Lady Vols Takes Tough Loss Against Kentucky

 KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee Lady Vols volleyball team lost their first home Southeastern Conference opener against No. 20 The University of Kentucky on Sunday afternoon.

Junior Tessa Grubs, lead the team with fifteen kills and hitting .316. Grubbs pulled out some major swings against Kentucky helping Tennessee get out of their rut by making those swings when they were needed.

Wildcat’s senior, Brooke Morgan was capped to five kills by Madison Coulter, Vols sophomore libero. Coulter gathered a career-high of twenty-five digs.

Junior Sedona Hansen put together her third consecutive double-double, making seven for the season. To reach the 2,000 career assist mark Hansen is only fifteen assists away from becoming the ninth player in program history.

Hansen remarked, “It is such an honor to potentially become the ninth player to reach this career mark. I am disappointed that we lost today, but if we keep practicing hard and if I do happen to reach this record hopefully that means we will be having more success as a team later on this season.”

Kentucky’s win moves their record to 7-4 and 1-0 in SEC action. On the year Tennessee’s record dropped to 10-4 and 1-1 in SEC play.

Next up Tennessee plays Missouri Friday night in Thompson Bowling Arena. Entering the match with wins over Alabama and Arkansas, Missouri is 12-2. The team defeated Arkansas by creating a strong defense that made an impact Sunday, recording four total blocks and narrowing Arkansas to only .024 hitting in the first set.

After the game Coach Rackham said, “In order to do well against Missouri we need to build off of the positives that we showed in this match. I think our defense has shown immense improvement and hopefully that will bring future success to our team in the upcoming matches.”

Since it is early in the season there is still room for improvement for the Lady Vols.

Link to view BoxScore and Match Notes:

https://utsports.com/boxscore.aspx?id=11187&path=wvball

Click to access 14_Kentucky.pdf