Junior Nikki Fowler Posts 22nd Career Double-Double with 10 Kills, 10 Digs
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee volleyball team (12-5, 5-2 Southeastern Conference) finished off a perfect weekend sweep on Sunday, taking out Auburn (11-7, 3-4 SEC) in three sets, 25-23, 25-23, 25-20, in front of 777 Orange and White faithful at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville. The Lady Volunteers also helped raise over $1,000 for breast cancer awareness and research as the contest was the squad’s designated “Dig for the Cure” match.
“What a great turnout to help support such a worthy cause,” UT Head Coach Rob Patrick said. “Our crowd was awash in pink. It’s always great when volleyball can help make a difference and events like this are important in teaching our players about helping others who are in need. That’s the true Volunteer spirit.”
“Anytime we can get two SEC wins in one weekend, we are happy,” Patrick said. “There is a tremendous amount of parity in our league due to the fact that there are so many great players and coaches, so every win is as important as the next. Auburn gave us everything we could handle today, and I was proud that our team was able to withstand their best shot and recover from it to win the match in three.
“Auburn really played a great match defensively and made it difficult for us to get kills all day,” Patrick said. “I was glad to see our team work hard and find ways to score though. We shot ourselves in the foot a number of times in the first set with some unforced net and service errors that kept us from building any momentum, but we just kept fighting through our uneven play and finally started to figure out Auburn’s offensive and defensive schemes. Another thing about Auburn is that it’s extremely hard to get into a rhythm against them because of how they change their lineups between sets and make substitutional adjustments during play.”
For the fifth time this year, sophomore Kayla Jeter paced the squad in kills, tallying 12 against the Tigers on Sunday. The Solon, Ohio, native hit at a solid. 385 clip with just two errors on 26 swings, in addition to notching a pair of blocks and three digs. For the weekend, Jeter recorded a team-high 23 kills and a remarkable .477 attack average (23-2-44).
Junior Nikki Fowler also reached double-digits in kills with 10, while collecting an even 10 digs as well to account for her squad-best fourth double-double of the season and 22nd of her career. Finishing just behind her in the kills category was senior Kylie Marshall with seven putaways of her own, while hitting .333 (7-1-18). She also tied fellow classmate Chloe Goldman for the team-high with 14 digs as Goldman remains one dig shy of tying the school’s career digs record.
“The strength of our team is that we have so many different options offensively,” Patrick said. “Although Auburn did a good job defending our middles, our outside hitters were able to pick up the slack. One of the reasons we were able to keep the match close early on was that our hitters stayed away from making a lot of unforced errors.
“I was really pleased with how Kylie played today,” Patrick said. “She normally isn’t one of our main options offensively because of the fact that she plays such a large in serve reception and on defense, but we turned to her to help us score some points and she came through like a four-year veteran should.”
Auburn took control early in the opening frame, catching the Lady Vols on their heels to race out to a commanding 14-8 lead following a five-point run. A kill by Marshall halted the spree and seemed to get Tennessee back on track a little though, as it kept the score close until it could break through with a 6-1 tear that tied the score at 19-all. A pair of Fowler kills, sandwiched around a Tiger error accounted for the first three points before Auburn got one back on a putaway by Sarah Bullock.
A service error by AU libero Liz Crouch gave the ball right back to the Big Orange, however, which then blocked back-to-back attacks by Kelly Fidero and Jonelle Wallace to even the score. The two squads would continue to battle back-and-forth until UT finally broke a 23-23 deadlock with a kill by Jeter and block by Hinkey and Cikra to close out the frame.
Jeter was on fire in the second set, pounding out seven kills to lead the Orange and White to another hard-fought, 25-23 triumph. Once again, it was Auburn that took the early lead, fighting tooth-and-nail to go ahead by three at the midpoint, 15-12. At that time, however, the Lady Vols finally got on a roll, scoring six straight to turn their three-point deficit into a three-point lead.
Following an attack error by Wallace, UT turned back a pair of Tiger swings and Fowler converted on an attack from the right side to give the Big Orange its first lead of the frame. Tennessee continued to add to that advantage with an Auburn attack landing long and Cikra scoring one of her two kills on the afternoon, prompting AU Head Coach Wade Benson to burn his first timeout of the set.
The tactic worked to perfection as his squad immediately responded with four consecutive points to take a 19-18 lead on the scoreboard. That would be the last time the Tigers found themselves out in front though, as a kill from Fowler and attack error by Bullock gave the lead right back to the Big Orange. Although Sara Shanks would tie it on a setter dump, another Bullock error and kills by Jeter on two of the next three plays put UT in position to win. It would do just that three plays later as Jeter picked up another kill to end the frame.
Another battle ensued in the third set, but Tennessee emerged victorious once again, taking the frame, 25-20, and the match in straight sets. After the two squads traded the first 23 points of the frame, the Lady Vol defense took control as an ace by junior Emily Steinbeck and three straight blocks put them up for good at 15-12.
The Big Orange continued to keep Auburn at bay, but could never really pull away, eventually finding itself up just two at 22-20. A timeout by Patrick got the squad back on track though and a pair of kills by Fowler and a Tiger attack error marked the conclusion of the match.
Tennessee will hit the road once again next weekend as it is slated to take on Alabama at 7 p.m. CT in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Friday, Oct. 16 and Mississippi State at 1:30 p.m. two days later in Starkville, Miss. From there, the Lady Vols will make a brief return to Knoxville before making the trek up I-75 for a 7 p.m. showdown against No. 10 Kentucky in Lexington, Ky., on Wednesday, Oct. 21. That match will be televised live on ESPNU.
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