University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
6-3, 1-1SEC
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Mississippi State
5-6, 0-2SEC
Volleyball Wins Program's 700th over MSU
September 16, 2007 | Volleyball
Box Score??| Box (PDF)????|??Coach Patrick Postgame Audio
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. ??? Four Lady Vols reached double-digits in kills as the University of Tennessee volleyball team (6-3, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) picked up its first league victory of the season and 700th win in program history, with a 3-1 triumph over Mississippi State (5-6, 0-2 SEC), 30-22, 26-30, 30-20, 30-25, Sunday afternoon at Stokely Athletics Center.
???There are no easy matches in the SEC, so I???m excited about the victory,??? UT head coach Rob Patrick said. ???We played a little uneven throughout the match, but I like how we kept plugging away. Eventually, some good things happened and we were able to break Mississippi State???s ball control with some tough serving.
???I was also glad to see our outside hitters do a much better job today of putting themselves in positions to be successful offensively,??? Patrick said. ???I also thought Jena (Berg) did a terrific job of managing the game by setting the right hitters at the right times.???
Sophomore Jena Berg and freshman Nikki Fowler each posted double-doubles for the second consecutive match, while junior Mindy Flynn tallied a season-high 16 kills in the contest. Berg recorded her fifth double-double of the season with a career-high 54 assists and 17 digs, and Fowler marked the second of her young career with 13 kills and 10 digs. Second-year Lady Vol Farren Powe also set a personal-best during the contest with 14 kills, in addition to leading the team with a .458 hitting percentage (14-3-24).
Sophomore libero Chloe Goldman continued to pace the team defensively, digging up a squad-best 26 Bulldog attacks, while fellow classmate Leah Hinkey and Flynn topped the team in the block category with four each. Goldman has now led the Big Orange in digs in eight straight contests, missing out in only the initial match of the season against No. 1 Nebraska.
Tennessee looked sluggish at the opening of the match, but was able to right itself in time to pull out a 30-22 victory in game one. Struggling to get anything going offensively and trailing Mississippi State, 7-12, the Big Orange looked as if it might be in a bit of trouble. That changed in a hurry, however, as UT got a kill from Flynn, two in a row from Powe and a sharp block by the duo to move within one at 11-12. Just eight plays later, an MSU miscue gave the Lady Vols their first lead of the match at 16-15, prompting a timeout by Bulldog head coach Tina Seals. Although her squad was able to tie the match on the first point out of the break, it was unable to keep the Orange and White down, as a Fowler smash, an ace by sophomore Kylie Marshall and consecutive blasts by Hinkey put UT up for good. During the frame, Powe hit at an amazing .833 clip with five kills and no errors in six swings.
Both teams were evenly matched throughout most of the second set, before Mississippi State jumped ahead late to tie the contest at one-game each, with a 30-26 win, heading into the intermission. With Tennessee ahead 16-13, a three-point Bulldog spree, featuring a kill, a block and an ace, knotted the frame up. After the two squads traded the following seven points, MSU embarked on another run, this time for four scores, to go up 23-20. Despite cutting the lead to one on two different occasions, UT could not overcome its opponent and dropped the set. For the second straight frame, Powe topped the team with five kills, while Goldman added a squad-best seven digs.
The Lady Vols used four runs of three or more points in the third frame to overwhelm MSU, 30-20. The first such streak came with UT down 3-6, as a Marshall blast, a Bulldog ball-handling error and a kill from Fowler tied the game at six-all. The score remained deadlocked until another three-point spree, sparked by a pair of Flynn kills, moved the Orange and White up 11-8. After a Mississippi State score, the Big Orange utilized another Flynn laser, three MSU errors and a service ace from sophomore Jaye Loyd to take a seven-point advantage at 16-9. Later on in the game, junior Laur??n LaFlamme???s strong serving helped the Lady Vols??? put it out of reach with six consecutive points and earn its largest advantage of the day at 25-14.
The fourth and final set saw Tennessee jump ahead early and never look back, en route to a 30-25 triumph. After a kill by MSU???s Jamie Joyner cut the Lady Vol advantage to one at 8-7, UT put together three-straight points to take a lead it would never relinquish. The Orange and White extended its advantage from two (12-10) to seven (17-10) in a very short amount of time, with a five-point spree book ended by kills from Hinkey and Berg. The Big Orange would not let the Bulldogs get closer than four points for the rest of the match, claiming its first conference victory of the season and 700th win in program history. UT is now 700-459-16 all-time.
The Orange and White will hit the road next weekend when it travels to the Yellowhammer and Peach States to face Auburn and Georgia on Sept 21 and 23, respectively. The Lady Vols match against the Tigers is scheduled for a 7 p.m. CT start, while first serve versus the Bulldogs is set for 1:30 p.m. ET.
