Alabama
Tennessee
Volleyball Rebounds With 3-1 Win Over Tennessee
10/5/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Alabama held off a late Tennessee comeback on Sunday, battling to a four-set victory over the Lady Vols in Thompson-Boling Arena.
Alabama (15-3, 3-1 SEC) won the opening two sets before Tennessee (7-11, 0-4 SEC) came back to win the third and nearly win the fourth, as the two teams battled to extra points with the Crimson Tide eventually coming out on top, 29-27. Sierra Wilson posted 49 assists, moving her to fourth all-time on Alabama's career assists list, passing Erin Tenbrunsel as Wilson now owns 3,526. Kat Hutson led the offense with 16 kills, while Krystal Rivers and Brittany Thomas were also in double digits with 12 and 11, respectively. Natalie Murison led the defense with 16 digs while Bruna Evangelista led at the net with four blocks and a .467 hitting percentage.
In the opening set, Alabama broke a 1-1 tie with a kill by Rivers and would not allow Tennessee to tie it for the rest of the set. The Tide moved ahead to double to Lady Vols' score, 14-7, and a kill by Leah Lawrence made it 15-7 at the media timeout. Alabama maintained its eight-point lead, up 23-15, and a ball-handling error by Tennessee made it set point. A blocking error by the Lady Vols ended it as the Tide won by 10, 25-15.
Tennessee took the first lead of the second set, scoring three unanswered right out of the gate. Alabama would fight back to tie the set four times before finally taking its first lead, 10-9, off a kill by Rivers. The Tide slowly started to pull away, moving up five at the 20-point mark, 20-15, as Tennessee took a timeout. The lead held, as Alabama ended up winning by five, 25-20.
Needing to win the set to stay alive, Tennessee came out strongly in the third set, leading 9-4 as Alabama took an early timeout. The Tide cut into the lead with a 4-1 run as the Lady Vols took a timeout leading 10-8. Leading 13-11, Tennessee scored four in a row to pull ahead 17-11 and would eventually move up by eight, 21-13. The Tide responded with four unanswered to cut Tennessee's lead to four, 21-17, as the Lady Vols took a timeout. Tennessee would reach set point, 24-18, and Alabama would score two-consecutive points to stay alive but Tennessee would end it with a kill by Jamie Lea to win, 25-20, and force a fourth set.
Alabama scored five points to open the fourth set as Tennessee burned an early timeout. With the Tide up by five, 17-12, the Lady Vols would fight back to tie it, 17-17, and eventually take the lead, 21-20. Tennessee would eventually reach set point, 24-21, but Alabama would fight back to force extra points, scoring three unanswered to tie it at 24-24. Tennessee would reach set point once and Alabama would reach match point three times before the Tide eventually put it away with a block by Lawrence and Thomas to win the set, 29-27, and the match, 3-1.
Next up, Alabama concludes its four-match road stint with a trip to College Station, Texas, to face No. 21 Texas A&M (10-3, 2-0 SEC) on Friday, Oct. 10. The match will begin at 7 p.m. CT and will be streamed on SEC Network +.
