1. THOMAS MAKING MOVES
With her goal in the 27th minute at Kentucky, redshirt-junior Jaida Thomas claimed sole possession of No. 2 in Tennessee’s record book, passing Hannah Wilkinson with 34 career goals scored.
“She put away a really beautiful cross from Claudia Dipasupil. It was just a patented Jaida Thomas goal, her putting herself in the right space in front to score. She makes it look so easy to get in those spaces, but players so often don’t get in those spaces. She just consistently puts herself in the right place,” said associate head coach Jonathan Morgan.
Thomas now trails No. 1 Kylee Rossi by just nine goals. She reached that mark in 48 appearances as a Lady Vol to average .708 goals per game. That goals-per-game average is higher than No. 1 Kylee Rossi (.494) and No. 3 Hannah Wilkinson (.471) and is closest to that of No. 7 Bunny Shaw who scored 27 goals in 35 games for an average of .771 goals per game. With nine goals on the season, Thomas currently leads the SEC in total goals, goals per game and points per game. Her 0.90 goals per game ranks ninth in the nation, and her 2.00 points per game ties for ninth.
“It’s not anything that she or the team talks about it,” Morgan said. “I am sure it’s floating in the back of her mind. She’s a competitor and a winner, so it’s probably something that she wants. She’s a pretty selfless player, though. She is taking better shots right now. She is not taking shots from bad angles. She is delivering service for others. Even though that goal is on the horizon, she’s really working hard to expand her game and become more of a complete player. She wants to be good in all facets of the game.”
2. OFFENSE POSTING TOP-10 NUMBERS
UT has scored 33 goals on the year to tie for fourth in the country in scoring offense at 3.30. With 9.30 points per game and 9.80 shots on goal per game, the Lady Vols rank sixth and eighth, respectively.
“It all starts with recruiting,” Morgan said. “We get good attacking personalities, instinctual attacking players. They’re athletic players, and we try to encourage them. If you want to score goals and be a good attacking team, you have to allow good players to be selfish at times. We just encourage getting numbers forward and into the attack. We like scoring goals, and we want to score more…
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