University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
2-2 (0-0SEC)
Northern Illinois
2-2 (0-0MAC)
Huskies Too Much for Lady Vols
September 05, 2014 | Volleyball
AMES, Iowa -- Tennessee couldn't recover after ending up on the wrong side of a back-and-forth first set, falling to Northern Illinois 3-0 (25-27, 10-25, 20-25) in its first match at the Iowa State Challenge. The Lady Vols will have a short time to regroup before it faces host Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum Friday night at 7:30 p.m. ET.
"The whole match was really played on our side of the court," said UT head coach Rob Patrick. "In the first set we were playing nice and steady, not doing anything special, and we were controlling the match. Then all of a sudden we started cutting our momentum by missing serve. We couldn't create any momentum and we made some freshman errors. We're just going to need to get some more consistency. But we'll learn from it and we'll get better."
A day of travel complications saw the Lady Vols arrive in Ames exactly 10 hours before Friday's first serve at 11 a.m. local time, dramatically altering the squad's typical gameday preparation schedule. Nonetheless, Tennessee jumped out to an early lead and held control for much of the first set. The early advantage was at its greatest when Jamie Lea delivered one of her team-high seven kills to give UT a 15-9 advantage. But an NIU kill followed by three straight Tennessee errors brought the Huskies back to within striking distance and the game would eventually see an 18-18 tie.
Teeter-tottering from that point, NIU took a late lead and found its first set point at 24-23. A kill from Kanisha Jimenez - one of her five in the frame -- brought things square at 24-24. The Huskies again had set point after a kill on the next point, but it was negated this time by Lea's late attack. NIU finally broke the pattern with back-to-back kills, ending the frame at 27-25 in favor of the Huskies.
Tennessee dropped set one despite swinging a solid .368 in the frame, compared to .250 for NIU. UT also had four service errors in the opening game.
Betraying the tone set in the closely contested first set, NIU fired from the gate in set two, cruising to a 25-10 win. The game was tied at 2-2 very early, but it was all Huskies from there. Northern Illinois had its way at the net, posting a .611 attack percentage in the frame while UT swung just .105. The Huskies composed runs of 5-0 and 9-0 on their way to the second set win.
With its back against the wall and facing a do-or-die third frame, the Lady Vols reorganized in set three. UT found itself leading for the first time since midway through game one when Lea smashed a kill and the Huskies committed two straight attack errors to see the Lady Vols to a 7-4 advantage. A quick 5-0 spurt restored the advantage to NIU, but Tennessee got a kill from Ashley Mariani and another from Lexi Dempsey on a clever setter dump to knot the score at 9-9.
The two teams remained within a point or two of one another over the next sequence, but another 5-0 rally sent things the way of NIU for good. Trailing by as many as eight, UT rallied to get within four but couldn't complete the comeback as it fell 25-20 to end the match.
"I was real happy at the beginning of the third set for us to be able to come out and get back to being organized," said Patrick. "But again, we could just never sustain any momentum because of an unforced error on our side."
Lea and Raina Hembry led UT with seven kills each, while Jimenez, Iesha Bryant, and Mariani had six apiece. Lea also tallied 14 kills to tie Lady Vol libero Bridgette Villano for the team lead. Setter Dempsey recorded 31 assists, giving her four straight matches with 30 or more assists to begin the year.
The Iowa State Challenge continues Friday night as Tennessee faces the host Cyclones at 7:30 p.m. ET. UT will conclude its weekend in Ames on Saturday night against the Omaha Mavericks of the Summit League.
