Grubbs leads Lady Vols to sweep over Mississippi

Sunday, November 11

Starkville, MS

2 pm

University of Tennessee

21-5 (12-2SEC)

Mississippi State

5-22 (1-13SEC)

Tennessee

Mississippi State

November 11, 2018 | Volleyball

Box Score

Tessa Grubbs finishes with 22 kills, the most by any SEC player in three sets this season

By: Andy Kovar

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Backed by 22 kills from junior Tessa Grubbs, No. 23 University of Tennessee swept Mississippi State for the second time this season.

Her 22 kill output (7.33 kills/set) in three sets is the most by any Southeastern Conference player this season. Grubbs finished with a season-high .571 hitting percentage, finishing just shy of her career-best mark off .579 percent.

After having 12 kills through the first two sets, Grubbs closed out the match in style as she had 10 kills on 12 swings (.833 percent) in the final set.

At 16-13 in the final frame, Grubbs helped Tennessee (21-5, 12-2 SEC) put away the victory. The Lady Vols would go on a 6-1 run which included five kills from Grubbs, making it 22-14. They would close out the third 25-15, improving to 6-1 on road in conference play.

Tennessee improves to 46-12 all-time against the Bulldogs (5-21, 1-13 SEC), winning both of this seasons matches in three sets.

Sophomore Addisyn Rowe also finished with double-digit kills, ending the match with 12 to go along with her team-high two blocks. Senior Erica Treiber, junior Alyssa Andreno and freshman Danielle Mahaffey also finished with a pair of blocks in the win.

The Lady Vols have now won seven-straight matches which is the longest winning streak of the season.

From Coach Adams:
On turning point of the match:
"At the end of the second, we were down 24-21. We put in Raquel (Perinar) and Madison (Coulter) went back to serve. From there, we played really gritty and hard. We didn't give up on a couple of points. We just continued to play and coming back from down 24-21 is always a huge momentum swing. It definitely carried over into the third" -- Coach Tyler Adams

On Tessa Grubbs:
"She was unreal. Nobody had an answer for her. Her shot chart was very wide with a lot of variety. She hit line, cross and over the block. When someone is having that kind of night, it is really hard to defend." -- Coach Tyler Adams

From Tessa Grubbs:
On how hitting line early helped her performance:
"I started hitting line at the beginning of the match and the blockers started pulling the line in the middle of the second set. It made it a little bit harder and then in the third set it opened up a little bit again. We were getting great balls from Sedona (Hansen) and Callie (Williams). Brooke was also giving us great calls and it really opened up everything. " – Tessa Grubbs

On this performance compared to the last few:
"My confidence went up after learning how to control the line shot more. I was testing it a little bit more in this game. It was a big confidence booster being able to have success there." – Tessa Grubbs

On confidence and momentum heading into Missouri:
"Confidence wise it helped us focus in on things we need to be at mentally. It helped us key in on mental things because this was a game where our team was going to control the match. We need to carry that over into the midweek game vs. Missouri. It is going to already be a challenging game just coming back for one night before traveling Tuesday. It is a big game and they are a hard team to play especially away so, we need to key on those mental things in practice and keep that up through the game." – Tessa Grubbs

Standout Stat:

Junior Tessa Grubbs had 22 kills on the night was the most by any SEC player this season in a three-set match. The previous high was set by LSU's Taylor Bannister who had 20 against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in August. This is the third time in the last four matches Grubbs has reach 20+ kills. Over that span, she is averaging 5.56 kills/set, helping raise her average on the year to 4.19 kills/set.

Match Notables:

Over the last two matches, the Lady Vols have hit over .350 percent. This is the second time this season they have done that this season and their .353 mark on Sunday was their fifth highest hitting percentage of the season.
Brooke Schumacher tallied a team-high 11 digs in the match moving her to 1,334 in her career which is four away from tying Amy Morris (2003-05) for fifth most in program history.
Sedona Hansen finished with a match-high 37 assists Sunday afternoon. It marks the most she has had per set (12.33 assists/set) this season as she was just four assists shy of tying her season high of 41 assists in a match.

Next Up:
Tennessee continues its three game road-trip Wednesday at No. 24 Missouri. The Lady Vols defeated the Tigers in five sets earlier this season inside of Thompson-Boling Arena. Missouri currently sits a half game behind Tennessee in the SEC standings with a record of 12-3 entering Wednesday's match.

The match will air on SEC Network with the first serve scheduled for 7:00 p.m. (ET) in Columbia, Mo.