Lady Vols Drop Heartbreaking Five-Set Match to Georgia

Thursday, October 29

Knoxville

7 P.M.

University of Tennessee

1-3,1-3SEC

Georgia

2-2,2-2SEC

Georgia

Tennessee

Lady Vols Drop Heartbreaking Five-Set Match to Georgia

October 29, 2020 | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Lady Vol volleyball team fell short in a thrilling five-set battle (25-23, 23-25, 18, 25, 25-15, 13-15) against the Georgia Bulldogs Thursday night at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Junior Lily Felts tied a career-high with 19 kills, while setting a career-high in digs with 20. Joining Felts in the double-digit kill club Thursday was freshman Jasmine Brooks who has quickly adapted to life in the SEC as she tallied 17 kills on the night.

Tennessee's (1-3, 1-3 SEC) offense was kept in rhythm by Junior transfer Natalie Hayward. She followed up her 41 assist performance Wednesday with a career-high 52 assists Thursday.

For Georgia (2-2, 2-2 SEC) Amber Stivrins paced the offense with 20 kills, while Rachel Ritchie added 16 more for the Bulldogs. Brynn Chandler and Dalaney Hans notched 25 and 17 assists, respectively.

UT fell behind early in he opening set, but spurred on by Brooks' six kills and .417 hitting percentage rallied from a 7-3 deficit to win the opener 25-23. The Lady Vols hit .297 as a team in the first set.

The first set lead was tied or changed hands 18 times.

Trailing 13-7 in the second set, UT stormed back thanks to Felts' seven kills in the second stanza. The Knoxville native found open space along the side of the court several times as she put the ball away and the Lady Vols quickly reeled in Georgia.

Tennessee tied the second set at 23-23, but couldn't complete the comeback as UGA scored the final two points, taking the set 25-23 and evening the match at 1-1.

Georgia came out quick in the third set and kept the Lady Vols off balance. UGA hit .270, while holding UT to a .125 hit percentage. The Bulldogs won the set 25-18.

In the fourth, it was Tennessee's turn to blast Georgia as it hit .303 and held UGA to a zero hitting percentage. UT racked up 13 kills en route to a 25-15 fourth set victory.

Mirroring the opening set, Georgia took an early 7-3 lead over Tennessee in the fifth before UT swung momentum in its favor by going on a 7-0 run to take a 10-7 lead.

UGA responded by closing the final set on an 8-3 run, winning 15-13 and taking the match, 3-2.

UP NEXT
Tennessee continues its homestand Nov. 6 and 7 as the South Carolina Gamecocks roll into Thompson-Boling Arena.

SPOTLIGHT
Emily Merrick and Nicoletta Capizzi saw extended playing time in front of the home fans Thursday night. Merrick, a redshirt freshman, posted seven kills, while Capizzi scored a kill and came away with a pair of blocks.

Ava Bell had another solid night in the middle with nine kills to her credit and seven total blocks.

QUOTABLES
Head Coach Eve Rackham-Watt
On the team's fight…
"I just told them in the locker room, I think losing teaches us a lot. I don't take any moral victories in the fact that we played hard. I think that's a given that we show up and we're playing an SEC opponent. I expect a battle and we're going to play hard. We've been talking a lot about two-point sets. Obviously, we had three of them that came down to two points. It goes back to our ability to close out and play clean when it counts. We fought. I was especially proud of the kids that came in, Emily Merrick and Nicoletta Capizzi. Those kids haven't played for us at all much. It was kind of their first action. Emily redshirted last year and Nikki transferred. I'm happy for them. They came in and contributed. That was definitely a bright spot.

On Ava Bell:
"I think Ava gave us what we expected Ava to give us. The great thing I think is that Ava is healthy for the first time in her career. She missed all of last spring with the surgery on her ankle and with us missing a lot of the training we could have had last spring, she's just finally getting healthy and coming back and it's great to just have her out there. She's kind of a steady force for us out there in the middle. Her and Natalie (Hayward) have a great connection. There's a lot of trust between the two of them. She saw a lot of sets the last two nights, so we're just going to try to keep getting her the ball and she knows what to do. From a defensive standpoint, her growth has come in blocking. That's something she's worked really hard at—she had seven blocks tonight, so that's great for her."