Having been on the road for the first three weekends of competition this season, the Lady Vols make their home debut following an unbeaten 2021 campaign at home. Tennessee (3-1) won 11 games at home, only the third time in program history with 11 home wins, it was also the fourth time in program history that the Lady Vols did not lose at residence.
Parking is located at SC40 at the Kingston Pike Building, there will be a free shuttle to take fans to and from the courts. Additional parking information is available here. There will also be free Chick-fil-As and pizza for fans (while supplies last).
For fans unable to attend, live stats will be provided by UTsports.com and can be found here. The live stream will be available through Playsight and can be found here.
LAST TIME OUT
The Big Orange fell in the ITA Kickoff Weekend Finals, 0-4, to Ohio State at the Ty Tucker Tennis Center in Columbus, Ohio. The Lady Vols had momentum on courts 4, 5 and 6, but failed to get a point before the Buckeyes clinched.
After the match, the head coach Alison Ojeda discussed how the adversity of the match showed her and the associate head coach Jarryd Chaplin exactly what they needed to work with their group during the week. A full video with Coach Ojeda’s comments can be found here.
DISCOVERING THE WOLF PACK
6 NC State (5-0) is coming off a solid weekend at ITA Kickoff Weekend, hosted by the Wolfpack. They qualified for the ITA Indoor Nationals, beating Penn State and Wake Forest, 4-0. NC State currently holds two wins over top-25 opponents by beating No. 23 Princeton and No. 10 Ohio State, 4-3. While all of Tennessee’s games have been on the road, the Wolfpack have only played at home.
NC State has three ranked singles and a pair of ranked doubles. All three singles end up in the top 25 as Jaeda Daniel tops the list at No. 8. Alana Smith is ranked at No. 24 while Abigail Rencheli is ranked at No. 25. In doubles, Daniel/Smith are the 21st– classified pairing.
THE SERIES
This is the eighth all-time meeting between Tennessee and NC State, with the Lady Vols leading the all-time series, 5-2. It’s the Wolfpack’s first trip to Knoxville since March 5, 1986, when the Lady Vols won 6-3. This match was the only meeting between the two teams on Rocky Top.
The last game was last season in Raleigh as NC State won 6-1 on Feb. 13.
18 IN A ROW
Tennessee is riding an 18-game winning streak at home that dates back to April 12, 2019 when UT beat Kentucky, 4-1.
FOLLOWING
Tennessee will be out for 15 days, but will continue their homestand as the Lady Vols host Indiana at 11 a.m. on Saturday, February 19 at the Goodfriend Tennis Center.
The game against Indiana will be the first of three this weekend as UT also hosts Bellarmine on Sunday, February 20 for a doubleheader starting at 11 a.m.
Comments are closed.