Tennessee Uses Strong Defense to Defeat Marshall 3-0

Friday, September 15

Knoxville

7:00 PM

University of Tennessee

5-2

Marshall

3-10

Marshall

Tennessee

September 15, 2017 | Volleyball

Box Score

Box Score (PDF)

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – A strong defensive effort was the point of emphasis for Tennessee in its 3-0 (25-11, 25-11, 26-24) win in the Rocky Top Invitational over the Thundering Herd of Marshall University in front of a fired-up crowd Friday at Thompson-Boling Area.

Kendra Turner guided Tennessee with a hitting percentage of .409, racking up 12 kills on her 22 attacks and scoring 12 points for the Vols, who had just 13 errors for the match.

Marshall finished the match with 112 total attacks -- 29 of those being errors -- and a hitting percentage of -.054.

Tennessee took the opening set 25-11 behind the hot hands of Kanisha Jimenez, who scored three points and had a hitting percentage of .600. The Vols had just three errors in the opening set.

The second set was much like the first, as the Big Orange continued to play smart volleyball while Marshall continued to make unforced errors. The Herd had 13 errors in the second set, while Tennessee had just one error in that frame.

In the third set, Tennessee got out to a slower start but after head coach Rob Patrick called a timeout with Marshall leading 9-4, the Vols scored the next eight points behind the serve of Brooke Schumacher to take a 12-9 lead.

The set would go back-and-forth from that point on, as no one wanted to give in until the will of the Lady Vols took over when a kill by Erica Treiber set up the match point and freshman Madison Coulter recorded her second kill of the night to put the match away as Tennessee pulled it out 26-24.

Tennessee will be back in action on Saturday, when they take on USC Upstate at 10 a.m. to start the second day of the Rocky Top Invitational and finish out non-conference play at 7 p.m. when the take on the Paladins of Furman University.

Match Quotes
(On playing after two weeks off)
"Very happy about the way we came out, and ready to play. I was really happy with our focus and energy at the beginning of the match. I warned them in the third set, that part of the reason that we are winning and playing well is Marshall just made a lot of unforced errors."

(On the play of offense)
"Our outside hitters did a really good job. I was real happy with Breana Jeter and Kendra Turner, in turns of being able to get kills, along with Erica Treiber. I thought our setters did a very good job with distributing the ball. We had four hitters within four or five sets of each other. Brooke was her steady self again with over four digs per set again."

Match Notes
Sophomore Sedona Hansen and freshman Callie Williams each made it seven straight matches with double-digit assists.