Lady Vols Release 2015 Schedule

  • Friday, August 21, 2015

Tennessee released its 2015-16 women’s basketball scheduleThursdayevening, and the defending SEC co-champion Lady Vols will open the season playing their first eight regular-season games at home for the first time in school history.

Head coach Holly Warlick’s squad, which is set to debut vs. first-time opponent Central Arkansas onNov. 15, enters the campaign on a 22-game home winning streak. The Lady Vols set a program record by forging an 18-0 mark while playing on The Summitt a year ago.

Six is the previous high for consecutive home games to open a season, occurring in 1974 under Margaret Hutson as UT went 25-2 in her final campaign. The Lady Vols played their first four at home a year ago en route to a 30-6 overall record, 15-1 league mark and NCAA Elite Eight finish.

UT, which is ranked third in Charlie Crème’s “Way-Too-Early” Top 25, returns three starters and eight overall contributors from a year ago. Warlick also adds a pair of highly-touted redshirts in Diamond DeShields and Mercedes Russell, and welcomes standout freshmen Te’a Cooper and Meme Jackson into the mix.

Ten of UT’s 13 non-conference foes saw postseason duty in 2014-15. NCAA tournament teams Syracuse (Nov. 20), Chattanooga (Nov. 23), Albany (Nov. 27) and Texas (Nov. 29) come to Knoxville for consecutive appearances.The battle of the UTs will be televised nationally by ESPN at2:30 p.m.Eastern.

The Lady Vols own series advantages over Chattanooga (26-7) and Texas (23-13), but Tennessee will be seeking to turn the tables this season after dropping consecutive road contests to the Mocs (67-63) and Longhorns (72-59) a year ago.Texas went on to make the NCAA Sweet 16, while UTC was upset in Knoxville by Pittsburgh in the NCAA First Round.

Albany and Syracuse are first-time foes for Tennessee, but SU will be making a return trip to Knoxville after falling to Creighton, 61-56, in an NCAA First Round game here on March 23, 2013. Last season, the Orange fell in the second round of the NCAA tourney to South Carolina, while Albany nearly knocked off Duke in the first round before falling, 54-52.

The home out-of-conference slate also includes 2015 WNIT teams East Tennessee State (Dec. 2) and Stetson (Dec. 30), squads UT last faced in 2010 and 2011, respectively.Penn State (Nov. 18) and Virginia Tech (Dec. 6) also are coming to Rocky Top.The meeting with VT will be the first since 1999, while the match-up with PSU will be the first since 2003.

All of Tennessee’s non-conference road opponents made the NCAA field a year ago. The Lady Vols will play at Wichita State (Dec. 11), Stanford (Dec. 16) and Oregon State (Dec. 19) in succession for a very challenging end to the first semester vs. three teams they defeated in Knoxville last season. The game vs. the Cardinal will feature at9 p.m. ETtip in Maples Pavilion on ESPN2.

Stanford made the 2015 NCAA Sweet 16, while OSU fell in the second round to Gonzaga before it could secure a rematch with Tennessee. Wichita State, meanwhile, suffered a first round loss.Former Lady Vol Jody Adams is the head coach at WSU, while another ex-UT star, Bridgette Gordon, is one of her assistants.

The final road non-conference foe is Notre Dame onJan. 18, with ESPN2 carrying the game at7 p.m. ETas part of its BigMondaypackage. The Lady Vols will be making their second-straight visit to the Irish, who have been the NCAA runner-up the past two seasons and in four of the past five. Notre Dame prevailed in a nationally-televised contest on Jan. 19, 2015, 88-77, to make UT’s series lead 20-5.

“It’s a challenging non-conference schedule,” Warlick said.“We play at Notre Dame, Stanford and Texas, and we go to Oregon State, which pushed us to the wire here last year. We also go to Wichita State, and that’s not an easy place to play, either. It’s challenging just with that lineup, and then you bring Syracuse, Penn State and Chattanooga here.Albany nearly beat Duke in the tournament last season, so you see very quickly it’s a schedule that will test us.”

Television or online broadcast information and tip times for the remaining non-conference games will be released at a later date.

Fourteen of UT’s 16 SEC games will be televised, and the other two will be available via online broadcast (SECN+).Six will be broadcast by the ESPN family of networks, eight by the SEC Network (including two dates with NCAA-style whip around coverage instead of typical broadcasts) and two online via SECN+.

Those 16 contests will feature nine contests vs. teams that saw postseason action a year ago, giving the Lady Vols 19 of 29 overall regular-season games in 2015-16 vs. tourney teams from the previous campaign.

Tennessee will open the SEC slate on the road at Missouri in aMondaytilt (7 p.m. ET) on the SEC Network. The Lady Vols also have league road stops at Arkansas (Jan. 14, SEC Network,9 p.m. ET), Kentucky (Jan. 25, ESPN2/BigMonday, TBD), Mississippi State (Jan. 28, SEC Network,9 p.m. ET), Texas A&M (Feb. 7, ESPN2, TBD), Vanderbilt (Feb. 11, SEC Network,9 p.m. ET), LSU (Feb. 21, ESPNU, TBD) and Alabama (Feb. 25, SEC Network - Whip Around, TBD).

At home, defending co-champs UT and South Carolina meet onFeb. 15(ESPN2, TBD) in a BigMondayshowdown. UT also plays host to Florida (Jan. 7, SEC Network – Whip Around, TBD), Auburn (Jan. 10, ESPNU, TBD), Vanderbilt (Jan. 21, SEC Network,7 p.m.), Alabama (Jan. 31, SEC Network,3 p.m. ET), Arkansas (Feb. 4, SECN+,7 p.m. ET), Ole Miss (Feb. 18, SECN+,7 p.m. ET) and Georgia (Feb. 28, ESPN2 or ESPNU, TBD) round out the home slate.

“The SEC is the best women’s basketball conference in the country, and it just keeps getting better,” Warlick said. “We go to Missouri right off the bat, and that’s been a tough place for us to play.We have back-to-back road games at Kentucky and Mississippi State at one point, and there’s a stretch where we are at Texas A&M and Vanderbilt and come home for a BigMondaygame vs. South Carolina. It doesn’t matter who you play or where in this league. You know it’s going to be a battle, so you have to come ready to compete.”

As was the case a year ago, Tennessee will play Carson-Newman in a lone exhibition game. That contest is set forNov. 9, marking the 12th-straight season the two squads have faced off in a preseason tilt.

Again, remaining tip times and TV/online broadcast information will be provided at a later date.

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