Treiber, Turner lead Vols to SEC Win Over Mississippi State

Sunday, September 24

Knoxville

1:30 PM

University of Tennessee

1-18-3 | SEC

Mississippi State

0-29-8 | SEC

Mississippi State

Tennessee

Treiber, Turner lead Vols to SEC Win Over Mississippi State

September 24, 2017 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Contributor: Tyler Goldberg, UTSports.com

Match Highlights | Photo Gallery | Box Score (PDF)

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Erica Treiber and Kendra Turner both finished with a .500 hitting percentage Sunday afternoon to give Tennessee a 3-1 (25-23, 24-26, 25-14, 25-11) win in its SEC home opener against Mississippi State at Thompson-Boiling Arena.

Treiber and Turner led the attack for Tennessee (8-3, 1-1 SEC) with 64 total attacks on the afternoon and 34 combined kills. Outside hitter Tessa Grubbs showed how much of an impact player she can be by accounting for 40 attacks and 20 kills for a .475 hitting percentage.

In the opening set, the Lady Vols got a four-point cushion with the score 16-12 and they never looked back on their way to a 25-23 opening-set win.

The Bulldogs (9-8, 0-2 SEC) went on a 6-0 run early in the set to make the score 11-9 before Tennessee went on a 3-0 run of its own to take a 14-11 lead. The set would go back and forth from that point before Mississippi State ended on a 6-4 run to take the set 26-24.

The Vols would reestablish themselves in the third set with an 11-6 run that was started with a kill by Breana Jeter. The two teams once again went back and forth until Tennessee closed out the set on a 9-4 run to win the set 25-13 when Khris Carr had an attack error.

It was all Tennessee in the fourth and final set when UT started on a 9-2 run with Treiber and freshman setter Callie Williams serving for those nine points. Grubbs had a kill to make the set score 10-5 and from there, the Vols would go on a 15-6 run to win the set 25-11 when freshman middle hitter Olivia Schwamberger got the final kill of the afternoon.

Jelena Vujcin led the Bulldogs with 15 kills on 44 attacks and Carr finished with 12 kills on 39 attacks.

Sedona Hansen recorded her third double-double of the season with 28 assists and 13 digs for the Vols in the win.

UP NEXT:
Tennessee will travel to Gainesville, Fla., to face off against the No. 3 Florida Gators. The match is slated to start at 7 p.m. on the SEC Network+ and can be seen on WatchESPN.com.

The Vols will then travel to Columbia, S.C., to take on the Gamecocks of South Carolina on Sunday at 1 p.m. That match can also be seen on the SEC Network.

HEAD COACH ROB PATRICK QUOTES:
(On fighting through a tough Mississippi State team)
"I like how we fought through some really good plays by Mississippi State and tried to get them off balance. I thought we really fought with them trying to stay in the game, but offensively they were converting at a very high rate."

(On players keeping the Lady Vols in the game)
"I was really happy with the way Madison Coulter came in and steady out our passing and serving. I thought Tessa (Grubbs) did a great job offensively along with Kendra Turner in keeping us in the game when Mississippi State was playing at a high level. Breana Jeter came in and gave us a real nice spark offensively and a couple of nice blocks in the third and fourth sets. I thought we played consistent enough, and picked up our defense to slow down there outside hitters, who were really effective in the first and second sets."

NOTES:

Hansen and Williams made it their 11^th straight match with 10 or more assists.
Hansen also ties her season high with digs (13).
Grubbs recorded her season high with in kills (20), total attacks (40), hitting percentage (.475) and total blocks (3).
Turner recorded a career-high hitting percentage (.500).
Madison Coulter recorded a new career-high hitting percentage (.400).