UT teams score sweep

Freshman Kelsey Floyd swam like a veteran for the Tennessee Lady Vols on Friday afternoon.

Floyd, the SEC female freshman of the week, won two events in UT's 179-121 victory over South Carolina at Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center.

Jones barely beat teammate Jenny Connolly in the 200 fly with a time of 2 minutes, 1.32 seconds. Connolly touched at 2:01.47. Jones also won the 200 back in 1:59.25, missing an NCAA 'B' cut by one one-hundreth of a second.

"Kelsey just keeps getting better,'' Lady Vols coach Matt Kredich said. "Kelsey, Morgan Farrell, Aleksa Akerfelds and Breanna Folk all stepped up and were really focused today. We changed it up and had different people swim different events. The team's focus was better than last week and that was our main goal."

Akerfelds won the 400 IM (4:23.28) and the 1,000 free.

Farrell earned her first collegiate win by taking the 100 back (56.50).

Folk led a sweep by Tennessee (3-1, 3-0 SEC) of the 100 breast, winning in 1:03.56.

Men's Swimming & Diving: Tennessee (4-0, 3-0 SEC) stayed perfect at the Aquatic Center by beating South Carolina 184-115.

SEC diver of the week Ryan Helms won the 1-meter springboard event in a career-best and pool-record 388.50. Helms also won the 3-meter event.

"This is the best one-meter list he has done this year and I couldn't be happier for him,'' UT diving coach Dave Parrington said.

In swimming events, Ricky Henahan stayed unbeaten in the 100 backstroke, winning the event for the fourth time this year with a time of 49.16.

Ryan Harrison dominated the 200 free, scoring his third victory of the season in the event (1:39.76).

Freshman Ed Walsh scored his first collegiate victory, winning the 100 free in 45.92.

"I have been waiting for it for the last three weeks so it was great to finally get my first win,'' Walsh said. "Now I am ready for my second win at the (Tennessee Invitational). We have been working on finishing and today it counted. The little things are starting to play off."

Fellow freshman Giles Smith also scoring his first collegiate win by taking the 100 butterfly in 49.25. Smith's time is sixth fastest in the SEC.

"Our freshmen came in as a heralded class,'' UT coach John Trembley said. "We have expected them to step up and compete and they have showed a lot of improvement."

Men's Tennis: Tennessee's John-Patrick Smith beat two top 20 opponents and advanced to the semifinals of the ITA Indoor National Championships in New Haven, Conn.

Smith scored straight-set wins over No. 16 Clay Donato of North Carolina and No. 6 Dimitar Kutrovsky of Texas. Smith faces No. 18 Steve Johnson of Southern California in the semis.

Smith and Davey Sandgren, the top-seeded doubles team, lost in the quarterfinals to Texas A&M's Jeff Dadamo and Austin Krajicek.

UT's Boris Conkic and Rhyne Williams, meanwhile, advanced to the semifinals.

Women's Tennis I: The Tennessee Lady Vols doubles team of Caitlin Whoriskey and Natalie Pluskota reached the semifinals at the ITA Indoor National Championships, beating DePaul's Anna Redecsi and Selma Salkovic, 8-6.

Whoriskey and Pluskota will play the Miami team of Gabriella Mejia and Laura Vallverdu in the semifinals.

In singles, Whoriskey was beaten by Baylor's Lenka Broosova, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6.

Women's Tennis II: Tennessee's Zsofia Zubor and Maria Sorbello both won their opening singles matches at the St. Mary's Tournament at UT's Varsity Tennis Courts.

Sorbello won in straight sets over Vanderbilt's Chelsea Preeg, 7-6, 6-2, in Flight One. Zubor needed three sets to beat Vanderbilt's Marietta Bigus, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 if Flight Four.

Zubor teamed with Rosalia Alda to beat ETSU's Yevgeniya Stupak and Kelly Hotzhausen, 8-4, in doubles.

Because of the odd numbers for UT, Sorbello teamed with Middle Tennessee State's Yuiri Nomoto to beat the ETSU doubles team of Paula Jaime and Karina Kedzo, 9-7.

Baseball: Tennessee participated in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Walk on Thursday and exceeded its fund-raising goal with $8,584. In three years of participating in the event, the Vols have raised more than $22,000 in support of research into the treatment and prevention of cancer.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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