KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee women's basketball team was ranked No. 11 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll on Tuesday.
This makes it the third season in a row that the Lady Vols have ranked in the preseason top 15.
Tennessee's schedule has eight preseason top 25 opponents on it. They play No. 25 Mississippi State, No. 18 Florida State, No. 12 Ole Miss, No. 10 Notre Dame, No. 9 Indiana, No. 7 Ohio State, No. 6 South Carolina twice and No. 1 LSU. The Lady Vols also play Texas A&M who is receiving votes.
UT is coming off a season where they made it to the SEC Tournament title game, finishing as runner-up to South Carolina. They made it to the Sweet 16 where they lost to Virginia Tech.
The Lady Vols were picked to finish third in the SEC in the media poll on Tuesday as well behind LSU and South Carolina. Rickea Jackson was selected to the preseason All-SEC first team. New transfer guard Jewel Spear was eelected to the second team.
Tennessee returns some key players from last season like Jackson who led the team in scoring a season ago(19.2 PPG). Center Tamari Key, who holds the Lady Vols single season and career block records, returns to the team after she missed most of last season after blood clots were found in her lungs. Her timetable for a return to game action is still to be determined by the team.
Forward Jillian Hollingshead (6.2 PPG, 4.4 RPG) is expected to make another big leap in her development, guard/forward Tess Darby (7.4 PPG) returns as well as guard Jasmine Powell (3.1 APG). The Lady Vols brought in some key transfers as well like guards Destinee Wells (19.5 PPG) from Belmont and Spear (16.5 PPG) from Wake Forest.
Tennessee has two scrimmages before the regular season, both at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center. They play Carson-Newman at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 30. They play the USA Women's National Team at 6 p.m. on Nov. 5.
The Lady Vols open up the regular season at home at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 7.
