The Tennessee Lady Volunteers volleyball team has two big tests ahead this weekend when the squad travels to LSU and Texas A&M.
The Lady Vols have already played both teams once this year in Knoxville, dropping both matchups in straight sets 3-0.
“For us to get ready for this weekend, we really need to be able to slow down middle attacks on both teams,” head coach Rob Patrick said. “(We need to focus on) ball control … If we can take care of the ball, serve and control the ball on our digging, we can put ourselves in position to score some more points, which we need to do.”
Tennessee (8-19, 1-12 SEC) came up short against Missouri and Auburn last week, losing both games 3-1. The Lady Vols won the first set against Missouri before dropping three straight sets in the loss, the first time that has happened this year. The Auburn matchup mirrored the same situation for the Lady Vols: a victory in the first set combined with three straight set losses.
Hungry for a victory, the Lady Vols will first face off against one of the hottest teams in the country in LSU. The Tigers (15-7, 10-3) are currently riding a 10-game winning streak after dropping their first three SEC matches of the season against Kentucky, Alabama and Florida, respectively. LSU has won 17 of their 23 matches against Tennessee on their home court.
“They’re playing as well as anyone in the conference,” Patrick said. “We’re gonna have to really play on a high level to stay with them.”
Briana Holman leads the Tigers, ranking first in the SEC and seventh in the nation in blocks per set with 1.5. She is also ranked third in the SEC in kills per set with 3.83. The last time Holman played Tennessee, the middle blocker had only one block assist, but she still slammed 12 kills. Patrick and his team will try to slow the sophomore down in their next match.
“They try to get the ball to their middles as much as they can,” Patrick said. “We’re really gonna have to do as good a job serving as anything to take them out of some of the offensive stuff they wanna do.”
After leaving Louisiana, the Lady Vols will head further west to College Station, Texas, to take on the Aggies (16-8, 8-5), who have spent most of the year in the top 25 before being dropped from the list this past week after a loss to Alabama.
“They’re a very physical team,” Patrick said. “They’re a team that is very good at blocking and very tall at the net, but then they play really good defense behind it. That’s a team that’s really hard to get kills on.”
The Tennessee-LSU game will take place this Friday at 8:30 p.m. EST in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, while the matchup against Texas A&M begins at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. The contest against the Aggies can be streamed live on the SEC Network+.
