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
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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
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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
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