University of Tennessee Athletics
LADY VOLS PLAY AT NO. 6 LOUISVILLE, HOST MISSISSIPPI SCHOOLS
September 27, 2005 | Volleyball
Sept. 27, 2005
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The University of Tennessee volleyball team returns to action on Wednesday, traveling north to take on No. 6 Louisville (11-0, 2-0 Big East) in front of a sold-out crowd at 7:30 p.m., then returning to Stokely Athletics Center for a pair of Southeastern Conference matches.
The Lady Vols take on Ole Miss (6-8, 0-2 SEC) at 7 p.m. on Friday before playing Mississippi State (9-2, 0-1 SEC) at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.Tennessee enters the contests with a 7-4 mark (1-1 in SEC action) after splitting a pair of matches over the weekend. The Lady Vols topped Arkansas, 3-0, before falling to LSU in straight games.
The Lady Vols have won two-of-three contests against top-10 opponents teams with both also coming on the road. Tennessee topped Florida twice (ranked seventh and 10th at the time) at the O'Connell Center in an eight-day span in 2004 by identical 3-2 scores. The first win ended UT's 44-match losing streak to top-10 teams dating to 1983.
The Lady Vols won the meeting between Louisville and Tennessee in 2004, claiming the 28-30, 30-27, 30-26, 30-27 win on their home court. That loss is actually the last one the Cardinals have suffered in regular-season play. Overall, Louisville has won 33-of-34 contests since that match, only falling to No. 1 Nebraska in the 2004 NCAA Regional Semifinals.
At No. 6, Louisville has achieved the highest national ranking in school history.
The Cardinals won the previous three meetings with UT and lead the all-time series, 9-5. U of L has taken the past two meetings to take place at Louisville, including the last meeting between the schools on Sept. 18, 2001, 26-30, 30-27, 20-30, 33-31, 15-11. UT's last win at Louisville occurred on Oct. 3, 1993 and that came by 15-7, 11-15, 15-9, 15-11 scorelines.
The Cardinals are led by Jennifer Hoffman (.485 hitting percentage, 2.59 kills/game and 1.38 blocks/game), Ana Yartseva (.343 hitting percentage, 1.35 blocks/game) Lena Ustymenko (5.00 kills/game, .297 hitting percentage) and Nicole Bateman (2.78 digs/game).
Tennessee has claimed seven-of-nine SEC home openers, including the last two, both ironically against Ole Miss as well. In all-time action between the teams, UT leads, 28-4, having won the last 11 meetings.
The Rebels are led by Nikki Hill (4.24 kills/game), Jaclyn Toohey (3.16 kills/game) Ashleigh Shear (12.02 assists/game), Nicole Mahan (2.86 digs/game) and Emily Jones (0.78 blocks/game).
The Lady Vols have won 10 straight against Mississippi State and lead all-time, 28-6.
MSU is off to an impressive 9-2 start and is coming off a 3-1 loss to No. 5 Florida, which saw the Bulldogs earn its first game win over the Gators since 1989.
Erin Seago is setting the Bulldog pace in hitting percentage (.326), Rachel Cooper leads in kills/game (4.34), Megan Lukasek has 3.56 digs/game and Seago and Nicole Palazzo share the team lead in kills/game with 0.98.
