University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
South Carolina
LADY VOLS CLOSE IN ON SECOND SEED FOR SEC TOURNAMENT
November 09, 2005 | Volleyball
Nov. 9, 2005
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - With some appreciated help, the University of Tennessee volleyball team started closing in on the second seed for next week's Southeastern Conference Tournament. The Lady Vols swept South Carolina (10-14, 3-11 SEC), 30-20, 30-22, 32-30, on Wednesday night, while Arkansas fell at LSU, 30-23, 30-27, 30-27.
Those results put UT (17-7, 11-3 SEC) half a game ahead of the Lady'Backs (19-9, 11-4 SEC) for the second position and the Lady Vols hold the tiebreaker by virtue of their 30-27, 30-24, 30-26 win at Arkansas on Sept. 23. A victory in either of UT's final two matches clinches the seeding for Tennessee. A loss by the Lady'Backs in their final match on Sunday versus Kentucky will also do so.
In the first game tonight, Tennessee broke away from a 3-3 tie with a 7-0 run for a 10-3 advantage and held a lead ranging from 5-9 points until the Big Orange put away the 30-20 win. The 10-point difference at the end also marked UT's greatest advantage of the game. After South Carolina cut the edge to 24-19, the Lady Vols went on a 6-1 run to complete the win.
The Gamecocks jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second game, but the Big Orange responded with a 7-0 run for a 7-2 lead. The advantage was extended to seven at 12-5 before the Gamecocks battled back to cut the deficit to two at 14-12 with a 7-2 run. That was as close as USC would get and, for the second time in two games, Tennessee held its biggest lead on at the conclusion of the game, winning by a 30-22 score.
The third game was much closer than the first two, although it did not start that way. Tennessee took a commanding 9-2 lead on the strength of a 7-0 run. That lead (and 10-3) was the largest UT would hold in the game. South Carolina rallied to cut the edge to two at 13-11 and 15-13 before the Big Orange extended its lead back to six at 21-15 and 22-16. At that point, a 5-1 Gamecock run cut the lead to 23-21 but UT increased it once again to 28-23. USC stormed back with four straight points and had a 7-1 run, battling off two match points in the process, for a 30-29 edge and a game point of its own. At that point, Tennessee recorded the final three tallies of the game for the 32-30 win.
In the contest, junior outside hitter Kelsey Fautsch (Chisago Lakes, Minn.) erased her previous career high in kills of 16 (recorded in a 3-1 win at Auburn on Oct. 14) with 19, especially impressive as it came in a three-game match. Junior Amy Morris (Michigan City, Ind.) returned to the outside hitter position for the first time in two months and had nine kills, her fourth-highest total of 2005, to go with a team-leading 11 digs. Recording eight digs each in the contest were junior libero Annie Sadowski (Wheaton, Ill.) and senior setter Julie Knytych (Chisago Lakes, Minn.), who also tallied 38 assists. Knytych hit .625 (5-0-8), while Blum hit .455 (6-1-15) to lead the Lady Vols in that category.
Junior middle blocker Sarah Blum (Tulsa, Okla.) tied for her fourth-highest block total of 2005 with a match-pacing total of seven, while freshman outside hitter Mindy Flynn (Louisville, Ky.) more than doubled her career high in blocks (previously two versus Georgia in a 3-0 sweep on Oct. 28) with five.
"It was a pretty good match for us," Head Coach Rob Patrick said. "We had to switch quite a few people around with Yuliya (Stoyanova) being out. The one thing I thought we were was fairly organized for the most part this match. I was real happy with the people we did switch: Kelsey (Fautsch) going to the outside, Amy (Morris) playing outside for the first time in a number of matches and Mindy (Flynn) playing right side for the first time. All three of them did a real nice job hitting out of those positions.
"I was real happy with Kelsey, who had to make the biggest change. She moved to our No. 1 outside hitter position, was playing the entire match all the way around, back row and front row, which she normally does not do, and changed her back row defense from right back to middle back. I was very pleased that she played at a high level playing in a completely different position than she normally does.
Tennessee completes its home and SEC schedules with a pair of matches this weekend, taking on Alabama at 7 p.m. on Friday before playing Auburn at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.
