Tessa Grubbs

Classroom

Tessa Grubbs is on track to graduate as a therapeutic recreation major. Her career goal is to work with special-needs children through the power of sports.

Character

After being inspired by a special-needs friend she had as a child, she plans to go into work with special-need children to help them through therapeutic recreation. She helped lead a therapeutic recreation camp for special need children where she helped oversee and plan activities for campers. She is a part of the volleyball leadership group.

Community

Grubbs completed more than 130 hours of community service in her four years on the Tennessee campus with organizations including Camp Koinonia and the Girls Inc. Tour and taking a service trip to Gatlinburg for relief. She does therapeutic recreation work with a group called Shangri-La Therapeutic Academy of Riding (STAR) in the local area.

Competition

Grubbs was named to the 2018 AVCA All-America Honorable Mention Team and the 2018 VolleyballMag All-America Honorable Mention Team. She was also a 2018 AVCA All-Southeast Region selection and was named to the All-SEC Team in each of her first three seasons (2016, 2017 and 2018). Grubbs has averaged 3.62 kills/set, which is fourth in program history. She notched 453 kills in 2018, which is the fourth most in UT history during the rally-scoring era (2001-present), and she set a new-career high 29 kills on 85 attacks in a loss to No. 6 Illinois on August 30. She was named Best Attacker at the 2019 Baylor Invitational finishing with a 4.38 kills per set average, the highest total for Grubbs in any week this season. Grubbs has had double-digit kills in 25 of the last 26 matches including all seven matches this season. During that stretch, she has 11 matches with 20-plus kills. She set a new career-high with four service aces against Miami (OH) this season.

(All stats as of nomination time.)