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Sept. 3, 2010

Final Stats

HOUSTON, Texas - Led by a pair of Texas natives in senior Nikki Fowler and junior Kelsey Mahoney, the No. 17 University of Tennessee women's volleyball team picked up its fourth consecutive sweep to start the 2010 season, downing Oklahoma, 25-23, 25-18, 25-18, in the opener of the Houston Invitational at the Athletics/Alumni Center on Friday afternoon.

"This is a great win," UT Head Coach Rob Patrick said. "Oklahoma is from a strong conference, very well coached and is the most physical team we have played so far. I thought we did a nice job of defending against their strengths and were able to run our offense pretty well. I was also pleased with how much we were able to control the net."

Fowler finished the contest with a match-high 21 kills while hitting at a .400 clip with just three errors on 45 swings. The Dallas, Texas, product also notched nine digs, two blocks and a pair of assists. Meanwhile, junior Kelsey Mahoney, a native of Fort Worth, tallied her first double-double of the season with 22 assists and 10 digs.

"We can talk about Nikki every single match. Even when she doesn't have the huge numbers like she did today, she has a huge impact on our team. Today, she passed a ton of balls and we set her quite a bit based on how they were defending our team and she really came through in the clutch for us."

Freshman Kelsey Robinson topped the squad with 13 digs against the Sooners and sophomore DeeDee Harrison and junior Kayla Jeter tied for the UT lead with three blocks each. Jeter also smashed out 10 kills in the contest.

As a team, the Lady Vols outhit OU, .345 to .111. Tennessee has now held all four of its opponents this season to hitting percentages under .155. The Big Orange also bested the Sooners in kills (55-28), assists (46-24), aces (6-2), digs (52-41) and blocks (13-5).

It was all Fowler from the get-go as the two-time honorable mention all-American had nine kills in the opening frame to lead the Orange and White to a tight 25-23 victory. She also had three scoops and hit a blistering .529 without even a single error in 17 total attacks.

The Orange and White jumped out to a quick start in the opening frame, using a five-point run to stake claim to an early 9-4 advantage. The Sooners were not going to go away that easily, however, and they rebounded to tie things back up at 15-all.

Just moments later, Oklahoma got a kill from Caitlin Higgins off the left-side block to take a 19-18 lead. Jeter would answer with a kill immediately though and Fowler followed with a shot that ricocheted off the blocker's hands and long to put UT back up by one. That lead would extend to two on the next play as senior Leah Hinkey's serve proved too tough for the OU libero to handle and went for an ace.

The Sooners had one more push in them as they regained the lead with a 3-0 spurt of their own, but Tennessee just proved to be too much in the end. With her team trailing 22-21, Fowler recorded back-to-back kills, crushing one from the right side and another from the back row, to give the Big Orange the lead back at 23-22. Although Oklahoma would tie it up on the next play, Jeter and Robinson smashed out consecutive kills to give UT a 25-23 victory.

Fowler added seven more putaways in the second set, as the Lady Vols cruised to a 2-0 lead with a 25-19 win. Junior libero Amanda Friday scooped seven Sooner attacks off the hardwood while Harrison was perfect with three kills on three swings.

For the second straight frame, Tennessee jumped out to a big lead early on. It would hold on to it this time though. After UT scored five straight to take a 7-2 advantage, the two teams went back-and-forth on the next five points before a blast by Fowler to the back-left corner of the court sparked a 7-0 spree that put the Lady Vols up by a commanding 16-5 count.

Mahoney accounted for the second score in the run with a service ace before Fowler smashed out consecutive kills with a cross-court shot and a laser down the right side. Jeter and Hinkey then teamed up to send back a Sallie McLaurin attack before Hinkey closed out the streak with a kill of her own.

Oklahoma would make a late rally bout UT wouldn't let it get any closer than five points. With the scoreboard reading 23-18 in favor of the Big Orange, Jeter and Fowler finished off the frame with consecutive putaways.

Tennessee clamped down defensively in the third frame, simply never letting the Oklahoma offense get started as it held the Sooners to -.032 hitting en route to a 25-18 triumph. Yet again, it was Fowler that led the way offensively with five kills, while Mahoney tallied six digs and five different Lady Vols combined to send back seven OU attacks.

This time, it was OU's turn to race out to an early lead, using a 6-1 run to go ahead 7-3. Even though the Lady Vols trimmed their deficit to one with five scores in the next six plays, the Sooners were able to fend them off with three consecutive points, giving them an 11-8 lead.

That advantage would not last much longer, however, with the Orange and White embarking on a 10-1 tear just seconds later. Kills from Robinson and Hinkey and a block by Fowler and Hinkey accounted for the first three points before Oklahoma stopped the bleeding momentarily with a putaway by McLaurin. It proved to be a momentary reprieve though as Tennessee immediately took back all of the momentum with seven consecutive scores.

Fowler and Hinkey got the run started by thwarting a setter dump attempt by Brianne Barker. Jeter took care of the next two points with a solo bock and a kill from the outside that landed wide off the OU block attempt. An attack error by Barker on the next play then prompted Sooner Head Coach Santiago Restrepo to burn his first timeout of the frame.

The break in play did little to slow down the Lady Vols though with Hinkey smashing home a pair of over passes and combining with Jeter and Fowler on a triple block to put the score at 18-12 in the Orange and White's favor.

Oklahoma was able to regroup enough to score the next three points, but the Big Orange effectively put an end to any comeback hopes with another long run, this time of the 5-0 variety. Included in the spurt were a pair of kills by Fowler, a blast by Jeter, a Sooner attack error and an ace by Hinkey. The Lady Vols were able to bring the match to a close just moments later with Fowler's 21st kill of the afternoon and a service ace by sophomore Jasmine Brown.

Tennessee will return to action with a pair of contests on Saturday. Following a 10 a.m. CT showdown with No. 13 Florida State, UT will close out its stay in the Lone Star State with a 7:30 p.m. CT contest against host Houston.