NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee junior running back Dylan Sampson had an incredible first half Saturday as the Volunteers routed Kent State 71-0 with the Baton Rouge native rushing 13 times for 101 yards and four touchdowns.
He earned this week’s Tennessee Sports Writers Association Football Offensive Player of the Week honor for his performance, setting records in the process. Along with the Vols setting a school record for points scored and total offensive yards, Sampson tied the single-game program record for rushing touchdowns in the modern era (1937-onward) with six other Volunteers. He is the first to accomplish the feat in a single half and the first since Gene McEver against South Carolina on Dec. 7, 1929.
Sampson is the first Tennessee player with multiple rushing touchdowns in three straight games since Alvin Kamara in 2016 and the first with four consecutive 100-yard rushing games since Arian Foster had five straight in the 2005 campaign.
The junior currently leads the Southeastern Conference and is tie for the national lead in rushing touchdowns this season with nine.
On the defensive side, Chattanooga junior linebacker Alex Mitchell collected a career-high 11 tackles in a 10-3 loss to Mercer. The defensive effort, despite the loss, was impressive as it held a Mercer team that had been averaging 47.0 points to just 10 in the contest.
Mitchell, a Murfreesboro native, had a career-best nine solo stops, which was more than all but one other tackler – teammate Reuben Lowery III – had in total. Mitchell also recorded 2.0 tackles-for-loss, including his second career sack.
VOLLEYBALL: Tennessee Tech junior setter Jordan Karlen doled out a whopping 12.44 assists per set while adding 2.00 digs per set. She also quarterbacked a Tech offense that hit an elite .285 for the weekend to earn the TSWA Volleyball Player of the Week honor.
The Janesville, Wisc., native opened the weekend with 40 helpers, two kills, four digs, and a block against Nicholls. She turned in 41 more assists with 10 digs for a double-double with two aces against West Georgia. Karlen ended things with a three-kill, 31-assist showing with Radford, landing three more aces and scooping four digs.
Karlen has established herself as one of the country's best setters. The junior ranks eighth nationally in assists per set with a mark of 11.03.
MEN’S SOCCER: Belmont senior midfielder A.J. Chastonay won his second TSWA Men’s Soccer Player of the Week honor after being involved in both goals for the Bruins last week, including his team-leading fifth goal of the season at Bellarmine – where his father is the head coach.
With his goal against the Knights, Chastonay surpassed Niccolo Dagnoni, Will Moorad and Jeremy Littlejohn for the third-most goals in Belmont history.
He also assisted on Belmont’s first-half goal to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead over No. 4 Western Michigan for his second assist on the season and ninth in his career.
WOMEN’S SOCCER: Lipscomb senior Kiara Pralle added to her Atlantic Sun Player of the Week honor after collecting a hat trick in a 4-1 victory at SEC foe Ole Miss. All three of her goals were scored within a span of six minutes and it was the first Bison hat trick since 2021.
Pralle scored her first goal in the 63rd minute before the Rebels responded in the 66th. Only 24 seconds later, Pralle scored to retake the lead and added an insurance marker in the 68th.
She leads Lipscomb in shot attempts this season with 28 and six goals.
2024 TSWA Players of the Week
FOOTBALL
9/3 | Offensive: Diego Pavia (Vanderbilt); Defensive: Bryan Longwell (Vanderbilt)
9/10 | Offensive: Sam Phillips (Chattanooga); Defensive: Elijah Herring (Memphis)
9/17 | Offensive: Dylan Sampson (Tennessee); Defensive: Alex Mitchell (Chattanooga)
VOLLEYBALL
9/3 | Maddie Isringhausen (Tennessee Tech)
9/10 | Blair Cherry (Carson-Newman)
9/17 | Jordan Karlen (Tennessee Tech)
MEN’S SOCCER
8/27 | Alex Clayton (Belmont)
9/3 | A.J. Chastonay (Belmont)
9/10 | Robbie Lyons (Cumberland)
9/17 | A.J. Chastonay (Belmont)
WOMEN’S SOCCER
8/27 | Ai Kitagawa (Memphis)
9/3 | Neve Renwick (Tennessee Tech)
9/10 | Gabby Jones (Cumberland)
9/17 | Kiara Pralle (Lipscomb)