done it in October 1985 as well.

• Sophomore Kayla Jeter had 20 kills and junior Nikki Fowler had 21 against the Cardinals. The last time the Lady Vols had two players with 20+ kills in the same match? Again — November 2005 vs #7 Notre Dame with sophomore Yuliya Stoyanova and junior Kelsey Fautsch.

• Tennessee’s streak of seven matches with a set going past the regulation 25 or 15 points ended this weekend. It may seem like a very inconsequential stat, but there was one instructional nugget to be taken from it: in the four long sets Tennessee won, they also won the match; in the three matches where they lost the long sets, they lost the match.

• Nikki Fowler notched a double-double vs Louisville.

• Career highs matched or exceeded this week:
– Leslie Cikra – hitting percentage, block solos, block assists, and total blocks
– Natalie Guerra – assists and digs
– Kayla Jeter – kills, attacks, aces, digs, and points
– Kelsey Mahoney – aces and points