By Lily Helton
A record-breaking crowd of 9,226 people. A beautiful opening set, winning in dominating fashion. All of these elements created the perfect mix for a Tennessee volleyball win over Texas on Friday night – so the fans thought.
The chips didn’t fall in the Lady Vols’ favor, and they lost the match 3-2.
“It’s disappointing to be up 2-0 at home in front of that kind of crowd and not come out with a win,” said head coach Eve Rackham Watt.
Lady Vols Started Strong
The Lady Vols opened the match beautifully. Behind a kill from Chelsea Sutton, an ace from Sydney Jaynes and a solo block from Sutton, the Lady Vols were off to the races. They finished with 14 kills and only four errors in the set, winning 25-21.
The second set started, and the kinks started to show early for the Lady Vols. The team finished with a scant .079 hitting percentage and 10 attacking errors.
The Lady Vols had dug themselves into a hole, trailing 15-8. Then came a monster kill from outside hitter Kennedi Rogers, and the Lady Vols were back in it. The pin hitters and middles battled hard at the net, and Tennessee came back to win the set 26-24.
“I was really proud of how hard we played,” Rackham Watt said.
Momentum fizzled late in the match
In the third and fourth sets, Tennessee simply ran out of juice. Across the two sets, the Lady Vols put up only 21 kills compared to the Longhorns’ 32, racking up another 10 attacking errors and four more serving errors.
“I felt like Texas just out-ball-controlled us,” Rackham Watt said.
The Lady Vols finally found some life late in the fifth set. Maggie Dostic swung kill after kill, finding ways around Texas’ block. Rogers had a huge solo block, and it almost looked like the Lady Vols could pull off the win. But it was too little, too late, and the Texas Longhorns took the set 15-11.
Looking ahead
The Lady Vols will need to clean up these errors in their next SEC matchup against the Florida Gators at 7 p.m. EST on Friday, Oct. 2.
“We got until midnight, then we got to get over it and move on,” Rackham Watt said. “I expect them to do that.”