University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
11-0
Jacksonville
2-6
Volleyball Rolls Winning Streak to 11
September 12, 2015 | Volleyball
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- The Tennessee volleyball team matched its best start to a season in the NCAA era with a 3-1 (17-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-16) victory over Jacksonville on Saturday morning at the College of Charleston Invitational.
The Vols (11-0) rolled its winning streak to 11 matches with steady improvement as the match wore on against the Dolphins. It matches Tennessee's best start to a season in NCAA volleyball; the Vols also went 11-0 to open 1986.
Tennessee plays host Charleston to conclude the tournament at 7 p.m.
Juniors Bri Holmes and Raina Hembry led Tennessee with 12 kills each, with Hembry also recording seven blocks. Senior Lexi Dempsey scored her fifth double-double of the season with 44 assists and 12 digs.
Coming off the bench, sophomore middle blocker Stephanie Buss had 9 kills while hitting .533.
"We did not come out playing our best volleyball today," Tennessee head coach Rob Patrick said. "Jacksonville took advantage of our sluggish play. We inserted Stephanie Buss into the match, and she gave us a great spark today, especially offensively.
"One thing that really kept us in the game was playing efficiently with low errors. Our hitters played a pretty clean game."
Jacksonville jumped out to an 8-2 lead to open the set and never trailed from there. The Dolphins took advantage of Tennessee's low-percentage hitting to start. Jacksonville hit .333 in the set. Tennessee warmed up as the set wore on to hit .229.
The Vols kept improving in the second set. Hembry recorded a kill to put UT up 4-3 and start a 4-0 run to keep the Vols ahead for good. Buss put away a winner on set point to take Tennessee to halftime with the second set, 25-20.
Buss helped Tennessee close out the third set, recording four kills as the Vols finished the set on a 7-1 run. Buss broke an 18-18 tie with a kill off an assist by Dempsey. The Vols won the next five points off Brooke Schumacher's serve.
The Vols broke away in the fourth set on a 12-1 run. An ace by Bridgette Villano put Tennessee up 18-6.
Tennessee recorded a season-best eight aces as a team. Villano had three and Treiber had two, a career best.
The Vols were out-dug for the first time all season, 77 to 69. Mayara Prestes led the Dolphins with 28 digs. Villano had 18 digs to pace the Vols, and Kanisha Jimenez added 14.
"We didn't play our best defensive game, but I thought our servers did a good job keeping Jacksonville off-balance," Patrick said.
