The University of Tennessee volleyball team (19-6, 12-3 Southeastern Conference) added another sweep to its résumé Sunday, downing Alabama (7-19, 5-11) in straight sets, 25-20, 25-19, 25-23, behind the strength of double-doubles from junior Nikki Fowler and sophomore Kelsey Mahoney at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville. The 3-0 victory marked the Lady Volunteers’ second of the weekend and 12th of the season.
“This was a very good win for us,” UT Head Coach Rob Patrick said. “I thought we played some solid volleyball in the first two sets. Alabama has three outside hitters that are really, really good, but we did a tremendous job shutting two of them down early on. They had a little more success in the third set, but we kept fighting and were able to withstand their attack.”
Fowler’s double-double marked the ninth consecutive match in which she has accomplished the feat, while Mahoney’s was her fifth of the season and ninth of her career. A 6-2 outside hitter, Fowler finished the contest with 16 kills and 16 digs, to go along with two blocks, a pair of assists and an ace. Mahoney, meanwhile, tallied a match-high 21 assists and season-best 14 digs, as well as two aces and a kill.
“Nikki has just been playing unbelievably well the last few weeks,” Patrick said. “She’s about as steady as they come. Even when everybody in the arena knows we are going to give her the ball, she’s able to get kills. We ask a lot out of her. She’s going to pass a lot of balls, she plays the middle-back position as well as anyone and, obviously, she’s going to hit a lot of balls, whether it is in the front row or out of the back when we are out of system.
“I was also very pleased with how Kelsey played today,” Patrick said. “We’ve been concentrating a lot on our offense and running tempo, so we haven’t really spent a lot of time with our setters on defense. I thought Kelsey did a great job making the right moves and being in the right positions defensively, which helped us score some real points. She also did a great job both serving and running our offense. She got the ball to the right people and put it in spots where our hitters could take some strong swings.”
The Big Orange kicked off the contest with a strong showing in the initial frame, hitting .303 en route to a 25-20 triumph. While Fowler tallied four kills and three digs, Hinkey also recorded four putaways, doing so on only five swings to give her an .800 attack average for the set. Marshall and freshman Natalie Guerra collected three digs each as well.
With the score tied at 4-4, back-to-back errors by Alabama jumpstarted a 5-0 Lady Vol run that also featured a kill by Fowler and a block by Hinkey and Marshall before a Tide attack landed long to finish it off and give the Orange and White a 9-4 advantage. After a UT miscue gave the ball back to Bama, a pair of Hinkey smashes, sandwiched around another putaway by Fowler, increased the Tennessee lead to seven at 12-5.
Although Ashley Frazier ended that spree with a kill from the outside, consecutive Tide attack errors and an ace by Mahoney that just snuck in the back-right corner of the court, kept the Lady Vols rolling. While Alabama would cut its deficit to three scores with a 4-0 run just moments later, sophomore Kayla Jeter dashed any thoughts of a comeback with back-to-back blasts from the left side.
After the two squads traded the next three points, a Kelsey Anderson service error and a kill by freshman Leslie Cikra gave the Big Orange six opportunities to put away the set. It would need just three, as Hinkey and Fowler joined forces to send back a Frazier attack to finish off the frame.
Fowler continued her offensive onslaught in the second set, pounding out five kills to lead Tennessee to a 25-19 victory. Goldman, Marshall and Mahoney recorded five digs apiece and Hinkey, Marshall and Jeter each tallied a pair of blocks to pace a strong defensive effort as well.
Mahoney opened the frame with an ace, but Alabama bounced right back with three straight scores to take its first lead of the afternoon. Just seven plays later, however, UT began to assert itself with a 3-0 spree of its own. Marshall and Powe got it started with a sharp block on a swing by Frazier. Following an attack error by Brooks Webster, Marshall stuffed Frazier again, this time teaming with Hinkey.
Tennessee continued to extend its lead shortly thereafter, going on a pair of 4-0 tears, separated by just a single Tide tally, to go ahead, 15-9. Once again, Alabama handed the Orange and White two scores as a Kelsey Anderson serve found the net and an attack by Kayla Schmidt landed wide. Jeter followed by smashing a set from Guerra to the back-right corner before joining up with Hinkey to block a shot by Sarah Machen, prompting UA Head Coach Judy Green to call her first timeout of the set.
Both Fowler and Goldman seemed to save their best for last, as they registered totals of seven kills and 12 digs, respectively, in the third and final frame. Those efforts, along with three kills and seven digs from Marshall and seven assists and seven digs by Mahoney, helped the Big Orange earn its second sweep of the weekend, as it squeaked by Alabama, 25-23.
Tennessee will close out the road portion of its schedule with contests at Auburn and Georgia next weekend. The Orange and White will first take on the Tigers at 4 p.m. CT on Friday, Nov. 13 in Auburn, Ala., before making the trek to Athens, Ga., for a 2 p.m. showdown against the Bulldogs on Sunday, Nov. 15.

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