Tennessee volleyball looked like a shell of itself for the first two sets of the most important game of the season.The No. 7 seed Lady Vols fell behind by two sets to Utah State before mustering the effort necessary to save their season, but by then it was too late. Tennessee (20-8) made it a five-set thriller, but it lost 3-2 to the Aggies (24-7) in a stunning upset in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Desert Financial Arena in Tempe, Arizona, on Dec. 4.”They were the better team today,” Tennessee coach Eve Rackham Watt said. “We could have given up but this group has been resilient all year long and found a way to get ourselves back in the match so proud of us for battling. Unfortunately, I don’t think we played as well as we would’ve liked to tonight, so it was a tough way to go out.”Tennessee offense not dynamic enoughTennessee has multiple weapons offensively, but Starr Williams, who had a team-high 15 kills, was the only one finding success early in the match. It made the Lady Vols’ offense one-dimensional and predictable, and Utah State stifled it.Rackham Watt also said the Aggies’ strong serving put their passers under pressure, which made it difficult to get into a rhythm offensively. Utah State’s blockers also consistently got touches on the ball to slow down any solid swings from Tennessee.UT eventually turned to Sydney Jones off the bench, who provided an immediate spark that lasted the entire match. Jones and Hayden Kubik both had 12 kills, but UT didn’t get the level of production it needed from Kubik, who averaged 4.19 kills per set this season.When Tennessee needed to put the game away in the fifth set, when it had the momentum, its offense faltered. The Lady Vols only hit .105 in the fifth, and they were chasing Utah State the whole set.”I just don’t feel like we ever got into too much of a groove,” Rackham Watt said. “I think it was about halfway through the third set when I felt like we were finally in a bit of a groove playing. Even in the fifth I thought we played pretty well, we were just too high error, and you can’t make that many getting errors off the set.”RACKHAM WATT: How Eve Rackham Watt navigates raising her son, Jude, Tennessee volleyball’s biggest fanTennessee couldn’t stop Tierney BarlowUtah State’s offense was led by middle blocker Tierney Barlow, which spread out Tennessee’s net defense and made it difficult to get touches or blocks on a lot of the Aggies’ swings.Barlow was nearly unstoppable, and she had 16 kills with a .560 hitting percentage and four blocks. Opposite side hitter Loryn Helgesen and outside hitter Andrea Simovski both added 14 kills, and outside hitter Mara Stiglic had 12.Utah State hit .312 as a team, and Tennessee’s struggle at the net made it a rough outing for its floor defense. Both teams logged nine blocks in the match.The Aggies had 68 kills total, and the Lady Vols only had 59.Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: cora.hall@knoxnews.com; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social‬. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks:knoxnews.com/subscribeThis article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: How Tennessee volleyball got upset in NCAA first round by Utah State