No. 19 Lady Vols Battle Back to Fall in Five Sets Against No. 6 Illinois

Sunday, September 1

Urbana-Champaign, IL

2 PM

University of Tennessee

0-2

Illinois

2-0

Tennessee

Illinois

No. 19 Lady Vols Battle Back to Fall in Five Sets Against No. 6 Illinois

September 01, 2019 | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score

Behind a breakout performance from freshman Morgahn Fingall, Tennessee took the Fighting Illini to five sets after being two sets down

By: Andy Kovar

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – After battling back from two sets down, the No. 19 Tennessee volleyball team dropped its second closely fought five-set match (22-25, 18-25, 25-21, 25-20, 8-15) to No. 6 Illinois in the weekend.

Trailing by two sets heading into the break, the Tennessee block came alive in the third and fourth frames. The Lady Vols registered 8.0 of their 10.0 blocks in those two frames with senior Alyssa Andreno tallying four block assists in those two sets.

Andreno teamed up with junior Addisyn Rowe to provide seven kills through the middle, combining to hit .700 in those two sets without a hitting error.

Freshman Morgahn Fingall had a breakout performance on the right pin, tying a team-high 11 kills to go along with three block assists. On the opposite pin, Danielle Mahaffey added 11 kills of her own.

For the second time this season and the 49th time in her career, senior Sedona Hansen registered a double double, posting a team-high 37 assists in addition to 14 digs. With a double double in today's match, she is now tied for third all-time in program history with Kelsey Robinson and is just 14 double doubles away from tying the all-time mark.

Standout Stat

This weekend Tennessee held the Illinois offense to just a .226 hitting percentage which is 55 percentage points lower than what the Fighting Illini hit last season. Their .281 hitting percentage last season ranked 11th in Division I.

Match Notables:

Last season, Illinois, who reached the Final Four, only went to five sets six times in the season and teams only forced the Fighting Illini to five sets in two non-conference games. Tennessee forced five sets in each of its matches this weekend.
Hansen is now just 85 digs away from becoming just the third player in program history to have more than 2,500 assists and 1,000 digs in her Tennessee career.
Madison Coulter finished with a match-high 15 digs. She has led the Lady Vols in digs in both matches this season with a 4.30 digs per set average.

Next Up:
The Lady Vols will travel to East Lansing, Michigan for the Spartan Invitational at Michigan State. The field will include Cincinnati, Miami (OH) and Michigan State next weekend.

The first match is scheduled for Friday at 10:15 a.m. ET against the Cincinnati Bearcats.