The Lady Vols will depart Tennessee later this week for a two-game swing on the West Coast after ending the November home slate with a record-breaking performance at the arc by Nya Robertson and claiming their fifth win in a row.

Robertson, a senior guard who transferred from SMU and was signed to be a three-level scorer – in the paint, mid-range and at the arc – did her work Sunday from the three-point line with 10 makes to break the program record set just last season by then-senior guard Samara Spencer, who connected on nine shots from long range.

“I was really excited for Nya,” Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell said. “It was really even better to see how her teammates celebrated her, were hunting to get her the ball at the end, celebrated her with a little water shower in the locker room and that was just good sportsmanship by her team.”

Robertson finished with 32 points – she made a layup to account for the other bucket – and was rendered almost speechless after the game, an 88-35 win for Tennessee over Coppin State. It also was the 1,500th win in Lady Vols program history with Tennessee up 150 on the closest competitors, which include UConn, Stanford, James Madison and Texas.

Tennessee compiled a video of all 10 makes that can be watched below.

“I think it was maybe like the seventh or eighth shot, I swear I was feeling chills down my body,” Robertson said.

Robertson had to be the primary scorer for the Mustangs and shoot a lot, so the coaching staff had to reprogram the guard’s approach to the game in Caldwell’s system. She signed Robertson to add a scoring threat to the lineup and another guard who could play that fast-paced system on both ends.

“I didn’t expect quite like this … It was great,” Caldwell said during the post-game presser that can be watched HERE. “We have been on her. I have probably coached her just as hard as anyone about her shot selection. Her shot selection the last two games has been really good. I don’t think she took any shots off the bounce. Maybe one little bounce. I could be wrong about that. I’ll have to go back and look.

“Everything else she was moving and creating her own shot by moving on the three-point line, which is what we want out of her, and her teammates did a really good job finding her.”

Zee Spearman and Nya Robertson celebrate during the Coppin State game. (Elliot Walker/ Tennessee Athletics)

Tennessee is now 5-1 on the season and will land in California the day after Thanksgiving to get ready to play at UCLA on Sunday, Nov. 30, and Stanford on Wednesday, Dec. 3, before returning to Tennessee. Both teams have started the season undefeated.

Caldwell is used to her teams struggling in November and while she has seen some improvement in the last two games, it’s not up to her standard, especially on defense, and she called a quick timeout in the first quarter.

“It was just lackadaisical,” she said. “We thought they were going to miss shots. I still think we could’ve done better throughout the entire game. When you look at the stat line, our defense doesn’t look as bad as it felt to me.”

Caldwell, who coached at Glenville State and Marshall in her home state of West Virginia, would always tell her family, including her grandmother, that she wasn’t in the proper mood to talk about basketball over the Thanksgiving holiday and to hold the questions until Christmas when her teams typically turned a corner. This year will be different.

“I’m spending Thanksgiving with the team, so I’m sure it’s going to come up,” Caldwell said.

The Lady Vols bench signals for made three after Nya Robertson connected from the arc. (Tennessee Athletics)

Coppin State arrived in Knoxville because when coach Darrell Mosley took the head coaching job last April, he inherited just two non-conference games on the schedule. Mosley tried to find mid-major schools to play, but their schedules were set, so the bigger schools came calling.

The Eagles have now played on the home courts of Arizona State, Ohio State, Penn State and Tennessee and will play Oklahoma and Georgia in holiday tournaments. Mosley needed the opponents, so he took the approach of creating experiences for his players, especially playing at Tennessee where the late Pat Summitt became a legend and why she mattered.

“Absolutely,” he said. “We talked about that before the game, living in the moment, knowing where we are, knowing who Pat Summitt is and the national championships she’s won. We actually went to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame as a team.

“That was good to not only learn more about Pat but the trailblazer history while we were here and wanted them to see and recognizing and pay respects to those that came before us. Even for myself as a coach, the opportunity to play on this court, Pat Summitt’s court itself, is an opportunity that you look forward to and blessed with the opportunity to be able to be here.”

Coppin State’s Paris McBride got to Nya Robertson to defend the shot, but Tennessee’s guard was electric at the arc. (Tennessee Athletics)

Paris McBride, a 5-6 senior guard from Richmond, Virginia, who snared eight rebounds on “The Summitt,” shared the same sentiment.

“You feel a whole different energy that’s out there,” McBride said. “Things like these are the moments that us as players dream of. Being on this stage and being in a gym where legends were made and created, it feels amazing.”

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 June 16, 2026.