KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. RV/23/24 Tennessee softball continues an action-packed week with outings against Illinois State on Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET, and a solo matchup with UT-Martin on Thursday at 5 p.m., to kickstart UT’s slate at the four-day Tennessee Invitational at Sherri Parker Lee.

The Lady Vols are coming off a pair of decisive wins against Ohio where they outhit the Bobcats 20-7 including combining for six homers. UT

Tennessee Invitational Schedule
Game     Date                           Time (ET)     Match Up

Game 1*  Wednesday, 2/24       5:00pm         Tennessee vs Illinois State

Game 2  Thursday, 2/25            2:30pm          UT-Martin  vs Illinois State

Game 3  Thursday, 2/25            5:00pm          Tennessee  vs UT-Martin

Game 4  Friday, 2/26                 10:00am        N. Kentucky vs Central Michigan

Game 5  Friday, 2/26                 12:30pm        Illinois State  vs UT-Martin

Game 6  Friday, 2/26                  3:00pm         Illinois State  vs N. Kentucky

Game 7  Saturday, 2/27             10:00am        N. Kentucky  vs UT-Martin

Game 8  Saturday, 2/27             12:30pm        Tennessee   vs N. Kentucky

Game 9  Saturday, 2/27             3:00pm          Tennessee  vs C. Michigan

Game 10  Saturday, 2/27           5:30pm          Illinois St.  vs N. Kentucky

Game 11Sunday, 2/28               9:30am           C. Michigan  vs N. Kentucky

Game 12Sunday, 2/28               12:00pm        Tennessee  vs C. Michigan

*- Not a part of the Tennessee Invitational

Broadcast Information
All contests that include Tennessee will be broadcast on the SECN+, except for Wednesday’s solo matchup with Illinois State. Thursday’s outing will be called by Michael Wottreng (PxP). Saturday’s games will be covered by Madison Shipman (Analysis) and Will Boling (PxP) and Sunday’s contest will pair up Shipman and Wottreng.

Fans can also listen to the action, for Lady Vols games only, online at UTsports.com by clicking the listen link on the schedule page or by downloading the Tennessee Gameday App, with Brian Rice calling all of the action.

Live stats will be available for all games.

Quick Hits
BOMB-tastic Offense
Through eight games the Lady Vols’ power at the plate has proven to be potent. UT ranks 10th in the nation in home runs per game (2.12); fourth in the SEC. The Tennessee offense has combined for four homers in two games so far this season (Game 1 vs EKU, Feb. 14 & Game 1 vs Ohio, Feb. 22), which ties for seventh in program history for combined homers in a game. That mark has only been reached 17 times in UT annals, including the two this season. Graduate senior Cailin Hannon and sophomore Kiki Milloy co-lead the Lady Vols with four homers each, which ties for 16th in the country. For Hannon, it is a noteworthy accomplishment as the outfielder combined for five home runs through her first four seasons (2017-2020) on Rocky Top.

Hit Makers
UT’s bats have been the loudest in the conversation including during its most recent doubleheader against Ohio (Feb. 22). The Lady Vols outhit the Bobcats 20-7 during the twin bill that resulted in a 7-1 victory and an 11-2, five-inning W. The Orange and White is slugging a .646 mark, which ranks third in the SEC and 15th in the nation. The Lady Vol are more than doubling their opponents in total hits, 60-29 with a season-high 14-hit showing against Ohio in game 2.

Poison Ivy
Transfer senior Ivy Davis has undoubtedly engendered some tension in the circle, batting a team-high .471 clip. The Huntington Beach, Calif., native had recorded eight hits, seven of which have been for extra bases. In addition to her three yard balls, Davis has added four doubles to the ledger which is the 12th most in the nation. She also holds a 1.235 slugging percentage, which ranks sixth in the league. The dynamic shortstop has also been perfect in fielding (1.000) in arguably the most difficult defensive spot on the field.

Fielding Finesse
The Lady Vols defense paces the SEC and ranks 14th nationally in fielding percentage (.990). Twelve members of the UT squad remain perfect in fielding through the opening eight games with just two errors committed so far. Tennessee opened the season as one of the best defenses in the nation after turning 17 doubles (0.74 dpg) which topped the SEC and was No. 2 nationally. UT has turned a trio of double plays so far this season. Redshirt senior Chelsea Seggern opted to return for her extra year granted by the NCAA, benefiting both sides of the ball for UT. Seggern helped turn 14 of the 17 doubles.

SCOUTING REPORT
Illinois State
2021 record: 1-1, 0-0 MVC
Series record: Tennessee leads 7-0
Last outing: No. 9 Tennessee downed the Redbirds seven-inning shutout, 6-0 in Knoxville on March 10, 2015.
Key player/stat: The Redbirds started the 2021 season with a shutout win over North Florida, led by senior pitcher Morgan Day who finished the day with 12 strikeouts. Day’s shutout win of the Ospreys marks the 12th of her career, as the right-hander gave up just one hit while allowing a trio of walks. Traveling to Jacksonville, Fla. for the River City Leadoff, the Redbirds fell to Clemson in a Tigers shutout win, 11-0.

UT-Martin
2021 record: 4-0, 0-0 OVC
Series record: Tennessee leads 1-0
Last outing: No. 20 Tennessee defeated the Skyhawks with a walk-off run, 3-2 in Knoxville on Feb. 25, 2020.
Key player/stat: The Skyhawks started their season with doubleheader sweeps against Evansville and Alabama A&M at the Black and Gold Tournament. Freshman Kaci Fuller led the Skyhawks’ offensive momentum, going 7-for-8 with a double, two RBI’s and three stolen bases. The UT-Martin squad had a team batting average of .448 on the day, with six extra base hits and 14 RBIs. Pitchers Alexis Groet, Seeley Layne and Erin Gallagher combined for 19 strikeouts.

Central Michigan
2020 record: 6-13, 0-0 MAC
Series record: Never played each other before
Key player/stat: The Chippewas return lead hitters in sophomore Gisele Acuña (.304) and senior Tala Dean (.302) who combined for 30 hits. CMU in total boasts 12 returners, but lost a big-time pinch hitter in Bella Robles who recorded eight hits in nine appearances and held a .421 hitting average.

Northern Kentucky
2020 record: 9-10, 0-0 HL
Series record: Tennessee leads 1-0
Last outing: A 15th ranked Tennessee notched a win over Northern Kentucky at the KSU Classic, 15-2 on Feb. 8, 2015.
Key player/stat: Last season, Northern Kentucky recorded 124 hits for 57 RBIs, 11 doubles, two triples and 12 home runs, collectively hitting only .239. They led the Horizon League in combined ERA (2.78), but lost ace Taylor Ginther who led the conference with a 1.67 average.

-UT Athletics

KNOXVILLE,  Tenn. — Tennessee women’s basketball head coach Kellie Harper took questions from the media on Tuesday in a Zoom interview session that covered the Lady Vols’ upcoming games at Missouri (8-9/4-8 SEC) on Thursday and vs. Auburn (5-15, 0-12 SEC) for Sunday’s Senior Day game.

This week’s contests close out the regular season for #20/21 UT (13-6, 7-4 SEC), with the SEC Tournament in Greenville, S.C., to follow on March 3-7 at Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

Tennessee Head Coach Kellie Harper

On what Missouri does well and what they have to be ready for on Thursday:
“Obviously, Missouri’s offense relies heavily on their ability to shoot the basketball, and their spacing is great. The other thing you can always count on, and I think you see it, they improve in this area all year in that they are really intelligent. So, whatever defensive game plan they have, they will execute it. And they can give you a variety of looks, because their kids are pretty savvy. They’re also really tough. They’re just tough, and they are going to make hustle plays all night. They’re going to know what they need to do to be successful. So, I think matchup-wise, they can pose some problems, because they can play five perimeter players.”

On how Rennia Davis has performed the last two games:
“Well, Rennia was able to, in our South Carolina game, be a go-to player in that second half. We got her the basketball. She was feeling good, knocking down shots, making plays. (She) really got us back ahead and pushed us over the top. At Georgia, when we were stagnant early, she was one of the players actually making some shots. It wasn’t easy. People were keying in on her and trying to make things tough for her, but I love to see that she is still able to find ways to be successful and be productive.”

On how much she focuses on the assist to turnover statistic and if she thinks it helps determine the outcome of a game, considering the assist to turnover ratio was 3 to 20 against Georgia:
“Well, you don’t want to see that number. Obviously, I think that’s a number that doesn’t scream success. That’s how Georgia plays, and they take you out of assists a lot of times and make you play one on one. And they’re a tough matchup for us because they do have good size and a physicality in the paint, but their guards just get down and guard. They are really good defensively, and obviously, that caused problems for us. To start the game, we had some opportunities to knock down some easy shots, and we just missed them; they rimmed out. You’ve got to be able to find ways to be productive. And as poorly as we played, we still had a chance at the end. I don’t want to discredit what Georgia did though, because I think their game plan was really solid.”

On what the seniors have meant to her:
“I group them in a couple different categories. Obviously, with Jaiden (McCoy), we brought her in and due to injuries, it’s been unfortunate that she’s not been able to be on the court as much as we had hoped. For Kasi (Kushkituah) and Rennia (Davis), just to see their growth in the small time that we had them has been really fun. I love all three of them, and I think they all have different personalities. They’ve been fun to be around, and I’m proud of where they have helped this team go. If you’re missing that senior leadership and missing that senior experience really pulling strongly, it’s a big piece, and obviously, that’s been really important to our team.”

On Keyen Green’s status for the rest of the season and eligibly moving forward:
“Obviously, with COVID and extra years, there are so many variables right now. We don’t want to make decisions about those types of things until after the season is over, except for Keyen. She’s in a different position. We knew she wasn’t going to have another opportunity to play this year, so we’ve had those discussions. As of right now, we are excited because she plans to come back next year.”

On what she expects her team to fix in the last two regular season games of the year heading into the SEC Tournament:
“We are hoping for good weather, good travel, and an opportunity to practice. I think that is as important for us right now as anything. We are excited about taking the court today and trying to really work on Tennessee rather than another team. I really feel like we’ve been focused on our opponents for the last couple weeks more so than us, so I’m excited we’ll get to work on us. Then, we’ll turn to Missouri tomorrow. What I’d like to see is for us to clean up some of the things that we need to do, some of the things we’ve gotten away from in the couple weeks that could make us a better basketball team if we can get a little more consistent. Some of that is on the defensive end, and some of it is on the offensive end. Before you go to the tournament, you want to make sure you’re cleaning up anything. You want to make sure if there is something that really stands out, that you’re working on that. At some point, between now and the tournament, we’ve got to worry about Missouri and Auburn. But before the tournament, you want to go through everything you’ve got in your arsenal. You want to review every defense you have, every offensive play, every thought you could possibly have, because you go over to Greenville and to the SEC tournament, you’ve got to pull out all the stops. You have to make sure your team is ready.”

On how Tamari Key can avoid fouls called against her and how those calls affect her play:
“I think early on this season, you could see her having some frustration fouls. Now, I think she’s learned that her worth is greater than maybe a cheap foul. She’s really worked on that. I think it’s an area that we need to emphasize. We can’t control everything, so we can’t control what is called and what’s not called. What we can control is our actions and trying to keep ourselves as clean as possible, in terms of foul trouble. We have to be able to control that, whatever is called, we can play out of it and not let frustration set in.”

On whether Coach Harper can tell before a game if her team is ready to play:
“No, but let me back up let me actually answer that. I usually have a pretty good idea, and this year I have felt like we have been ready to play just about every game. I did feel like our practice on Saturday was not great leading up to our Georgia game. We usually have really good practices, but I thought that Saturday practice was not one of those good ones. I thought that hurt us a little bit and then the fact that we didn’t get a shoot-around (Sunday morning) because of a noon game and four-and-a-half-hour bus ride. There was not a whole lot going in our favor going into this weekend, so as a Coach I am trying to figure out the right balance of moving on from this game versus learning from this game and figuring out what we need to be better at.”

On what she thinks about the team’s destiny, regarding SEC Tournament standings, being in their own hands going into this last week of regular season play:
“Yeah, so I think that is going to be something that we talk about today at practice. We were off yesterday, and that will be an area that we want to make sure we all understand what that means. Sometimes you can talk about it, but players don’t understand what that actually means. So we will be very specific about that, and you know one of the things I have talked to them about in the past is you want to be in a position to have some control. And when you are in a situation where hoping certain teams win so that the seeding falls a certain way it is just not a good place to be in. It does not feel good when you are hoping something else happens that you literally have no control over. So I think that we have to focus on what we can control while understanding the big picture but also take practice today and be the best we can be today. We have got to find a way to get better today, and then tomorrow we have to be prepared to play Missouri on Thursday, so I think every day there is a goal within the big picture.”

On how Coach Harper expects her point guards to bounce back on Thursday and how much she is putting a focus on getting point guard play back to the standard she expects:
“Well, the one thing that I will go back to is that all season long our team has bounced back. And I have been really proud of not just those particular players, but everybody has really bounced back after a loss. I think this one was pretty frustrating at Georgia, and I think this one is gonna be a big challenge for our team to bounce back from. So we will find out pretty quick what state of mind they are in. It’s not anything that we have to do differently, it’s literally going out and doing the things we have done all season long. For us, it is not an overly complicated game plan to just watch our team play and see where we are at. Like I said, I think the practice will be good for a lot of players and continue to give us confidence about what we need to do.”

-UT Athletics

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee forward Rennia Davis was named SEC Women’s Basketball Player of the Week on Tuesday, marking the second time this season and sixth time in her career she has earned that distinction.

That’s the most career player of the week honors by any active league women’s basketball student-athlete and ties her with Chelsea Dungee of Arkansas and Aliyah Boston of South Carolina for most POTW accolades this season.

Davis averaged 23.0 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.0 assists last week, posting back-to-back 20-point scoring efforts and running her string to three consecutive games with 20 points or more. The 6-foot-2 senior shot 44.8 percent from the field, including 44.4 percent on threes, and was 16 of 18 from the free-throw line for 88.9 percent in games vs. #2/3 South Carolina and #22/23 Georgia.

Davis fired in a game-high 24 points and recorded her seventh double-double of the season with 12 rebounds as the Lady Vols beat the highest ranked team since 2017 in the 75-67 defeat of the Gamecocks. The victory snapped a 31-game SEC winning streak by South Carolina. The double-double tied Davis for fourth all-time in school history, with her 36 career efforts matching Glory Johnson. In that contest, vs. USC, Davis fired in all 24 of her points in the second half, going 6 of 8 from the field and 10 of 10 from the charity stripe as UT erased deficits of 16 in the second quarter, 12 at the half and 15 in the third quarter. Davis posted 11 of her points in the final stanza, nearly outscoring the Gamecocks’ 13 all by herself.

Against Georgia, Davis again led the UT charge, knocking down 23 and pulling down six boards in a tightly-contested affair. Ten of her points came in the second half, with eight part of UT’s fourth-quarter comeback that came up just short against perhaps the league’s top defensive team.

Davis is now averaging 19.1 ppg. and 9.3 rpg. vs. SEC foes and 20.3 ppg. and 11.8 rpg. against ranked teams after last week’s contests.

The Lady Vols are back in action on Thursday, as they travel to Missouri to face the Tigers at 8 p.m. ET (7 CT) in a contest streamed on SECN+.

-UT Athletics