Tennessee took the long way Friday to the SEC soccer championship match

The Lady Vols played a 1-1 tie through regulation and two overtimes against LSU in a semifinal match before winning on penalty kicks 4-2 in Orange Beach, Ala., to reach Sunday's final.

"To be honest, this is not a fun way to win,'' UT coach Angela Kelly said. "I think LSU did a great job and battled. It went back and forth. Both teams gave it everything they had. They have to decide it somehow and that's just the way we do it in soccer. Obviously we're going to take the advancement, but it's just an unfortunate way to decide things."

Alissa VonderHaar, Mick Imgram, Tanya Emerson and Leslie Vineyard converted penalty kicks for Tennessee (10-10-1).

Goalkeeper Jaimel Johnson did the rest in punching UT's ticket to a date with Georgia, a 3-0 semifinal winner over Florida.

"She's a great shot stopper,'' Kelly said of Johnson. "To save two and almost get her hand on another, she's amazing."

UT took a 1-0 lead in regulation on Grace Cuenin's goal in the 20th minute. She converted off a corner kick.

LSU (14-4-1) came back to tie at the 53:24 mark on a goal by Roslyn Jones.

"Coach Kelly always talks about how this season could be the most satisfying for us, even though it didn't start out that great,'' Johnson said. "It's about how you finish, not how you start."

Volleyball: Tennessee had to work for its women's volleyball winning streak.

The Lady Vols stretched their streak to eight with a 29-27, 31-29, 25-18 sweep at Arkansas.

"Arkansas certainly did not make anything easy for us tonight, but it's always great to win on the road in this tough conference,'' UT coach Rob Patrick said. "I thought we made quite a few unforced errors in the first two sets, which I attribute to us not being as focused as we needed to be."

Chloe Goldman and Milan Clarke were a solid one-two punch for Tennessee (18-8, 11-4 SEC).

Goldman was the defensive stalwart, recording the third-highest three-game dig total in school history with 25.

Clarke, meanwhile, had a match-high 15 kills. The senior had a .375 hitting percentage with just three errors in 32 swings.

Nikki Fowler had 13 kills while Mindy Flynn and Farren Powe had 11 apiece.

Powe, last week's SEC offensive player of the week, continued her offensive efficiency with a team-best .529 hitting percentage. The junior had just two errors on 17 total attacks.

Defensively, Kelsey Mahoney had nine kills. Fowler, meanwhile, had four blocks against Arkansas (6-18, 3-11).

Tennessee will conclude its weekend road trip with a match at Ole Miss at 2:30 Sunday.

Women's Basketball: Tennessee forward Angie Bjorklund will miss the Lady Vols' exhibition game against Love & Basketball Sunday because of lower back spasms.

Jenny Moshak, the Lady Vols assistant athletic director for sports medicine, hopes to have Bjorklund back for practice on Monday.

"They can be problematic,'' Moshak said of the spasms. "We have time to play with so we'll take some time to get it calmed down."

Bjorklund sat out Thursday's 135-55 exhibition victory over Carson-Newman as punishment for missing a summer school class.

Women's Tennis: Three Lady Vols won singles matches and two doubles teams combined for three victories on the second day of the SEC Fall Coaches Classic in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Samantha Orlin, Zsofia Zubor and Jennifer Meredith all won matches.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.