No. 22 Tennessee volleyball did not drop a set all weekend, sweeping all nine across three matches in the Tennessee Tournament. Saturday’s doubleheader, at Food City Center, gave head coach Eve Rackham Watt a real look at her group in different spots, and the Lady Vols answered by handling Morehead State and Fairfield, three sets each.
Game 1: Tennessee def. Morehead State 3-0 (25-16, 25-18, 25-12)
Kennedi Rogers sat this one out, and it did not matter. Morgan Williams carried the outside with 12 kills and Maggie Dostic added 10 kills and 12 points. Williams did her early damage in the first set with 6 kills, and Tennessee overpowered the Eagles at the net with Jolene Oddo and three-time AVCA All-American Caroline Kerr up front alongside Dostic, who hit .444 in the first set. Chelsea Sutton chipped in three quick kills and the Lady Vols took it 25-16.
Dostic opened the second with three straight from the service line for an 8-3 lead. Morehead State fought back to tie it at 14, then Tennessee pulled away 25-18. Freshman Mallory Matheny handled the middle and gave Kerr a breather. The third set was a runaway. Sydney Jaynes ripped off a 15-0 run from the line. Jalyn Stout took over with 4 kills in the stretch and Camille Perry added a couple more. Kerr ran the offense with 21 assists and Raegan Burns anchored the back row with 11 digs.
Game 2: Tennessee def. Fairfield 3-0 (27-25, 25-23, 25-12)
Fairfield made this one hard in front of a crowd of 6,687 fans. Tennessee jumped out 12-3 in the first behind two Sydney Jaynes aces and a sharp mix of power and offspeed kills, but the Stags would not go away. They tied it at 24 and again at 25 before Annie Tang broke the tie with a kill and a Mamie Krubally attack error closed the set 27-25.
Fairfield carried it into the second and led 13-8 before Tennessee settled in. Rogers sparked the comeback, a Dostic ace tied it at 13 and the Lady Vols pushed ahead 20-16. Fairfield tied it again at 22, but Tennessee closed it out 25-23 on Rogers’ 15th kill of the match. The third set was all Lady Vols, 25-12. Rogers finished with 21 kills, tying her career-high, with 10 digs and three blocks.
Stout added nine kills and seven digs, Oddo chipped in eight kills and two blocks and Burns tied Rogers for the team lead with 10 digs, her third straight double-digit dig outing to open the year. Tennessee finished the night with 46 digs and 5 blocks.
The takeaways
The depth showed up when it counted.
Three games in 24 hours is a grind, and Rackham Watt spread the load without losing anything. She rolled out different lineups, different rotations and different looks all weekend.
“It’s a bit of a double-edged sword,” Rackham Watt said. “I’m trying to balance getting some development and experience and rest. And obviously early in the season, you want your team to gel as much as you can. But I’m just not in a big hurry to get set on six or seven players.”
Kennedi Rogers went to another level against Fairfield.
She sat the opener and then took the second match over, 21 kills and the dagger to end the second set. When the Stags hung around, Rogers put them away.
“It’s tough when you’ve got three games in 24 hours,” Rackham Watt said. “I think she just went to a different level tonight, which she’s totally capable of doing. We’ve seen it many times. She’s just a true point scorer.”
Fairfield tested them, and the defense answered.
The Stags pushed Tennessee to the wire in the first two sets before the Lady Vols blew it open in the third.
“I was really glad that we were in that situation,” Rackham Watt said. “Obviously you would love to win matches easily all the time, but it doesn’t go that way, and you need your team to be tested.”
The third set was heavily influenced by the Lady Vols’ defense.
“Once we started putting pressure on Fairfield from a floor defense standpoint, they started to make some errors,” Rackham Watt said.
The relentless defense from Tennessee kept Fairfield at bay during the last set.
“I just think the floor defense was really what steadied us and forced Fairfield to do some stuff that they didn’t wanna do,” Rackham Watt said.
Caroline Kerr ran the show all day.
The three-time AVCA All-American set the table across both matches, totaling 62 assists on the day while keeping the offense fed through every lineup change Rackham Watt threw out there.
The middle blocker position is stacked.
Rackham Watt could not say enough about her middles, especially the young ones. Oddo and Perry made plays off the bench and Tang earned a start against Fairfield.
“I just think we have one of the best collections of middle blockers in the country, so I really feel confident about putting any one of them in a game,” Rackham Watt said. “They all do something a little bit different. Got a couple of young ones, but they’re super talented. They’re fearless.”
On Tang specifically: “I thought Annie did a good job. Annie earned the start,” Rackham Watt said. “She is a really good young middle blocker.”
Tennessee stays home, hosting Illinois on Sept. 1 as part of the inaugural 2026 Big Ten/SEC Volleyball Challenge Week. First serve is set for 7 p.m. on SEC Network.
