The Lady Vols, ranked No. 23 in the country, won the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate at Cherokee Country Club golf tournament among 15 college teams in Knoxville that included Oregon State, Penn State and several in-state schools, along with programs across the southeast.

Tennessee shot 11-under – Oregon State was nine strokes back – in the final round Tuesday to seize the first tournament crown in the Diana Cantú era and the first in program history since 2019.

Senior Manassanan Chotikabhukkana led the Lady Vols by shooting 4-under through 54 holes for a third-place individual finish. Freshman Madison Messimer and Thitikarn Thapasit, who shot 66 in the first round, tied for ninth place at 2-under overall.

The golf team’s social media noted that “playing at home means getting to play in front of these Lady Vol legends.” The legends in this case are Joan Cronan, women’s athletics director emeritus, and Ann Baker Furrow, who played golf at Tennessee on the men’s team – the women’s team didn’t exist – and was instrumental, along with Cronan, of later establishing a Lady Vols golf program.

Tennessee will head west for its next tournament, the Stanford Intercollegiate in Palo Alto, California, which will be held Oct. 17 -19.

SOCCER

The Lady Vols and the Sooners played to a 0-0 draw in Norman on Thursday night with three saves each by goalkeepers Cayden Norris of Tennessee and Caroline Duffy of Oklahoma.

Tennessee, ranked No. 4 in the country, is now 11-1-2 overall and 5-1-2 in the SEC. Arkansas, Tennessee and South Carolina remained bunched at the top of the SEC standings with the Razorbacks in the lead by one point. The Lady Vols could have used a goal against Oklahoma, but the Sooners kept the sheet clean.

Tennessee was playing its second road game after a 4-1 win over Ole Miss last Sunday.

The Lady Vols will be back home to take on Florida on Thursday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. at Regal Soccer Stadium.

Norris is one of 35 NCAA Division I soccer players named to the 2025 Hermann Trophy Midseason Watchlist.  Her nine clean sheets on the season leads the SEC, and Tennessee’s .769 shutout percentage is the second-best in the NCAA.

The Hermann Trophy is presented annually by the Missouri Athletic Club and is the highest individual honor recognizing the National Player of the Year as determined by voting of Division I head coaches.

VOLLEYBALL

The volleyball team earned a national ranking of No. 17 with an 11-match winning streak that came to an end Wednesday evening at Texas. However, the Lady Vols took the match to five sets in Austin and became the first SEC team so far this season to not get swept in three sets by the Longhorns.

Texas, No. 2 in the country and 13-0 overall, has lost only seven sets all seasons with two coming against Tennessee.

Hayden Kubik led Tennessee with 15 kills and 15 digs for her second consecutive double-double and third in conference play. Mackenzie Plante and Paityn Chapman posted 14 and 13 kills, respectively.

Caroline Kerr notched 36 assists and 10 digs for her fourth double-double in SEC play. She is the reigning SEC Setter of the Week – her second nod this season and fifth of her career – and can make a case to keep it every time she steps on the court.

Tennessee is now 12-2 overall and 3-1 in the SEC.

The Lady Vols won a thriller Oct. 3 at LSU after dropping the first two sets and winning the final three to start the three-match road trip. Tennessee will play at Ole Miss this Sunday, October 12, at 3 p.m. Eastern.

Tennessee will finally return home to host Florida in Knoxville on Wednesday, October 15, at 7 p.m. at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center for the orange-out promotion. That match will be broadcast on the SEC Network.

BASKETBALL

The game times and TV networks have been released for Lady Vols basketball with tipoff ranging from 10:30 a.m. in New York to 9:15 p.m. on the West Coast.

The first game is the Oct. 29 exhibition against Columbus State at 6:30 p.m. at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.

The regular season opener is in Greensboro, North Carolina, against NC State in what is being called the Ro Greensboro Invitational. Tip time for the Nov. 4 game is 4 p.m. Eastern with the broadcast on ESPN2. It’s a Tuesday and part of all-day coverage of the official start of women’s basketball. It’s not exactly a fan-friendly trip for working folks, but TV sets the time.

The schedule can be viewed HERE online with a PDF version HERE.

The only time not set yet is the Nov. 20 game against Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

Given the range of tip times, keep a schedule handy to keep up this season.

Maria M. Cornelius, a senior writer/editor at MoxCar Marketing + Communications since 2013, started her journalism career at the Knoxville News Sentinel and began writing about the Lady Vols in 1998. In 2016, she published her first book, “The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt,” through The University of Tennessee Press and a 10th anniversary edition will be released in 2026.