Tennessee is on a three match winning streak after defeating ETSU, Mississippi, and Arkansas this past week. Nikki Fowler got her 17th career double double while Kelsey Mahoney got her 4th. Five players on the Lady Vols roster matched or exceeded career highs.

• Tennessee is 28-5 all time vs ETSU
• Tennessee is 32-6 all time vs Mississippi
• Tennessee is 9-14 all time vs Arkansas

• Milan Clarke hit an amazing .813 against ETSU. She had 13 kills on 16 attempts with no errors! How rare is that? In the past seven seasons (which is as far back as I have data) no other player has hit above .800 when making double digit attack attempts. Only four players have hit .700 or better with at least 10 attempts: Kristen Andre .765 (13-0-17) vs ETSU in 2003; Heather Harrington .733 (11-0-15) vs Auburn in 2004; Michelle Piantadosi .722 (14-1-18) vs UT-Martin in 2004; and Mindy Flynn .700 (8-1-10) vs Indiana in 2007. Even if you lower the threshold to more than five attempts that only adds in three more players that have hit at least .700 in that time: Sarah Blum .750 (6-0-8) vs Kentucky in 2004; Julie Knytych .833 (5-0-6) vs Mississippi in 2006; and Kylie Marshall .833 (5-0-6) vs Georgia in 2006.

• Nikki Fowler got her 17th double-double in the 50th match of her career. That’s one double-double about every three matches (34%). She’s had 37 matches with double digit kills (74%). And she’s had double digit digs in 22 matches (44%).

• Is it the new ball handling directive, the benefits of running the 6-2, or just better play? Maybe a little of all three, but Tennessee’s ball handling errors are at their lowest since 2004.

YEAR   BHE    GP    BHE/G
2008    41    78    0.53
2007    95   113    0.84
2006    96   119    0.81
2005    71   118    0.60
2004    53   125    0.42

• Career bests matched or exceeded this weekend
Carol Cheade: blocks
Milan Clarke: hitting percentage and blocks
Nikki Fowler: hitting percentage
Michaela Hanakova: aces and points
Kelsey Mahoney: assists

This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 12:53 pm.