Tennessee Takes Set Off No. 13 Florida

Sunday, October 27

Gainesville, FL

1 PM

University of Tennessee

9-11, 3-7SEC

Florida

17-3, 8-1SEC

Tennessee

Florida

October 27, 2019 | Volleyball

Box Score

Outside hitters Tessa Grubbs and Lily Felts combine for 36 kills in loss against nationally ranked Gators

By: Andy Kovar

GAINESVILLE, Florida – The University of Tennessee volleyball team fell in four sets at No. 13 Florida (18-25, 20-25, 25-20, 17-25) on Sunday afternoon in the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.

Senior outside hitter Tessa Grubbs and sophomore outside hitter Lily Felts provided plenty of offense for the Lady Vols (9-11, 3-7 SEC) in the defeat to the nationally ranked Gators (17-3, 8-1 SEC).

Felts helped spark the Tennessee offense in the opening set as she had seven kills before the end of the first set. It tied the most kills she has had in a single set in her Lady Vol career. She previously had seven kills in the fourth set of the five-set victory over Colorado State in the opening round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament.

The Knoxville, Tennessee native ended the match with 14 kills on the left pin. Felts completed her second double double of the season as she added 10 digs to her stat line.

For the 17th time this season, Grubbs posted a team-high in kills finishing with 22 kills on Sunday. She tallied 14 kills in the final two frame with eight in the third-set victory.

After dropping the opening two sets, the Lady Vols responded in the third set as they never trailed after a 3-0 run to start the frame. Behind eight kills in the set from Grubbs, they built the lead up to as much as six points en route to a 25-20 set win.

Tennessee was unable to even up the match at two sets each as Florida opened up the fourth set on a 7-0 and the Gators sustained that advantage for much of the frame, taking the match in four sets.

For the 10th time this season, senior setter Sedona Hansen ended the match with a double double. She notched a team-high 32 assists to go along with 10 digs. She now needs just six more double doubles this season to have the most by any Lady Vols player in program history.

Standout Stat

For the fifth time this season and the 17th time in her career, Tessa Grubbs ended the match with 20-plus kills in a match. This is the second time in the last three matches the 2018 AVCA All-American has recorded 20-plus kills.

Match Notables:

With 10 digs in the match, Sedona Hansen moved into 13th place on Tennessee's all-time dig list as she now just needs 78 digs to enter to top 10 in program history.
With 22 kills in Sunday's match, Tessa Grubbs passed Michelle Piandosi (2001-04) for 12th on the program's all-time kills list as she needs just 50 kills to enter the top 10 in Tennessee history.
For the sixth time this season, Lily Felts has recorded double-digit kills. All six of these matches have come in the last nine matches.

Next Up
After three straight road matches, the Lady Vols return home on Friday to take on Ole Miss. Earlier this season, Tennessee fell in a closely-contested five-set match in Oxford, Mississippi.

First serve is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. (ET) at Thompson-Boling Arena. The match will also air on SEC Network+.