University of Tennessee Athletics
Lady Vols Announce 2000 Volleyball Schedule
May 30, 2000 | Volleyball
- 2000 Schedule
The Tennessee Lady Vol volleyball team released its schedule for the 2000 campaign on Tuesday (May 30). The 30-match schedule is one fourth-year head coach Rob Patrick is very pleased and excited with.
"I think we have put together a great schedule," said Patrick. "As our team has matured that this will be a very good test for us. Our tournament schedule is excellent, we play at Minnesota and our own tournament will be very strong with the likes of Houston, which went to the NCAA Tournament last year and North Carolina, which won the Atlantic Coast Conference, coming in so we have a great non-league contests. As we go into the SEC campaign our schedule in conference will be tougher because I think every team in the league has stepped up and gotten better."
Coming off the heels of their second consecutive 19-win season, the Orange and White will face six teams which competed in the 1999 NCAA Tournament, including Houston (Sept. 8), North Carolina (Sept. 9), Minnesota (Sept. 15), Arkansas (Oct. 6), Florida (Oct. 15, 27) and Cincinnati (Nov. 25).
The Lady Vols will open their 28th season on September 1 in Oxford, Ohio, at the Miami University/Best Western-Sycamore Inn Classic. The event will mark a homecoming of sorts for Patrick, a 1983 Miami University graduate and junior Ariana Wilson, a Cincinnati native. Tennessee will kick off the tournament versus the University of Denver on September 1 at 4:30 p.m. UT will then face Texas Christian and the home-standing RedHawks on September 2 at 12:30 and 7:30 p.m., respectively.
The squad will then return home for the third annual Toyota Lady Vol Classic at the Stokely Athletics Center. The two-day event (Sept. 8-9) will feature an exciting lineup of teams, as the Orange and White will face Houston, North Carolina and Jacksonville State. Last season, Tennessee advanced to the championship match before falling to Kansas in five games.
The Lady Vols will then square off against Memphis on September 11 before heading to the Twin Cities, Minneapolis-St. Paul, for the Diet Coke Classic hosted by the University of Minnesota (Sept. 15-16). The Golden Gophers will be Tennessee's first opponent before facing Akron and Seton Hall in day two action.
Returning home on September 19, the Orange and White will battle UNC Asheville before opening their 14-match Southeastern Conference schedule versus Mississippi on September 22.
In all, the remaining home schedule will feature contests with Mississippi State (Sept. 24), Virginia Tech (Sept. 26), Georgia (Oct. 13), defending SEC champion Florida (Oct. 15), Radford (Oct. 17), Appalachian State (Oct. 24), South Carolina (Nov. 3) and Kentucky (Nov. 10). The road for the Lady Vols will include encounters with South Carolina (Oct. 1), Arkansas (Oct. 6), Louisiana State (Oct. 8), Alabama (Oct. 20), Auburn (Oct. 22), Florida (Oct. 27), Georgia (Oct. 29) and Kentucky (Nov. 12).
Tennessee will then compete in the eight-team SEC Tournament at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center on the campus of the University of Florida from November 17-19. The Lady Vols will close out the regular season in the Sunshine State at the SEC/Conference USA Challenge in Orlando, Fla. The team will face Cincinnati and Tulane in the two-day event.
