Tennessee volleyball falls to Arkansas in SEC opener
In its first SEC match of the season, Tennessee volleyball fell to Arkansas 3-0 on the road.
On Wednesday night, Tennessee (7-2, 0-0 SEC) opened SEC play on the road with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-19, 25-21) loss to Arkansas. With the loss, the Lady Vols are now 7-2 on the season and 0-1 in SEC play.
Kendra Turner led Tennessee with 10 kills while Tessa Grubbs trailed right behind her with eight kills and a hitting percentage of .538. The eight kills is a season-high for Grubbs. Tennessee couldn’t stop Pilar Victoria of the Razorbacks (10-2, 1-0 SEC), who dominated the court with 17 total kills.
Tennessee trailed Arkansas the entire first set as the Razorbacks won 25-17. Turner had three kills for the Vols, while Grubbs and Breana Jeter had two of their own.
During the second set, Tennessee trailed the Razorbacks 17-11 at one point, but slowly caught up. That is, until the Razorbacks dominated the second half of the set as they went on to win it 25-19. Turner and Kanisha Jimenez led the team with kills in the second set, and Tennessee finished with a total of 11 kills.
Tennessee opened up the third set looking like themselves, as they scored the first points and took a 5-3 lead. The Razorbacks quickly came back and the two teams went back-and-forth for the majority of the set. After the Razorbacks fourth match point opportunity, Arkansas took the win in the third set, 25-21.
In the match, the Lady Vols hit .206 and had 35 kills. Arkansas had 49 kills on 110 attacks. Tennessee’s Sedona Hansen and Callie Williams posted their 10th matches with at least 10 assists.
Tennessee will be back in action this Sunday, as the Lady Vols take on Mississippi State (9-6) at 1:30 p.m. ET in Thompson-Boling Arena.
Edited by Ben McKee.
Feature image courtesy of UT Sports.
