Tennesse Volunteers suffered a heart-breaking last-minute defeat against the LSU Tigers. However, head coach Kim Caldwell wasn’t in the mood to take any speculations on her senior players. The 36-year-old fired back at any potential squad ‘rebuild’ thoughts for her team. Caldwell while expressing her thoughts, also made it quite clear that losses are as hurtful for the senior players of the team, as anyone else concerned.

As per a post on ‘X’ by Lady Volts’ reporter ‘John Sartori’, Caldwell asserted “I get a little bit offended with ‘you have time to rebuild, these seniors aren’t your players’…They are my players.” Lady Vols’ coach further points out that the Seniors have chosen to stay and she is happy to have them. “They chose to stay and I chose to coach them“, Caldwell stated.

Caldwell also looked ascertained in her thought process about whether she has the players in the squad that she would like. She listed that she doesn’t want to wait and hover around any such type of speculation. Mentioning the senior players again, she inflicted – “These are my players. I want to win for them, I wanna win right now”.

On the loss to LSU Tigers, Caldwell inserted that, she wants that her senior players must have these sorts of experiences as well when her side isn’t able to close out games in those crunch situations. Mentioning that even though these players may have been establishing something for the future, but yet she wanted to win the last two games for them. Caldwell was appointed Vols’ head coach in April last year.

How things unfolded in the Lady Vols’ game against LSU, as Caldwell’s side suffered a close loss

In the first quarter of the game, the Lady Vols managed only 17 points on board in comparison to the LSU Tigers’ 26. This facilitated the Tigers’ a decent chunk of lead progressing into the second quarter. Tennesse managed to nick the second quarter in their favor by a scoreline of 22-20.

The second quarter did show a glimmer of hope for Kim Caldwell’s side to get back into the game. This hope was further boosted when they nudged the third one in their kitty two, overcoming Tigers by a scoreline of 23-21. With the crucial final quarter looming on the shoulder, the overall score stood at 62-67 in the Tigers’ favor.

Lady Vols did manage to grab the fourth quarter as well by a point ratio of 25-22 in their favor. But, the lead that LSU Tigers established in the first quarter proved too much for the Vols to navigate. Vols lost the game by a final scoreline of 87-89. This loss lands them 7th in the Southeastern division table. They will next face Arkansas Razorbacks in an away-from-home clash.