University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
Purdue
LADY VOL VOLLEYBALL OFF TO BEST START IN 18 YEARS
September 11, 2004 | Volleyball
Sept. 11, 2004
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.
The University of Tennessee volleyball team won the Domino's Pizza Lady Vol Classic with a 28-30, 30-23, 30-24, 30-23 victory over No. 24 Purdue on Saturday night. The victory gave UT its second victory over a top-25 team so far this season and a 6-0 start, the hottest beginning to a season since 1986. A seven-match winning streak dating back to the final match in 2003 is the longest such streak since the beginning of that 1986 season, an 11-match run.
"This was a great match for us because Purdue played hard and well and made us play consistently well the entire match," Head Coach Rob Patrick said. "I am really proud of our team for stepping up to the challenge and, as easily as we could have lost focus or broke down, keeping the pressure on Purdue. They didn't make many errors even though we were serving and hitting them very tough. They dug quite a few balls that we took some big swings on and passed the ball well, putting the pressure on us."
Sophomore middle blocker Sarah Blum (Tulsa, Okla. / Bishop Kelley H.S.) tied the UT school record for blocks in a match with 14 against the Boilermakers, tying Mary Heinecke's record, set on Oct. 5, 1996, versus Georgia. Her 14 blocks also set a Stokely Athletics Center record, breaking her own record of 11 set against Georgia on Nov. 2, 2003. The team total of 20 blocks also broke the Stokely mark, previously set at 16.5 versus Kentucky on Nov. 10, 2002.
Freshman outside hitter Yuliya Stoyanova (Sofia, Bulgaria / 81 SOU Victory Hugo H.S.) earned tournament MVP honors with tourney stats of 3.7 kills/game, a .394 hitting percentage and 12 blocks, 1.00/game.
"There could have been a lot of people who could have made the all-tournament team and been named MVP," Patrick. "Yuliya really stepped up for us, standing out and playing big in very important points with a big kill or block."
Also named to the all-tournament team for UT were Blum and junior middle blocker Kristen Andre (Kelseyville, Calif. / Kelseyville H.S.). For the tournament, Blum hit .415 with 3.00 kills/game and 15 blocks for a 2.14/game average. Andre hit .410 with 3.78 kills/game with 12 blocks, 1.33/game.
On Saturday night, Purdue took an early lead in game one before UT was able to take its first lead at 9-8 when a furious rally by both teams was culminated by a kill from Blum. The Boilermakers rebounded to take a 17-13 lead before UT rallied once again, tying the match at 19. After Purdue took a 29-26 advantage, two consecutive kills from junior setter Julie Knytych (LaGrange Park, Ill. / Lyons Township H.S.) pulled UT within one before finally succumbing, 30-28.
A 13-2 Lady Vol run in game two gave Tennessee a commanding 20-8 advantage. Senior outside hitter Michelle Piantadosi (Boca Raton, Fla. / Olympic Heights H.S.) gave UT a 23-13 advantage when she hammered an attack, which floated off a Purdue dig back to Piantadosi, who then put it away. UT won, 30-23, to tie the match at one.
The Lady Vols scored the first six points of game three, but Purdue came back to tie the game, 8-8, but UT gradually pulled away, 30-24. Game four saw UT carry a precarious 22-20 lead before going on an 8-1 run to end the game and match, 30-23, off a kill from Andre.
For the match, Stoyanova recorded 15 kills and hit .370, Andre hit .480 with 13 kills and Blum hit .417 with 12 kills to go with her record block total.
Knytych tallied 64 assists and moved into fifth place on the career assists chart at UT with 2,948, passing Christy Warren's (1995-98) 2,904, and closing in on fourth-place member Laurie Caraher (1984-87), who compiled 2,957.
Four Lady Vols recorded double-figure totals in digs: junior outside hitter Amy Morris (Michigan City, Ind. / Penn State) with 16, sophomore libero Annie Sadowski (Wheaton, Ill. / Wheaton-Warrenville H.S.) with 15, sophomore defensive specialist Cynthia Buggs's (Compton, Calif. / Long Beach Poly H.S.) 13 and Knytych's 11.
With a 6-0 mark and two wins over ranked teams, combined with receiving the second-most points of non-top 25 teams last week, Tennessee looks to crack the top 25 in the new USA Today/CSTV poll released Monday for the first time since Sept. 17, 1985.
Tennessee returns to the court on Tuesday, facing Lipscomb at 7 p.m., before heading to the Michigan/Nike Invitational over the weekend, facing Western Michigan and Virginia Tech on Friday (1 and 5 p.m., respectively) and Michigan at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
