The Lady Vols earned their first-ranked win of the 2025 season over No. 21 Georgia Tech at Food City Center in a back-and-forth contest.
The 3-1 win at home serves as a form of redemption for Tennessee volleyball head Coach Eve Rackham Watt, whose team last season had its NCAA Tournament run end at the hands of none other than the Yellow Jackets in the first round.
Georgia Tech brought just as much energy this season. Entering the game, it had lost just one match to No. 15 Kansas.
The Lady Vols’ lone loss this season came to Purdue, who the Yellow Jackets defeated earlier in the season.
“Georgia Tech’s a really good team,” Rackham Watt said. “I thought we played, not flawlessly, but flawlessly in moments. And when we needed to capitalize, we did. I thought the response from our team in the fourth set was tremendous. That’s not an easy thing to do.”
After Tennessee won the first two sets of the night, the Yellow Jackets claimed set three in the first momentum shift of the night. Despite that, the Lady Vols bunkered down and delivered their most impressive frame of the night.
“I told them going into the fourth set, I said, ‘We’re going to find out what kind of team we are right now,’ Rackham Watt said. “And I thought they totally rose to the occasion. That was as convincing a set win as it could have been, and we were almost perfect.”
The fourth set resulted in a Lady Vols win, scored 25-13, compared to every other set that was scored 25-23 up until the fourth frame.
Some of the big hitters from the game included returning sophomores Chelsea Sutton and Paityn Chapman. Both saw time in last season’s starting lineup, though Chapman more frequently saw her name in the starting mix.
Chapman has continued to make strides, and Sutton went to work against the Yellow Jackets with 15 kills over 23 attacks. Chapman followed her with 13 kills in 29 attempts.
“I thought Chelsea was unbelievable tonight,” Rackham Watt said. “Some of the plays that I don’t think even go in the box score, that some of the other players made to win that set were just terrific.”
The fourth set within the game encapsulated everything the team had been working on all offseason in full effect.
“Absolutely, everyone was firing on all cylinders,” Rackham Watt said. “We were just talking about it in the locker room, everyone was kind of everywhere across the board, and everyone was just kind of giving their all, and it was just a great game.”
The team understands that this offense isn’t a one-woman show, and the Lady Vols are finally starting to benefit from sharing the wealth. A big factor in getting everyone the ball remains All-American Caroline Kerr and senior Gulce Guctekin.
Kerr finished her day against the Yellow Jackets with 53 assists, while Guctekin earned a game-high 22 digs. Both of their senior presences have been major assists to the team.
“You can tell those are the two players who’ve got the most experience out on the floor in those types of matches,” Rackham Watt said. “You can see it, you can hear it, they’ve been out there, they’ve done it many times, and they’ve been on the winning side of a lot of good teams.”
The Lady Vols hope to keep the winning ways rolling this weekend as the team travels to Queens, New York, for matchups against Delaware State and St. John’s.
