After starting their season in the Appalachian Invitational, going 2-1, Tennessee head coach Rob Patrick and his Lady Volunteers have shifted their focus to Ames, Iowa, where they will play in the Iowa State Challenge this weekend.
Each opponent brings a different set of skills to the table.
“How we approach every single match is we look at the matchup we are going to play next,” Patrick said.
Northern Illinois just finished the NIU Invitational, where they finished 1-2 with losses to Northwestern and Colorado.
“(Northern Illinois) is coming off a good weekend, and they have a couple of good hitters,” Patrick said.
One of those hitters is senior Mackenzie Roddy, who started all 123 sets her junior year and earned All-MAC First Team honors for the second year in a row.
After Northern Illinois, the Lady Vols will go up against an Iowa State team that received 16 top 25 votes. Iowa State is 0-2, but its two losses came against No. 3 Stanford and No. 13 Florida State. The Cyclones will be hungry to pick up a victory against a young UT team that started four sophomores and two freshmen in the Appalachian Invitational.
They are led by unanimous Big 12 first-teamer Mackenzie Bigbee. The former All-American honorable mention is one of the top hitters in the country.
“They have two really good outside hitters who are big and more experienced than ours,” Patrick said. “We are going to have to play some really disciplined volleyball.”
For the finale of the tournament, the Lady Vols will go up against Nebraska-Omaha (1-2), a team who lost two close matches against Drake and Missouri-Kansas City this past weekend. This will be the first time the Mavericks and the Lady Vols have met on the court.
The Mavericks’ middle blocker Megan Schmale, who started in every game for Nebraska-Omaha as a sophomore in 2013, will be a force to be reckoned with as she led the Summit Conference in blocks per set last year at 1.16.
Patrick believes his team can best all three teams in the upcoming tournament.
“Physically, we can match up against these teams,” the Lady Vols head man said. “We’re just gonna make sure we can play as consistent as we can so that we don’t make unforced errors.”
The Lady Vols’ contests against Northern Illinois and Iowa State will take place Friday at noon and 7:30 p.m., respectively. UT will cap their weekend off at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday when they face Nebraska-Omaha.
