Tennessee Sweeps North Dakota State to Claim Tennessee Classic Title

Saturday, September 21

Knoxville

7 PM

University of Tennessee

6-4

North Dakota State

5-7

North Dakota St.

Tennessee

Tennessee Sweeps North Dakota State to Claim Tennessee Classic Title

September 21, 2019 | Volleyball

Box Score Photo Gallery

Lady Vols hit a season-high .427 en route to third straight-set win of the weekend

By: Andy Kovar

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – For the fifth consecutive season, the University of Tennessee captured the Tennessee Classic after defeating North Dakota State in straight sets (25-10, 25-20, 25-10) at Thompson-Boling Arena Saturday night.

Tennessee (6-4) has now won 16 straight in the Tennessee Classic and has 24 straight wins in home tournaments dating to 2014. The senior class of Alyssa Andreno, Sedona Hansen, Tessa Grubbs and Asha Phillips finish their careers with a perfect 16-0 record in the tournament with 11 coming in straight-set fashion.

In the final match of the tournament, the Lady Vols smothered the Bison (5-6) attack, allowing them to hit just .064 as a team. It was the lowest hitting percentage by an opponent this season and the lowest since holding Winthrop to .000 on Aug. 31, 2018.

After holding North Dakota State down, it allowed Tennessee to set up its offense with Grubbs and Co. going to work.

The Tega Cay, S.C. native led the way, having a career-high .600 hitting percentage while tallying a game-high 16 kills in the match. Grubbs had a hitting percentage north of .300 in all three matches this weekend while also leading the team in kills in every Tennessee Classic match.

The combination in the middle of sophomore Ava Bell and Andreno again was a tough combination to stop. Both players ended the match with a .400 hitting percentage with each having six-plus kills in the match.

On the weekend, Tennessee finished with an astounding 16.00 kills per set in the three victories while hitting a combined .399 to claim the tournament title.

Three Tennessee players took home All-Tournament honors. Hansen was named tournament MVP while Madison Coulter and Andreno were named to the All-Tournament Team.

From Coach Rackham:
On takeaways from the undefeated weekend:
"I felt like our team took a step forward in terms of consistency. Our offensive production was really balanced. Our attack, we got a lot of production for a lot of people. We were able to hold our opponents to a lower hitting percentage, which has been a concentrated effort for us."-- Coach Eve Rackham

On balanced offensive attack:
"The middles were tremendous, both hit over .400 or over .500 on the weekend. They were just so efficient. I felt like we could get them the ball as much as we needed and they knew what to do with it. Morgahn (Fingall) had two really good matches on the weekend as well. Danielle (Mahaffey), hasn't played a lot on the outside, but did a nice job playing six rotations and giving us another offensive threat." -- Coach Rackham

On Tournament MVP Sedona Hansen:
"We were able to hit what we did this weekend because Sedona delivered the ball consistently. She made really good decisions and put our hitters in good situations. She also was one of our better servers on the weekend, which was terrific. She caused a lot of problems and went on some good serving runs."-- Coach Rackham

From Sedona Hansen:
On finishing off non-conference play with three wins:
"This was just a good motivator and confidence booster to be able to take on these teams and beat them in three sets. Overall, we were able to gel together on the court as well and we kpet working on the things we've been working on in practice." – Senior Sedona Hansen

On running in the 5-1 offense all weekend:
"We were practicing it all week. The more we played in it, the better I felt. We were able to build trust with each other out there. We knew we had each other through the good plays and the bad plays." – Senior Sedona Hansen

On going undefeated in Tennessee Classic matches during her four years:
"I didn't even realize that because we take the one game at a time mentality. As soon as it ends, it's in the past and we're on to the next one. We have the expectation to just come in here and to play our best against every single team." – Senior Sedona Hansen

Standout Stat

For the second straight match, Tennessee eclipsed .400 hitting percentage as a team. Earlier in the day, the Lady Vols hit.400 against Georgia Southern and they bested that on in the match vs. North Dakota State, hitting .427 against the Bison. It marks the highest hitting percentage by a Tennessee team since Aug. 27, 2016 against Louisiana-Monroe (.447 hitting percentage).

Match Notables:

Sophomore Giana Pellizzon recorded her fourth outing of double-digit digs this season. The San Clemente, Calif. native tallied 10 digs on the night to lead the Lady Vols, defensively.
The Lady Vols held every Tennessee Classic opponent to lower than a .140 hitting percentage with all three opponents having less than 30 kills.
Freshman Morgahn Fingall set a new season-high hitting percentage of .615 and led Tennessee offensively. The freshman right side had eight kills on 13 attacks while committing no errors in the match.

Next Up
The Lady Vols open SEC play on the road when they travel to Oxford, Mississippi to take on Ole Miss on Friday night. Last season, Tennessee swept the season series against the Rebels, winning both matches in four sets.

First serve is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. (ET) on SEC Network+.