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Tennessee Lady Vols fall to Stanford: 3 takeaways from season’s first loss

By Caleb Calhoun

CLEVELAND - APRIL 01: Fans of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers support their tema against the North Carolina Tar Heels during their National Semifinal game of the 2007 NCAA Women's Final Four at the Quicken Loans Arena on April 1, 2007 in Cleveland, Ohio. Tennessee won 56-50. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
CLEVELAND - APRIL 01: Fans of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers support their tema against the North Carolina Tar Heels during their National Semifinal game of the 2007 NCAA Women's Final Four at the Quicken Loans Arena on April 1, 2007 in Cleveland, Ohio. Tennessee won 56-50. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /
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The Tennessee Lady Vols fell to the Stanford Cardinal 95-85. Here are three takeaways from the women’s basketball Volunteers’ first loss of the season.

After an eight-day rest that followed a road win over the Texas Longhorns, the Tennessee Lady Vols weren’t able to pass a more important test. Holly Warlick’s team suffered its first loss of the year, a 95-85 home loss to the Stanford Cardinal.

This was Stanford’s first win in this rivalry in three years and only their third in Knoxville in history. The Cardinal pulled out this victory three days after a huge win over the No. 3 ranked Baylor Bears, moving them to 8-1 overall with their only loss coming to the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Meanwhile, Tennessee fell to 8-1.

Coming into the game, UT was ranked No. 9 in the nation despite their undefeated record, and Stanford was ranked No. 8 despite having a loss. But this will obviously increase the gap in next week’s rankings. Here are three takeaways from the Tennessee Lady Vols’ loss to the Stanford Cardinal.

No defense for Stanford’s red-hot shooting

This was the story of the game. The Tennessee Lady Vols should’ve done enough offensively to win by scoring 85 points, but their defense, which has been great all year, couldn’t stop the three. Stanford shot 14-of-24 from beyond the arc, and it didn’t even matter that they had 20 turnovers. Holly Warlick did a good job switching up the defense early in the second half, mixing in zone and man to man, to stage a comeback, but the Cardinal responded by just hitting more outside shots. There wasn’t much this team could do.

Lady Vols struggled out of half-court sets

Stanford’s defensive strategy was to force Tennessee to shoot from three, but that would have seemed not to work since they scored 85 points. The problem was they missed too many shots, going 9-for-28, and they didn’t have much going on in the paint. This was where we really witnessed the team missing Mercedes Russell and Jaime Nared for the first time on the season. The Lady Vols were out-rebounded 45 to 31, and committing only eight turnovers was still not enough to pull out a victory. Half-court scoring just wasn’t there.

Evina Westbrook continues her dominance

One big positive for this team is that Evina Westbrook still hasn’t dropped off at all. She just scored over 20 points for the fourth straight game this year, logging 29 points and 10 assists. With Meme Jackson not shooting as well, the back-court scoring all fell to her, and she delivered. The sophomore has clearly taken huge steps this year and is emerging as the best player on the team. Even with this loss, the Tennessee Lady Vols are still young and talented, and she gives them a lot to look forward to.