Lady Vols Fall to No. 20 Kentucky in Four Sets

Sunday, September 23

Knoxville

1 pm

University of Tennessee

10-4 (1-1SEC)

#20 Kentucky

7-4 (1-0SEC)

Kentucky

Tennessee

September 23, 2018 | Volleyball

Box Score

Tennessee holds Wildcats offense to a season-low .185 hitting percentage

By: Andy Kovar

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The University of Tennessee volleyball team dropped its first match of conference play Sunday afternoon against No. 20 Kentucky.

Led by junior Sedona Hansen's third straight double-double and seventh this season, Tennessee suffered their first home loss of the season.

Hansen as well as sophomore Callie Williams had the offense flowing in the second set as five different Lady Vols picked up multiple kills in the set. Tennessee never trailed in the second frame helped by a .344 hitting percentage.

Junior Tessa Grubbs, 15 kills, and freshman Raquel Perinar, 11 kills, tallied double-digit kills both finishing with a hitting percentage above .300 on the pins. This is the 12th game this season totaling 10+ kills in a match.

Sophomore libero Madison Coulter recorded a career-high 25 digs helping Tennessee limit Kentucky's Brooke Morgan to just five kills and a season-low .000 hitting percentage in the match.

Morgan came into the Sunday tilt leading the conference in hitting percentage at .429 percent.

From Coach Rackham:
On bright spots from the first weekend of SEC play:
"I think we have taken a step to become a better defensive team which is something we have challenged our back row players to do. We're still a work in progress there but, overall we became a little bit better this weekend." – Coach Eve Rackham

On impact of Addisyn Rowe this season:
"Addie gets better every week. She's an incredibly hard worker, she listens, she's coachable and she's always asking questions. She gets better because she works really hard. She has been really fun to coach." Coach Eve Rackham

Standout Stat:

As a team, Kentucky's offense came into the match with a .296 hitting percentage, ranking seventh in the country. The Lady Vols held the Wildcats to a season-low .185 hitting percentage while also forcing them to commit a season-high 24 attack errors. Dating back to the 2017 season, this is just the fourth time Kentucky has been held under .200 in 44 matches.

Match Notables:

Erica Treiber made it seven straight matches committing two errors or less. She fell just one kill short of recording her seventh double-digit kill match of the season. The senior has hit over .30 in all but, one match this season.
Sedona Hansen is now just 15 assists away from becoming the ninth player in program history to reach the 2,000 career assist mark.
With a team-high five blocks in the match, Treiber is now just five blocks away from tying two-time All-American Kristen Andre for fifth in program history in career blocks.

Next Up:
Tennessee continues its five-game home stand with match-up with Missouri on Friday night. Missouri is 12-2 entering the match opening SEC play with wins over Alabama and Arkansas.

The game will be streaming on SEC Network+ with the first serve scheduled for 6:30 p.m. (ET) in Thompson-Boling Arena.