Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Middle Tennessee
Tennessee
Blue Raiders set to host 13th-ranked Lady Vols
11/19/2025 2:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Thursday, Nov. 20 | 6:30 p.m. | Murphy Center | Murfreesboro, Tenn. |
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MIDDLE TENNESSEE BLUE RAIDERS 2-2, 0-0 CUSA |
vs. | TENNESSEE LADY VOLS 3-1, 0-0 SEC |
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| WATCH: ESPN+ | STATS: LINK | RADIO: WGNS (LINK) | MEDIA CENTER: LINK | ||||
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Middle Tennessee returns to the Glass House to host the 13th-ranked Tennessee Lady Vols on Thursday, Nov. 20, inside the Murphy Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT. The game will air on the Blue Raider Network and broadcast on ESPN+.
Gameday Promotions
» Fan Giveaway: Light Sticks & Crush the Orange Game Day Buttons courtesy of the Alumni Relations Office.
» Student Giveaway: Middle Tennessee Basketball T-Shirts
GAME FIVE
» Thursday, November 20 - 6:30 p.m.
» Murphy Center
» Murfreesboro, Tennessee
SERIES HISTORY
» This marks the 18th meeting in series history between the Blue Raiders and Lady Vols.
» Tennessee owns a 16-1 lead over MTSU in the all-time series.
» The Blue Raiders defeated Tennessee 73-62 in Huntsville, Ala., on Dec. 6, 2023, to open the four-game series; however, the Lady Vols won the previous meeting 89-75 in Knoxville on Nov. 12, 2024.
BLUE RAIDER NOTES
» MTSU enters the matchup coming off a 59-66 road setback to Rice. A trio of Blue Raiders scored double figures, including a career high 22 points from Blair Baugus.
» Blair Baugus earned her second consecutive Freshman of the Week honor after averaging 14 points and 9.5 rebounds per game for the Lady Raiders (2-2). At Tennessee Tech, the freshman guard tallied a career-high 12 rebounds to go along with six points, two blocks and two steals. At Rice, she posted a career-high 22 points, the highest by any CUSA freshman this season. The Waynesboro, Tenn., native is the only CUSA freshman to rank in the top-five in scoring (12.8 ppg), rebounding (10.5 rpg), steals (2.75 spg) and blocks (9).
» Middle Tennessee is 56-2 over the previous three season at home. The Blue Raiders only losses have come against Seton Hall in the WNIT semifinals in 2022-23 and against Ivy League power house Princeton in 2023-24.
» Middle Tennessee is one of only a handful of Division I programs that do not feature a single returning starter on the roster. According to available national data, Santa Clara is the only program in the country bringing in more newcomers while also returning zero starters.
» Senior Alayna Contreras was selected to the CUSA Preseason All-Conference Team. The Minneapolis, Minn., native started all 33 games last year and led UMKC in scoring (17.3 ppg), minutes, field goals made, three-pointers made and free throws made.
» Middle Tennessee was picked third in the CUSA preseason poll. This marks only the sixth time in Rick Insell's 21 seasons — and just the fourth time in CUSA — that the Blue Raiders have not been selected as the preseason favorite.
SCOUTING THE LADY VOLS
» Tennessee enters the matchup with a 3-1, 0-0 SEC record. The Lady Vols are coming off a 68-58 win over Belmont.
» UT is led by the talented trio of 6-0 redshirt junior guard Talaysia Cooper (18.3 ppg., 8.0 rpg., 9 3FGs) and 6-4 senior forwards Janiah Barker (13.0 ppg., 4.8 rpg.) and Zee Spearman (11.5 ppg., 7.8 rpg.).
» Freshman guards Mia Pauldo (9.5 ppg., 2.8 rpg., 1.8 apg., 1.8 spg., 8 3FGs) and Jaida Civil (9.0 ppg., 3.3 rpg., 1.8 apg., 1.0 spg.) and have been immediate contributors, starting three contests each.
» Over the past three games, UT has averaged 14.0 steals, forced 23.0 turnovers and scored 27.7 points off those miscues.
» Tennessee is holding foes to 37.7 field goal shooting through four games, compared to 46.3 a year ago in that span.
» The Lady Vols are getting 26.3 points per contest from their reserves, including a season-best 34-12 margin vs. Belmont.
» UT ranks No. 25 nationally by gathering 17.8 offensive rebounds per game and has a 17.0 to 9.0 edge in second chance points vs. foes after outworking Belmont in that category, 19-6, last Thursday.
FOLLOW THE BLUE RAIDERS
Follow Middle Tennessee Women's Basketball on social media on Facebook (/MTSUWBB), X (Formerly known as Twitter) (@MT_WBB) and Instagram (@mt_wbb).
