Lady Vols Faith Dupree out for the season

University of Tennessee Lady Vol Head Basketball Coach Pat Summitt announced today that freshman center Faith Dupree will be sidelined this season.

"Faith has been experiencing recurrent lower back pain," explained Summitt.  "Our medical staff (Director of Sports Medicine Jenny Moshak, team orthopaedist Dr. Greg Mathien and team physician Dr. Becky Morgan) felt that the best course of action was to spend this season treating her.

"We are disappointed for Faith and what she means to our team," said Summitt. "She worked really hard in the preseason drills and conditioning but now she needs time to focus on getting her back healthy."

Moshak, University of Tennessee Associate Athletics Director for Sports Medicine, has been treating Dupree for back pain for several weeks.  "We are going to use this year to explore treatment options and provide aggressive rehabilitation," said Moshak.

Dupree, a 6-3 freshman from Knoxville, Tenn., appeared in the first two games of the season.  Against #7/4-ranked Baylor she logged four minutes and grabbed a rebound.  In San Antonio at the ESPNU Road to the Championship, she played 18 minutes and tossed in five points, grabbed six rebounds and had three assists in 18 minutes against Texas Tech.

Tennessee's roster now drops to 11 active players for the 2009-10 season.  Also sitting out this year, following both shoulder and brain surgery, is 6-1 sophomore forward Amber Gray of West Chester, Ohio.