Volleyball Travels to Kentucky and No. 24 Tennessee this Weekend
10/14/2010 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Oct. 14, 2010
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The volleyball team (9-8, 1-6 SEC) heads north this weekend to take on Kentucky (9-9, 3-5 SEC) and No. 24 Tennessee (13-4, 5-3 SEC). The Crimson Tide and Wildcats face off in Lexington on Friday, Oct. 15, at 6 p.m. CT. Alabama will then make its way towards Knoxville for a contest with the Lady Volunteers on Sunday, Oct. 17, at 12:30 p.m. CT.
"We are going to continue to focus on ourselves and what we need to do to get better this weekend," Alabama head coach Judy Green said. "We know there are still some defensive things we need to work on as well as our tempo and offensive flow. That was good last weekend, but it can still get better. Kentucky is playing better volleyball, and Tennessee dropped a tough match on Sunday. Both teams are going to be prepared for Alabama, so we need to be sure we are ready for them."
Alabama went 1-1 last week picking up its first Southeastern Conference victory of the season. In Friday's matchup with No. 2 Florida, the Tide fell 3-0 in a close run with the Gators despite a team-high 16 digs recorded by sophomore Kayla Fitterer and a match-high 12 kills from senior Alyssa Meuth. The Tide had 37 kills and 17 errors compared to the Gators' 42 kills and 15 errors, both teams off 106 attempts. Sunday's match against South Carolina was determined by three sets all of which went in favor of Alabama by scores of 25-19, 25-18 and 25-16. The Tide's first conference win of the season was led by Fitterer with her match-high 17 kills and sophomore Kelsey Anderson's team-high of 10 digs. Alabama had one of its best offensive outings recording a .351 hitting percentage compared to the Gamecock's percentage of .144. The Tide also had its second highest total in service aces this season with seven. Alabama only collected six attack errors for the match where as South Carolina came away with 19.
Kentucky split a pair of matches last weekend as well, losing to 15th-ranked LSU 3-0 before beating Arkansas 3-1. In the loss to LSU on Friday, Kentucky was led by freshman Whitney Billings who had a career-high 17 digs and senior Lauren Rapp who completed 16 kills on .455 hitting. On Sunday, the Wildcats defeated the Razorbacks for the seventh straight time. Junior Becky Pavan had a career-high 19 kills with a hitting percentage of .792. Pavan set a mark for the best hitting percentage of the year for not only Kentucky but the SEC as well. Defensively, sophomore Stephanie Klefot matched a career-best 22 digs to lead the Wildcats. Kentucky leads the series 21-12 over Alabama. The Tide lost both of last year's matchups to then-ranked Kentucky 3-0 and 3-1, respectively.
No. 24 Tennessee also went 1-1 on the road last weekend winning 3-2 to Arkansas and falling 3-1 to No. 15 LSU. The Volunteers were down two sets when they fought their way back to defeat Arkansas. The last time Tennessee came back from a two-set deficit was against Louisville on Sept. 30, 2009. In the loss to LSU, Tennessee exchanged 43 tie scores and 17 lead changes before the Tigers prevailed. Freshmen Kelsey Robinson made the first two starts of her career at the libero position en route to winning SEC Freshman of the Week honors. She passed 20 digs in both matches averaging 5.67 digs per set. Tennessee holds a 27-11 lead in the overall series with the Tide. Alabama lost both of last season's matches by scores of 3-1 and 3-0.
"We are a very good volleyball team, and our record is deceiving," Green said. "We have even had opposing coaches tell us we look great. For our team, it is important that we stay focused on getting better every day. We need to understand the hard work that we are putting in during practice is actually paying off."
Live scoring for both matches is available and can be found by clicking here.
