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 SEC) 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."

Seniors Chloe Goldman and Kylie Marshall and junior Leah Hinkey also stood out on the stat sheet for the Lady Vols on Sunday. A native of Monterey, Calif., Goldman notched a team-high 18 digs from her libero position, while Marshall delivered a 15-dig, four-kill, three-block performance. In the middle, Hinkey finished off a stellar weekend of play by hitting .500 with nine kills and just one error in 16 swings and blocking four Tide attacks. That effort comes just two days after she hit at a .600 clip (10-1-15) and posted three blocks in a sweep over Mississippi State.

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.

Although the short break netted the Crimson Tide a score on a solo block by Machen, the Lady Vols picked up right where they left off. Hinkey got UT back on track with a laser down the right-side line and Fowler followed with a solo block on an attack by Frazier. She then dropped consecutive hammers from the right side to force Green to burn her final timeout.

This time, her tactic was successful in halting the Orange and White's momentum, but it was too little, too late, as her squad would not get closer than three scores the rest of the way. With the scoreboard reading, 19-16, in its favor, Tennessee would effectively end the set with a 4-1 run. The first two scores came on a kill by Hinkey and a Jeter solo block, while the second pair were the result of another blast by Hinkey and a Fowler putaway. Just moments later, senior Farren Powe sent her team to the locker room with a 2-0 lead after she smashed one down the center of the court for a kill.

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.

After a pair of comfortable sets for UT, a back-and-forth battle ensued in the third frame, which included 14 tie scores and eight lead changes. Alabama took control early on, using a 6-1 run to go ahead by four at the 12-8 mark. Just three play later though, the Orange and White jumped back out in front by putting five straight tallies on the scoreboard. A service error by Mary Catherine Aune gave the ball back to the Lady Vols which then took advantage of an Alyssa Meuth attack error before Marshall slammed home a set from Mahoney. Two more Bama miscues, a ball-handling error and another attack error, finished off the spree that put UT up 14-13.

That lead would be short-lived, however, as a service error brought the frame back to a deadlock. Neither team could find any breathing room until the Crimson Tide went on a 5-1 tear to take a three-point lead at 21-18. After Fowler and Frazier traded kills, the Tennessee deficit remained at a trio of scores.

At that point, the Big Orange decided it had seen enough and rattled off six of the final seven points to win the set, 25-23, and sweep the match. The first three scores came on a putaway by Hinkey and back-to-back blasts from Fowler. Although Frazier picked up another kill to put Alabama up 23-22, she gave the point right back with a service error on the very next play. Fowler followed with another kill, as Webster was called for a blocking error, and Marshall sent one crashing to the floor from the right side to end the contest.

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.

Editor's Note: This was written and published by the University of Tennessee Sports Information Department.