No. 12 Tennessee volleyball fell short to No. 10 Arkansas in a four-set match on Friday evening (27-25, 16-25, 22-25, 20-25).
The loss marks the Lady Vols’ (16-3, 7-2 SEC) third loss of the season and second straight in SEC play. Tennessee was previously bested by No. 20 Kentucky where it struggled with serve and siding out.
Arkansas proved to put pressure on the Lady Vols defense with big swings around the block. Tennessee struggled offensively with a .152 team hitting percentage.
“I think that we certainly struggled offensively today,” head coach Eve Rackham Watt said. “Which has not been our issue for the most part this season. So very different than our previous match that we lost. I thought that those are two different ways to lose. But regardless, we found ways in both matches. But offensively, we just weren’t good.”
Arkansas attackers put a lot of pressure on Tennessee’s block in the match. The Lady Vols struggled with block communication, which ultimately led to the opportunity for the Razorbacks to swing through and around the block.
“Credit to Arkansas, they took a swing on everything,” Rackham Watt said. “And, you know, we don’t always see that, so a lot of teams will pull off and maybe not block because they’re going to go easy. Arkansas doesn’t take any easy swings. I thought that the communication wasn’t good between the pin and the middle blocker in terms of what we were doing. And that’s something we’ll have to address because systematically we’ve discussed it so we definitely have a plan, but we did not execute that plan.”
A notable highlight of the match was in the first set, where the Lady Vols battled past 25 to take the set from Arkansas. Jenaisya Moore contributed big kills from the outside, and Keondreya Granberry put up a big block to finish the set.
However, a loss of momentum in the second set proved to be an advantage for the Razorbacks for the rest of the match.
Moore and middle blocker Raeven Chase led Tennessee in kills with each contributing 13. Chase contributed five blocks in addition to her kills, giving her a season-high in both stats.
“I thought she had a really, really nice match offensively,” Rackham Watt said about Chase. “It certainly added another dimension to our offense. And the fact that we were able to set her 26 times is quite a bit. I thought she did a nice job blocking as well.”
For the sixth time in her career, libero Yelianiz Torres led the match with 30 digs. Setter Caroline Kerr also had a career-high of 19 digs. Tennessee had a season-high of 107 total digs in the loss.
“I think for us, all we can do is respond and learn and figure some things out,” Rackham Watt said. “I think we’ve been exposed in two different ways against two different teams. So we need to figure some stuff out. That’s the reality, and I would rather be doing that in October then later on in the year.”
The Lady Vols will have the opportunity to overcome this adversity by making adjustments in practice before their next match at Missouri on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET.
