Action from Around the Hill

-- ed.

Well, spring practice is over. The Orange and White game, besides offering confusion for our friends in attendance, saw the offense improve even more and gave us all immense hope for Jonathon Crompton and the rest of our offensive brethren. If these men continue to Work Like Heck over the summer, good things my friends, good things! We've seen improvement from the D-line, which is great news, and the secondary looks like a nightmare that'll keep Offensive coordinators awake at night thinking about whether they chose the right career. Get a couple of linebackers to step up and we look like a conference title contender. Again. Now comes the sad part. Summer. I wish I could just hibernate for the next four months but life dictates that I pay bills and such. Stupid life. But, in the meantime, yay, other sports!

The 30th ranked Baseball team (23-16, 10-8 SEC) won 1 of a 3 game series with ArKansas this weekend. They fought hard but could only come up with the last game. At least they're Workin' Like Heck. Next up is App. St. on Tuesday followed by ETSU Wednesday and a series with Miss. St. this weekend. Have a good week guys!

The number 9 Golf team finished in 6th place this weekend at the SEC Championships in Georgia. Poor putting on the final day caused the Vols to finish 17 over par for the tournament. No. 2 'Bama won the tourney by 8 strokes over South Carolina. The Vols will wait to hear their destination for the NCAA Regionals May 15-17.

The Tennis team competed in their SEC Tournament this weekend. During the weekend's festivities, UT's coach, Sam Winterbotham, was named SEC Coach of the Year while JP Smith was named Freshman of the Year. Congratulations to these gentlemen. Good work. Unfortunatey, No. 8 UT was knocked out of the tournament in the semi's by Ole Miss on Saturday. The Vols finish at 21-3 and will hear on April 29 who their first opponent will be in the NCAA Tournament.

The 5th ranked UT Track and Field team broke 3 records this weekend at the Vanderbilt Invitational. Freshman Joseph Berry (no relation) cleared 17'1" to claim the meet and facility records in the pole vault while Junior Matthew Maloney's javelin throw of 226'11" broke the meet record. Congratulations fellas.

As for the ladies...

The #9 Lady Vol Softball team won 2 of 3 in their weekend series with #11 LSU. The Lady Vols are now 43-9, 13-8 SEC and hold a 1 1/2 game lead over LSU for 3rd place in the SEC. They have 9 games left before the SEC Tourney.

16th ranked Lady Golf moved up 2 spots on the final day of the SEC Championships to finish 8th. The Vols will play in the NCAA Regionals May 8-10.

Battling injuries, the Lady Vols Tennis team (14-9) couldn't pull it out vs. No. 12 Vanderbilt this weekend, getting bounced in the 2nd round of their SEC Tournament Friday. They will wait to hear news about their potential 14th consecutive NCAA Tournament berth. Good luck ladies!

That's all the news from Around the Hill. I'll try to keep y'all up to date with things while we wait out this dang long, hot summer waiting for the return to the gridiron. Thinking about it makes me want to cry a little. Sort of. Naw, not really. Well, at least I'll have time to come up with some better closers.  

GO VOLS!!!!