By Stephen Mason
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The No. 16 Tennessee volleyball team looked strong during a road trip to Charlotte, sweeping Queens 25-14, 25-13, and 25-18.
Tuesday’s game comes in the middle of a challenging non-conference schedule, which has thrown the Lady Vols off their regular training and practice routines. After a sweep of Coastal Carolina on Saturday, head coach Eve Rackham Watt spoke to the media about these challenges.
“The cadence of matches is not exactly what we’re used to… In the non-conference, we’re really used to weekend matches, and we’ve had a lot of weekday matches. And so, just our training opportunities, our practice opportunities have been super limited,” Rackham Watt said.
The matchup against Coastal Carolina came after the team’s first loss of the year to No. 2 Pittsburgh in a Wednesday night showdown. In both these games, the Lady Vols struggled early on in sets.
“We’ve talked about the urgency of starting sets, you know, and that’s something this group has got to learn, and, you know, it was the same against Indiana; we were playing from behind,” Rackham Watt said.
These slow starts continued to plague Tennessee at the beginning of the first and third sets in the match against Queens; however, the team bounced back.
After falling behind in the first set, the Lady Vols went on a 9-1 run and dominated the rest of the way. The team recorded 14 kills while remaining efficient, with a .444 attacking percentage in the first frame.
Freshman Morgan Williams led the offense in an impressive showing for a player competing for playing time against veterans like Kennedi Rogers. The outside hitter notched a team-high 10 kills.
Williams was not the only freshman to have a big night, as Anni Tang led the team with 5 blocks, and SEC Co-Freshman of the Week Jolene Oddo put together another strong performance with 7 kills and 1 block.
Coastal Carolina transfer Jalyn Stout maintained the success at the net she found on Saturday against her former team with 9 kills in Tuesday’s game against Queens. However, Stout is not immune to the challenges of this stretch of the schedule, but she knows her team is up for the task.
“We’re on the road and stuff, and I mean, obviously, it takes a toll on everybody, like physically and mentally, and it’s a hard thing to do, but our team doesn’t complain,” Stout said Saturday. “Like, we’re like, all right, you know, we gotta pack, and we gotta go back to work, like, that’s on us.”
While Queens is not the most formidable opponent, adding two extra travel days to an already busy schedule is a test in itself for Tennessee.
Tennessee will remain on the road for the final two games of non-conference play with two weekend matches at the Penn State Classic. On Saturday, the team will face USF in a rematch of last year’s opening game, when the Lady Vols pulled off the sweep in Knoxville.
In its final game before SEC play begins, Tennessee will face No. 9 Penn State on Sunday in what should be a hostile road environment. This will be the final test for Rackham Watt’s squad before they return to their home court to open SEC play against No. 7 Texas.
Up Next: Tennessee will play USF at 1 p.m. Saturday, with the game broadcast on Big Ten Plus.