Lady Vols add volleyball to win streak

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Led by sophomore outside hitter and Texas native Tiffany Baker, the Tennessee volleyball team extended its SEC winning streak to five matches with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 25-21) sweep at Texas A&M on Friday night at Reed Arena.

"I was really proud of the team," said UT coach Rob Patrick. "To come into Texas A&M — which has a tremendous program, is leading the Western Division and has a very well-coached program with great athletes — and play as hard as we did and defend the way we did against one of the top offensive teams in the conference … I was very pleased with that."

Junior outside hitter Kelsey Robinson became the fifth Lady Vol in program history to eclipse the 1,000 mark in career kills and digs in the match. Robinson, who posted 14 kills and nine digs, joins Tennessee greats Nikki Fowler, Kristy Dobson, Stephanie Ehlers and Sonja Thomas in the exclusive club.

"I'm really proud of Kelsey," said Patrick. "She means so much to our team both offensively, defensively, as a leader and just somebody that's passionate about the game. She has done this over and over again in her career. She definitely deserves to be in that 1,000/1,000 club."

Baker led Tennessee (14-5, 7-3 SEC) with a match-high 15 kills and a career-best .636 attacking percentage. The 6-foot-4 Carrollton, Texas, native had just one error on 22 attempts against Texas A&M (15-4, 7-3). Led by Baker, the Lady Vols hit .381 in the match, marking the squad's highest total in SEC play this season.

"Tiffany Baker had a tremendous match," said Patrick.

"She was able to hit out of the back row and the front row and did a fantastic job blocking. She played a great low-error match and was able to lead us offensively."

SEC Player of the Week Ellen Mullins stepped up once again, posting 18 digs. The junior libero has 115 digs the past five matches. Patrick said Mullins is playing at "an All-American level."