Single game tickets are now available for Lady Vols basketball games, and softball will hold another fall ball game this Saturday that will double as a donation spot to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

East Tennessee and Western North Carolina experienced previously unimaginable damage as the tropical storm swarmed the region, washed away homes, vehicles and communities, destroyed roadways and claimed multiple lives. The families of Tennessee athletes have been affected, including softball pitcher Karlyn Pickens, who is from Weaverville, North Carolina, and infielder Camryn Sarvis, who is from Gray, Tennessee.

Pickens’ mother, Rebecca Pickens, will be at the game Saturday, Oct. 5, to take the donated items to the affected communities.

“There are so many suffering,” Rebecca Pickens posted on social media. “We will personally trailer donations back to our communities.”

Game time is set for 5 p.m. at Lee Stadium, and admission is free. The donations should be dropped off starting at 4 p.m. at the Lady Vol Boost Her Club tent set up at the stadium. Items being collected include sweatpants, socks, T-shirts, shoes, women’s and men’s undergarments, water, granola bars, baby formula, canned food and Tylenol.

BASKETBALL

Fans wanting to buy single game tickets can do so now by clicking HERE. The debut of coach Kim Caldwell has generated considerable excitement, especially among those intrigued by the up-tempo offense and pressure defense style of play. Based on preseason practice videos, the Lady Vols are leaner and quicker after a summer of preparation to play fast.

The style of play also will deploy frequent substitutions to keep fresh bodies on the court. A deep rotation means players have to stay ready and also adjust to the pace. Tennessee doesn’t intend to walk the ball down the court.

“I think it’s everybody buying in,” said Jewel Spear, a fifth-year guard who played last season after transferring from Wake Forest and opted to remain at Tennessee after the coaching change. “We always talk about buying in, team goals, personal goals and what you strive to do this year, whether it’s personally, but also as a team.

“With the depth, I think people know their roles and know what they can provide to the team when their number is called.”

Jewel Spear prepares to shoot during practice at Pratt Pavilion. (Kate Luffman/Tennessee Athletics)

Fans will get the first look at redshirt sophomore guard Talaysia Cooper who transferred from South Carolina a year ago and had to sit out a season since she changed schools outside the portal window. The high school All-American has the skill set to thrive in college.

“She’s a heck of a player,” Caldwell said. “She’s only continuing to get better and better. I think the last two weeks have by far been her best two weeks where she’s playing at a different gear; she’s more aggressive, she’s getting to her spots when she wants to. I’m hoping things are starting to click for her, and she really just continues to get better and better.”

Also making her debut is redshirt freshman Kaniya Boyd. She injured her knee last fall in her final season of high school basketball and enrolled early in January to start college classes and undergo rehabilitation. Boyd got the all-clear to practice over the summer and has the speed – and love of defense – to contribute in her first year for Tennessee.

Kaniya Boyd and Samara Spencer are all smiles at practice. (UT Athletics)

“She’s getting significantly better, too,” Caldwell said. “Still a lot of things you want to clean up, but she’s going to be able to help us in a lot of ways. She is maybe one of our best at understanding the pressing and being able to make those rotations and see how we want it and be more aggressive on the front end as opposed to the back end. She creates a lot of offense from our defense.”

SMALL WORLD NUGGET: Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, who won the 2024 NBA championship, and Kim Caldwell both were assistant coaches in 2012-13 at Glenville State in Glenville, a town of less than 1,500 people located in the center of West Virginia along the Little Kanawha River.

“It’s kind of crazy,” said Caldwell, who also played basketball at Glenville State. “We were both assistant coaches for that brief window, the same time, the same year. I’m good friends with his wife. I went to college with his wife, so small world on that end. It’s kind of interesting that we both came out of the same tiny town, population 1,400.”

Caldwell would return to Glenville State as head coach in 2016 after three seasons as an assistant coach at Sacramento State. Mazzulla went on to Fairmont State before making it to Boston as an assistant in 2019, becoming interim head coach in 2022 and head coach in 2023.

Coach Kim Caldwell tours the Lady Vols locker room. (UT Athletics)

“I think Glenville State is a phenomenal place to be when it comes to sports,” Cardwell said. “It’s a great sports town. You can fall in love with sports there. You have a great fan base, great facilities. We both were young when we first started. You can get burned out and go to the wrong place and realize this is not what you want.

“Well, Glenville is a place where you go, and you fall in love with the sport. You can see such a bright future for yourself.”

Maria M. Cornelius, a senior writer/editor at MoxCar Marketing + Communications since 2013, started her journalism career at the Knoxville News Sentinel and began writing about the Lady Vols in 1998. In 2016, she published her first book, “The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt,” through The University of Tennessee Press.