By Logan Starkey
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Unranked Florida came into Knoxville on Oct. 15 and toppled ranked rival No. 16 Tennessee in a five-set thriller. As much as Florida earned their victory, the Lady Vols earned their defeat.
It would be underselling the Vols’ performance to say it was filled with errors. Outside of sets one and four, the team rarely lasted more than three points in a row without costing themselves momentum.
Lady Vols head coach Eve Rackham Watt didn’t mince words after the loss.
“I can’t point to one thing that was going wrong,” Rackham Watt said. “Across the board, we were bad.”
Watt is far from wrong. The team just wasn’t in sync. At multiple points in the contest, communication errors cost the team points. Florida kill attempts were finding wood because Tennessee players couldn’t decide who should attack the ball.
Tennessee recorded 30 attacking errors. That DOUBLED Florida’s 14 and added two more for added comfort. This fact was so astonishing to Rackham Watt that she grimaced as she said it in her post-game media scrum.
The beauty of this utter failure of a game is that Tennessee almost won. Despite the fact Tennessee gave up 16 more points than the Gators, they battled to a 15-13 set five. They did everything wrong, and yet they were two points away from a monumental comeback.
The team was bad, but they never gave up. The same couldn’t be said for the game’s student section, which went from full on both ends of the floor to a measly few rows by the time the fifth set began.
A lackluster crowd, a performance so bad the coach couldn’t decide what their biggest mistake was, and a Florida team just a few votes short of last week’s AVCA poll were barely enough to topple the Volunteers.
It’s not all bad – Hayden Kubik continues to dominate offensively, posting a 24-kill game good enough to be the second-highest in her career. Caroline Kerr matched her career high in assists at 57. Chelsea Sutton continues to be effective both offensively and as a net defender. Paityn Chapman was also effective on both ends of the floor.
The frustration in this loss doesn’t come from how poorly they played as individuals, but as a team. The pieces are there, and despite everything, that’s what the Rocky Top faithful should leave this game with.
This team can compete, but they have to work better as a unit if they want to survive a competitive SEC schedule moving forward.