University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
8-0
Eastern Kentucky
0-7
UT Wins DISH Volleyball Classic
September 05, 2015 | Volleyball
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Volunteers defeated Eastern Kentucky 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-16) on Saturday evening to win the DISH Tennessee Volleyball Classic and remain undefeated on the season.
The Vols (8-0) also defeated North Florida 3-1 earlier in the day at Thompson-Boling Arena and are off to their best start to a season since opening 2004 with a 9-0 record.
"I told the team, it's not every day you get to play for championships," Tennessee head coach Rob Patrick said. "This is the second championship that we were able to play for in this young season. One thing that has allowed us to do that is that we've played consistently."
Junior Bridgette Villano, who led Tennessee's defense all weekend with 5.0 digs per set, was named tournament MVP. She had 20 digs in the tournament finale against Eastern Kentucky. Freshman Erica Treiber, who had 2.50 kills and 1.07 blocks per set, was listed on the all-tournament team as well.
The rest of the all-tournament team included: Tessa Alyman (North Florida), Cody Dodd (Tennessee Tech), Jasmine Jones (UNCG), and Chloe Rojas (Eastern Kentucky).
"Bridgette had an outstanding tournament controlling the ball in serve-receive and then digging five balls a set, which is fantastic against the teams we were playing," Patrick said. "Erica Treiber was hitting at a very efficient pace, and defensively at the net, she's done a fantastic job of slowing the other team's offenses down."
Tennessee returns to action Tuesday for its only standalone non-conference match of the season, hosting Evansville at 7 p.m. It will be streamed on SEC Network+.
Eastern Kentucky (0-7) won the first five points of the match, but Tennessee rolled back with a 9-2 run to take the lead. The Vols remained in the lead the rest of the set until Bri Holmes wrapped up the game with a kill, 25-18.
The second set was wire-to-wire from start to finish. Eastern Kentucky had taken a 22-20 lead on a Tennessee error, but the Vols won the next point on a kill by Kelsey Bawcombe. Senior Megan Hatcher entered the match to serve and Tennessee won the next three points to bring up set point 24-22.
Two points later, Lexi Dempsey snuck a shot over the net to give Tennessee the set 25-23 heading into the break.
Tennessee bolted ahead 5-0 to start the third set and remained in the lead the rest of the way. EKU cut the margin to two points twice, but the Vols continued to pull away. With Treiber serving, Tennessee put together a 6-0 run midway through the set to go ahead 21-12. Nora Reed came up with a block to win the set and match, 25-16.
The Vols had 54 digs, compared to EKU's 38. Tennessee also had seven team blocks, led by Treiber's four.
Holmes and Raina Hembry led Tennessee with 10 kills each, and Dempsey ran the offense with 39 assists.
