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Ranking Tennessee Vols sports worst affected by coronavirus ending season

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - FEBRUARY 2: Cheerleaders of the Tennessee Volunteers pregame against the Kentucky Wildcats in a game at Thompson-Boling Arena on February 2, 2016 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Patrick Murphy-Racey/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - FEBRUARY 2: Cheerleaders of the Tennessee Volunteers pregame against the Kentucky Wildcats in a game at Thompson-Boling Arena on February 2, 2016 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Patrick Murphy-Racey/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images
Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images /

5. Women’s Tennis

When it comes to tennis, the Tennessee Vols were rolling on both fronts before the coronavirus shut down everything. After going 20-8 last year and losing in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the Lady Vols, led by Alison Ojeda in her fourth year, were off to a pretty solid start to the 2020 season and had a lot to play for.

At the time things were shut down, Rocky Top was No. 23 in the Oracle/ITA Division I Women’s Tennis team rankings. Now, that was only No. 5 among SEC teams, as the Georgia Bulldogs, Vanderbilt Commodores, South Carolina Gamecocks and LSU Tigers were ahead of them. And UT did lose to Georgia on the road to open league play. But they were still playing solid.

This program had a 10-3 record overall. Sure, they were 1-2 in the SEC, but their first three events were all on the road, and they had just come off a win on the road over the Ole Miss Rebels, who had finished things off ranked No. 29 in the nation when things shut down.  They had also beaten the Kanas Jayhawks, who were No. 31, to open things up.

Simply put, women’s tennis had proven that it could compete at the highest level and was a major threat to do some damage this year. As a result, the program took a big hit with the cancellations. It is similar to men’s golf, as both are in the same tier. Both suffered with what happened.

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