The month of October brought all the frights to the Lady Vols volleyball team who exited the month with a record of 2-4 — suffering losses to teams such as No. 13 Kentucky and the conference-leading Missouri Tigers.
In their return home to start the team’s five-game homestand, the Lady Vols pieced together one of their more complete performances of the season, defeating the LSU Tigers 3-0.
This season, the Lady Vols (12-9, 5-6) have earned four sweeps, yet only one of the wins came from a conference opponent. Here are three takeaways from the Lady Vols’ fifth sweep of the season.
Everybody contributes
An ongoing storyline of the 2024 Lady Vols season remains Paityn Chapman, the freshman who has taken her game up a notch since her arrival, and the run continued against the Tigers (13-9, 5-6) on Friday.
The freshman earned nine kills while hitting .467 on the night.
Chapman was not alone in offensive production, however. She was joined by Nina Cajic who finished with nine kills, Hayden Kubik and Keondreya Granberry followed behind with eight each.
“I think we have the hitters to be able to always have a good night,” Caroline Kerr said. “So I think it makes my job easier when my hitters are taking some great swings, and I think that happened tonight.”
Kerr finished her night with 32 assists over three sets played. That moves her total to 827 assists on the season, 10.21 assists per set, and second in the team in service aces with 24.
Defense goes a long way
Games can’t and won’t be won without defense, and that is exactly the motto Eve Rackham Watt’s team has been focused on for the past few weeks.
The focus began to pay off in the backcourt as sophomores Mackenzie Plante and Katie Barrier both defended the backcourt well against the Tigers’ attack.
“I actually thought that Mackenzie had one of her better matches of the season,” said Rackham Watt. “I thought she was really under the radar, but made a lot of really nice plays that kept us in rallies.”
Plante led the game with nine total digs — a career-high that tops her previous high of eight earlier this season against Oklahoma. She also added two assists to her statline.
Plante was joined by Barrier, who ended her day with eight digs to go along with an assist.
Standings update
The Lady Vols have just five remaining games left on their schedule and, as of Friday, remain tied with Oklahoma and moved into a tie with LSU in the standings.
Four of the five remaining contests will be hosted at Food City Center, a place where Tennessee has found most of their success this season with a record of 7-2 in front of its home crowd.
“We talked about it all week,” Kerr said. “It’s such a big advantage to be home for the rest of the games except for one for the rest of the season.”
Kerr was on the team last season during the Tennessee’s Elite Eight run last season, and understands that there is not much time left to make a difference in the regular season.
“We’re going to have to win these games to give us the best chance possible to make a really good run in the postseason,” Kerr said.
The homestand continues on Sunday with a matchup against Texas A&M.
