Lady Vols basketball is off to a 5-0 start in SEC play, with the most recent win being a ranked one on the road over Alabama. As a result, Tennessee is on the move in the most recent AP Poll ranking.
In the AP Poll’s update on Monday, Tennessee climbed three spots to the No. 17 team in the country. This mark is good for seventh in the SEC after jumping Ole Miss. The Lady Vols trail No. 2 South Carolina, No. 4 Texas, No. 5 Vanderbilt, No. 6 LSU, No. 11 Kentucky and No. 16 Oklahoma.
Other opponents on Tennessee’s schedule this year include No. 1 UConn, No. 3 UCLA, No. 8 Louisville, No. 18 Ole Miss and No. 23 Alabama. Georgia and NC State also received votes.
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Most recently, it was a 70-59 win over Alabama for the Lady Vols. Tennessee got off to a rough start, but responded by surging to a lead in the second quarter. It got close again in the fourth before the Lady Vols pulled away.
“It really just looked like we settled in, started hitting shots,” Tennessee head coach Kim Caldwell said after the win. “That’s what I’m most proud of is a month and a half ago, we would have quit at the beginning of the game. And we would have melted, and we wouldn’t have been fighting. And we didn’t blink. We still had tight huddles, we still had great body language. And that was so much maturity for this team. I’m really proud of that. But we just settled in, hit shots, and then the rest went our way.”
Next, the Lady Vols will host Kentucky at home. The game against the No. 11 Wildcats is slated for 6:30 p.m. ET and will air on SEC Network.
That will be the only game until the next rankings release on Monday. Tennessee travels to play Ole Miss on that Monday with tip-off set for 7 p.m. ET on ESPNU.
