Congratulations to Lady Vol Chloe Goldman, who was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week! Some stats from the release: she had 60 digs in three contests; finished with an average of 5.00 digs p/s; and passed at a .962 clip with just four reception errors in 104 attempts.

For the first time this season — and despite keeping it close — Tennessee couldn’t close out a set, losing to fifth ranked Florida 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-21). Only one Lady Vol notched double digits in any major category — Emily Steinbeck with 11 assists. Nikki Fowler had 9 kills and 8 digs. Chloe Goldman had 8 digs. Leslie Cikra hit .364 (6-2-11). Farren Powe had 3 blocks. Kylie Marshall and Leah Hinkey had 2 blocks each. Seeing major action for the first time this season, Natalie Guerra had 7 assists and 4 digs.

UPDATE: The stories from Tennessee and Florida.

Tennessee gets their 4th win in a row today in a 3-1 win over South Carolina (19-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-16).

Kayla Jeter had 12 kills, 7 digs, and 3 blocks. Farren Powe hit .439, and had 10 kills, and 4 blocks. Nikki Fowler had 9 kills and 18 digs. Leslie Cikra had 10 kills. Leah Hinkey had 8 kills and 6 blocks. Chloe Goldman had 26 digs. Emilt Steinbeck had 22 assists and 8 digs. Kelsey Mahoney had 20 assists.

UPDATE: More from the Lady Vols and the Gamecocks.

That mid week game has thrown me off my schedule! So instead of notes today I decided to catch up on posting some photos.

I took some pictures during the first three sets of the Louisville match — then got too into the game to remember to snap more! Unfortunately, most of the pictures were no good for some reason. I don’t have the greatest camera in the world for fast action sports photos but even these were worse than usual. I think I screwed up a setting or something. Anyway, fans of Kylie Marshall and Emily Steinbeck will be happy at least since almost all the photos I took of them came out pretty good!

I also got some photos from a fan at the Carolina Classic and forgot to get them posted. They are up as well. Yes, I can very easily see her pictures are better than mine! And yes, I have bugged her at length for details about her camera! Maybe I’ll upgrade by next season.

For a few more details about this weekend’s matches, check out the Schedule page and click the “Next” link. Or skip all that and just get the official site’s (PDF) notes for the games!

South Carolina (9-3, 1-2)
Game time is Friday, October 2nd at 6pm ET in Columbia SC
Follow the match with live stats (fixed) or a (free?) video feed.
SC match notes (PDF)

#5 Florida (10-1, 4-0 Big East)
Game time is Sunday, October 4th at 1:30pm ET in Gainesville FL
Follow the match with live stats, a free audio feed, or a subscription video feed.

Here’s a heads up for any Olympic fans out there. The IOC will announce the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics later today! In the running are Chicago, USA; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Madrid, Spain; and Tokyo, Japan. Of the four candidate countries only Brazil has never hosted a Games. In fact, the Olympics have never been held in South America. Might that play into the vote? Tune in later to find out!

UPDATE: It’s Rio!

Tennessee wins in thrilling fashion, coming back from two sets down in Louisville to win it all in the fifth (23-25, 21-25, 25-18, 25-9, 17-15). Much more when I get back to Knoxville.

UPDATE: Almost 2am so I’ll keep this brief! Some hitting errors and a tough Louisville blocking game hurt UT the first two sets, but after the break they had the Cardinals number! They cleaned up their own game and figured out the opposing block. Then they just started relentlessly pounding the ball from the outsides and the middle and Louisville wilted under the barrage! Nikki Fowler and Kayla Jeter had 21 and 20 kills respectively, but maybe more importantly they both had about 50 attack attempts each, never letting up on the Cards once they were down two sets! Leslie Cikra with 5 blocks, Farren Powe with 4, and Leah Hinkey with 3 took care of business at the net. Kelsey Mahoney and Emily Steinbeck had 34 and 22 assists. Chloe Goldman picked up 26 digs, Fowler 13, and Kylie Marshall 11. Another big help when you’re down two sets to none? Serve up 8 aces while holding the opposition to none! Mahoney had 4 aces, Fowler had 3, and Marshall 1.

Wasn’t this supposed to be brief?! One last stat, that is probably meaningless, but interesting in an odd sort of way: For the seventh match in a row, a set had to be decided with extra points! Check out the Tennessee and Louisville sites for stories and stats.

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: 39th nationally (+15); 4th SEC (UNCH)
RKPI: 32nd nationally (+17); 4th SEC (+1)

NATIONAL TEAM RANKINGS – TENNESSEE

Aces: 200th (-23)
Assists: 146th (+33)
Blocks: 12th (+2)
Digs: 47th (-10)
Hitting Percentage: 158th (+48)
Kills: 152nd (+31)

SEC TEAM RANKINGS – TENNESSEE

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

NATIONAL INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS

Blocks: Farren Powe – 8th (+4)
Blocks: Leah Hinkey – 107th (+10)
Blocks: Nikki Fowler – 139th (+27)
Digs: Chloe Goldman – 73rd (-12)
Hitting Percentage: Leah Hinkey – 46th (+40)
Hitting Percentage: Farren Powe – 107th (+113)
Kills: Nikki Fowler – 197th (NR)
Points: Nikki Fowler – 129th (+34)

SEC INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS

Assists: Kelsey Mahoney – 8th (+1)
Blocks: Farren Powe – 1st (UNCH)
Blocks: Leah Hinkey – 7th (+2)
Blocks: Nikki Fowler – 11th (+6)
Digs: Chloe Goldman – 2nd (UNCH)
Hitting Percentage: Leah Hinkey – 2th (+5)
Hitting Percentage: Farren Powe – 8th (+5)
Kills: Nikki Fowler – 9th (NR)
Points: Nikki Fowler – 6th (+2)

Tennessee is on the road again, playing three matches this week. These notes will only cover the first, versus the Louisville Cardinals. Long time readers will know this is one of my favorite matches of the year, since Louisville is one of my favorite teams. Sure, rooting against them isn’t fun! But I don’t get to see them play much any more and going back to an old hometown is always cool.

• Tennessee is 11-7 vs the Cardinals. In their last 10 matches the Lady Vols are 4-6. Tennessee won the last meeting 3-1 (25-17, 25-18, 23-25, 25-23).

• Tennessee and Louisville have turned this match up into an annual rivalry, played every year since 2004. In that time the home team has won every match.

• If you’re a fan of blockers, you won’t want to miss this game. The two teams in this match are among the nation’s best in blocking. Louisville ranks 5th in the nation in blocks per set with 3.02, while Tennessee is tied for 10th with 2.88. Louisville’s best are Lecia Brown, ranked 17th in the country, and Gwen Rucker, ranked 68th. The Lady Vols have a trio of top blockers with Farren Powe, ranked 8th in the nation, Leah Hinkey, ranked 107th, and Nikki Fowler, ranked 139th.

• Louisville’s Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director, Julie Hermann, was the Tennessee head volleyball coach from 1991-1996. She is the school’s third longest serving head coach and has the third highest number of wins at UT.

• Earlier this year, the NCAA announced the 2012 Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship would be held in Louisville.

Louisville (8-5, 1-0 Big East)
Game time is Wednesday, September 30th at 7pm ET in Louisville KY
Follow the match with live stats or a subscription video feed.

Congratulations to Nikki Fowler on being named both the SEC Offensive Player of the Week and the Lady Vol Athlete of the Week!

The Lady Vols returned home from what was one of their longest road trips ever and got two SEC wins. Coach Rob Patrick picked up his 250th career win. And Chloe Goldman is closing in on the UT career digs record, needing just 99 more to pass Kristy Dobson for the top spot.

• Tennessee is now 11-14 vs the Razorbacks and 34-6 vs the Rebels.

• Farren Powe hit .531 for the weekend with no errors. This season she has hit .400 or better in half her matches. Maybe more impressive has been her blocking. If she keeps up her current pace she could be the first person to break Sarah Blum’s hold on the top four spots of the single season blocks per set list.

• With 852 fans at the Arkansas match and 1,168 at the Mississippi match, Tennessee had their 8th and 4th biggest home turnouts ever. The 2,020 weekend total is the second highest two-match home weekend total in school history.

• So far this season the Lady Vols are 5-0 at home. Of those wins, 4 have been 3-0 sweeps. Of their 8 total wins, 7 have been sweeps.

• Goldman isn’t the only player moving up the school career digs list. With 16 digs this weekend, Kylie Marshall surpassed Kelli Scott to take possession of 6th place on the all time chart with 1,131 digs.

• For the sixth match in a row, a set had to be decided with extra points. Tennessee is 3-3 in those matches — winning every match when they won the extended sets, and losing those where they lost the long sets.

• Nikki Fowler had a double-double vs Mississippi.

• Two non-first year players matches or beat career highs: Leah Hinkey: assists; and Kayla Jeter: assists, aces, and solo blocks.

Tennessee gets their second conference win of the season on national TV today, taking down Mississippi 3-0 (25-12, 27-25, 25-20). More later tonight.

UPDATES: Stats are up. The team had the support of the fourth highest attendance for a Lady Vols home match with 1,168. Nikki Fowler had a double double with 14 kills and 15 digs. Five players hit .250 or better while three topped .400: Leslie Cikra (.250), Fowler (.333), Leah Hinkey (.417), Farren Powe (.467), and Kayla Jeter (.583). Emily Steinbeck had 19 assists while Kelsey Mahoney had 14. Kylie Marshall had 9 digs. Chloe Goldman had 7. Fowler and Hinkey both had 5 blocks while Powe added 4 more and Jeter 3.

More details from Tennessee and Mississippi.

Just a reminder that the match today vs Mississippi will be televised nationally by ESPNU.

Dish Network: 148
DirecTV: 614
Comcast (Knoxville): 735
Knology (Knoxville): 140
Charter (Farragut): 302

The official site has an interview with Coach Patrick and Chloe Goldman. They discuss the goals of the team, Goldman’s career, and the digs records she is approaching. Video is also available.

Coming back from a huge third set deficit, the Lady Vols take down Arkansas in three (25-19, 25-20, 26-24). More soon…

UPDATE: Coach Patrick wins his 250th match. Tennessee was down by 8 at one point in the third set. After going ahead 3-2 the Lady Vols never led in the set again until finally getting on top 23-22. 852 people were in attendance — the second highest total since the team moved to TBA. Tennessee has had a set go to extra points for the 5th match in a row. Stats are online. Nikki Fowler had 13 kills, 9 digs, and hit .385 for the match. Leah Hinkey and Farren Powe both had 10 kills and both hit in the .500’s — Hinkey.500 and Powe .588. Powe also had 6 blocks. Emily Steinbeck had 21 assists and Kelsey Mahoney 20. Chloe Goldman added 14 digs to her near record career total.

Stories from Tennessee and Arkansas are up.

Heading to the Arkansas or Mississippi matches this weekend? If so, there are several promotions going on that you might want to take advantage of. If not, there are several promotions going on that might entice you!

• Both matches are part of the Together We CAN food drive, to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee. Bring two non-perishable food items to either match and you get in free.

• For Sunday’s match, which will be televised on national TV, every 10th fan wins a prize. Some of the examples they are touting include t-shirts, duffle bags, Lady Vol Basketball tickets, and tickets to the UT vs Memphis football game.

• Every Sunday home match kids 12 and under get a voucher for a free hot dog and drink.

• After Sunday’s match the Lady Vols will host a clinic for middle schoolers. You might want to call today to reserve your spot since I doubt they’ll be open over the weekend — (865) 974-1059.

• I’ve heard that some other Tennessee sports team has a game this weekend! So if you’re heading to the football game, you can stop by Volunteer Village to meet members of the team and get autographs from 5:45 to 6:15 pm.

UPDATE: I almost forgot – Coach Patrick will be giving his Chalk Talks in the Ray Mears Room at the Arena before all home matches this season. They start 45 minutes before the match start time and are open to all fans.