The first stop of the West Coast road swing didn’t go Tennessee’s way, and the Lady Vols will seek to salvage the trip with a stop in Northern California to play Stanford.

That game is set for Wednesday, Dec. 3, with a tip time of 9:15 p.m. Eastern at Maples Pavilion. The matchup will be broadcast on ESPN2 as part of the two-day women’s and men’s basketball ACC-SEC Challenge this week. Stanford is not in the top 25 but is receiving votes and has started the season 8-1.

The first game came against No. 4 UCLA in Southern California and resulted in a 99-77 loss on Sunday in a contest that was close at halftime and then slipped away for No. 19 Tennessee in the third quarter.

“Our goal this year was to be better in the SEC, and we didn’t play anyone last year to help us do that, and we didn’t learn these lessons until we got into SEC play,” Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell said. “We’re learning them now. If our team will watch the film and make the adjustments, then we’ll be ready by the time we get in the thick of it.”

It’s been a learning process for a blended team of eight newcomers and five returners, and the offense and defense have yet to click at the same time. The defense against the Bruins failed to materialize, a fatal error against a team that shoots 50.9 percent overall from the field with five starters averaging double digits in scoring.

“This was the first time I’d seen our defense be that bad,” Caldwell said.

Overall, that is an accurate assessment as the team press didn’t slow down UCLA at all. Some individual efforts were noteworthy, however, including a steal-and-score by freshman Deniya Prawl and the block shown below by junior Alyssa Latham.

Janiah Barker led Tennessee, 5-2, with 25 points against her former team and received a warm welcome from the Bruin fans. The encounter with UCLA coach Cori Close in the post-game handshake line caused a pearl-clutching internet kerfuffle as, after the hand contact, Barker pulled her arm back. Both coach and player said afterwards they have nothing but respect for each other.

Barker, the Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year last season at UCLA, has established a major role at Tennessee and leads the team in scoring at 16.6 points per game.

“She was efficient,” Caldwell said. “It was good to see that out of her. She needed to bring some people with her.”

The Lady Vols can seek the slipstream against Stanford, which may be a must-win matchup to stay in the AP Top 25. Falling out of it is not that unusual as both Duke and NC State started the season in the top 10 and are now unranked. Climbing back into it does become difficult, so it’s best to hold steady and seek to climb.

The team visited former Lady Vol Candace Parker while in Los Angeles, and Parker and her family attended the game as did former Lady Vol Rae Burrell, who now plays for the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA.

“Beautiful house, beautiful dogs, beautiful kids, very thankful for her opening up her house to us before this game and having some hospitality, and also getting some wisdom from a legend as well,” Barker said. “It was fun. Shoutout to Candace for that.”

VOLLEYBALL

The Lady Vols will start the NCAA tourney in Tempe, Arizona, with a match against Utah State on Thursday, Dec. 4, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern. No. 2 seed Arizona State will host the opening rounds and play Coppin State. The winners will meet Friday, Dec. 5, at 8 p.m.

Tennessee, 20-7, which earned a No. 7 seed, will play in its 20th NCAA tourney and fifth in a row. Utah State, 23-7 won the Mountain West Tournament and regular season championships to earn an automatic berth. The full NCAA tourney bracket is available HERE.

Five SEC teams received bids for the 2025 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship, including Kentucky and Texas, which both earned No. 1 seeds, No. 3 seed Texas A&M and Florida, which like Tennessee, secured an at-large bid.

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.