The energy inside Food City Center was the highest it’s reached all season as the No. 22 Lady Vols welcomed in the Georgia Bulldogs for the team’s first conference matchup of the season.
The Lady Vols swept the Bulldogs off their home court with a 3-0 win, which included an impressive set-point comeback in set two.
Despite what the score read, the game was a back-and-forth battle between the two squads, who shared just three losses between the two teams entering the game.
“It was kind of a slugfest,” Tennessee head coach Eve Rackham Watt said. “It was a lot of back and forth. We were able to pull away at certain points, but it was a fairly even match in a lot of ways.”
The Lady Vols controlled the first set, led by Hayden Kubik, who finished the frame with a game-high seven kills on 11 attacks. Not only was she efficient from the offensive side, but she also earned three digs and one block in the introductory frame.
Due to the hot start from Kubik, the Bulldogs had to counter.
“I think Georgia changed their game plan a little bit as she heated up,” Rackham Watt said. “She had a great first set, then they went after her a little bit more from the service line, so they changed what they were doing in the first set.”
The change felt apparent. Set two saw the Bulldogs go on some of their biggest runs of the night, which prevented the Lady Vols from being able to substitute certain rotations.
“We got stuck in a rotation, and we just couldn’t get out of that rotation,” Rackham Watt said. “And so we allowed Georgia to take the lead. I actually thought we were playing OK, we just got stuck in the rotation and couldn’t find out.”
The Bulldogs during the second set went on a 6-0 run in the middle stages of the frame, eventually taking a 24-21 lead while being just one point away from knotting the game back up at one set apiece.
Instead, sophomore Paityn Chapman delivered one of her best stretches of the game, earning three of the team’s final five points in the form of kills while leading the Lady Vols to the second set victory.
Volleyball remains a game of momentum, and winning the second set felt like the nail in the coffin needed to finish out the rest of the contest.
Senior Gulce Guctekin and redshirt junior Caroline Kerr were an integral part of the sweep. While neither finished the day leading in kills, their impact can be both seen and felt everywhere, especially in close sets such as set two.
“Between me and her, we have a lot of experience together, and to have us in the back corner, I think we can help guide the team where it needs to be in that moment,” Kerr said. “I think sometimes I can get a little high on energy, she brings us back down, or she’s got the high energy and I’m the one pulling us off.”
Both played massive parts in the sweep, Guctekin finishing with 12 digs while Kerr earned 36 total assists.
From Guctekin, all the way down to sophomore Chelsea Sutton, who finished her day with 11 kills and a .562 kill percentage, the Lady Vols sport a deep team that only seems to get stronger with each game.
Now the team’s attention turns to South Carolina on Friday to finish off the four-game homestand.
“We have a rule, we get to enjoy wins or get over losses by midnight,” Rackham Watt said. “We’ll get to enjoying this one for a couple of hours, and then we can turn our attention to South Carolina.”
