Finding Love on Rocky Top
From class schedules to wedding bells, we’re sharing the stories of Vols who found more than just a degree at UT. This is a tribute to the late-night dates on the Strip, the intramural championships won together, and the lifelong partnerships that prove the best part of Tennessee is the people you meet along the way.
Marina Abdelnour (’19) + Mina Masoud (’20)
We met freshman year in our Engineering Fundamentals class, where Marina was always a little jealous of Mina for acing every exam. We shared the same major and quickly became close friends—more like dedicated study buddies. Mina would stay up late in Hodges helping Marina and her friend work through mass balances, heat transfer, and all the tough chemical engineering courses.
After graduation, Mina moved to Virginia while Marina headed to Dallas to start her career. We didn’t stay in touch much, but life brought us both back to Nashville around the same time (2 years after we graduated). We reconnected and caught up on everything. One meetup after another, until Mina finally asked Marina out. Not long after, we were engaged. We chose to take our save-the-date photos at the very place we first met, Rocky Top. Go Vols!!!
Jordan (’24) + Jacob (’23) Anderson
We both met in high school and went to UT together to study engineering. We went to all the football, basketball, and baseball games together, even traveling for away games. Our favorite memory is rushing the field after beating Alabama. We got engaged at the rock in 2024 and got married in 2025. Our send off at our wedding included guests waving orange and white pom poms as we walked out to Rocky Top! We even had matching Tennessee orange shoes, and our guest book was a Tennessee jersey! We came to UT and never want to leave Knoxville! When we moved into our first house we made our bonus room completely UT themed!
Chloe Bannerman (’25) + Jacob Maples (’25)
Jacob and I met my sophomore and his junior year at UT through All Campus Events All-Sing competition! I coached for my sorority, and Jacob ran the event as the director of ACE. We hit it off and began dating and doing all things UT together, going to football games, ACE events, and even graduating together this past December. We are now engaged and planning our post graduation lives in Knoxville!
Jaimie (’23) + Brent (’19) Bennae
I had just got out of the Marine Corps in California and decided to go to University of Tennessee. The veterans program at TN introduced me to another veteran, and when I arrived in Tn I went out to dinner with other veterans in downtown Knoxville. When I walked in he locked eyes with me and said he knew right then I would be his wife one day. I immediately friend zoned him haha, but we became best friends for years, with so many beautiful fun memories on campus. No one had ever made me laugh so much before.
He introduced me to tailgating and football games and I fell in love with the atmosphere of it all. We spent countless hours in the library studying and giggling over jokes only we understood, and when things got overwhelming he would be there for me by the river and the beautiful campus. I eventually gave in and promoted him to boyfriend, then he asked me to be his wife at Schultz Brau. Now we have a son and a daughter who sing rocky top at every game with our season football tickets. I will forever be grateful to my home sweet home university of Tennessee for all the love, laughter, tears, and memories. Vol for Life.
Melodi (’15) + Jay (’15) Brown
Melodi and Jay met their senior year at UT – coincidentally in an elective Screenwriting class. She was a teacher’s pet, and he was the class clown, constantly cracking jokes about the film material they’d review in class. After connecting on their drafted screenplays, they bonded over movies, music, and their shared love of Tennessee athletics. They graduated together in 2015, both pursued careers in Atlanta, and have been together ever since! 11 years together, 4 years married and counting, Melodi and Jay welcomed their son Johnny to their family last November and are already instilling in him that it’s great to be a Tennessee Vol!
Katherine (’23) + Eli (’20) Carter
We met freshman year, but things got real sophomore year over chess games on the HSS lawn. From rushing the field in 2022 to moving to NYC together after graduation, it’s been a wild ride. We headed back to Knoxville in August 2024 to get married at Lakeshore Park, our old college hangout,and just spent our first anniversary cheering on the Vols at the season opener!
Reagan Davies (’25) + Will Jansma (’24)
Will and I met on a crowded Thursday at the TRECS during our junior year. I almost stayed in bed, but I dragged myself to the gym only to have a total stranger ask, “Is your name Reagan?”
He’d seen me around campus and finally worked up the nerve to ask for my number. When I said yes, he just stood there smiling, completely frozen. I eventually had to ask if he actually wanted to use my phone; he later admitted he was so nervous he hadn’t even planned for the possibility of a “yes.”
Two days later was our first date, and we’ve been inseparable since. From storming the field after beating Bama to winning intramural volleyball championships and graduating together, UT will always be the “Home Sweet Home” where our story started.
Rachel (’04) + Alex (’04) Evans
Alex and Rachel met in Math 125 in Ayres Hall. They were assigned to take a quiz together. Two years later, Alex played lacrosse with a mutual friend of Rachel’s. Alex asked Rachel out on a date. Now, seventeen years of marriage, two children later, they represent the Vols in ATL. VFL! GBO!
Chloe Beth (’19) + Peyton (’19) Givens
Peyton and I first stepped foot on campus together in fall of 2015 – he lived in Reese and I was in Humes. We didn’t know it yet, but throughout high school and college, we ran in very similar circles & were actually at various events together, but we didn’t meet until fall of senior year.
On October 13, 2018, the Vols upset Auburn on the road, and we met for the first time while celebrating at Cool Beans. He invited me to his fraternity’s tailgate for the next game against Alabama, and we soon realized our moms have known each other our whole lives through a mutual friend. Years later, we said “I Do” on April 6, 2024, and are expecting our own little Vol in June 2026!
Victoria Hamblin (’25) + Luke Puzzuoli (’25)
What started at a Big Orange Welcome event turned into four years of lunch dates at Raising Cane’s and nights out at Cool Beans. Luke and Victoria graduated together in 2025, survived long distance with a few surprise visits, and recently got engaged on a December cruise. They’re heading back to the Smokies to tie the knot in May 2027!
Ashley Heavey (’23) + Vincent Voltner (’23)
My fiancé Vinny and I met almost 4 years ago to the day on 2/16/2022 as a blind date for a Valentines party! We are now engaged and living in Denver!
Stephine (’94) + Brian (’96) Hopper
Our story started in 1993 at Reese Hall, where a 4-hour phone call about a “coed” softball team changed everything. Between cards at the front desk, basketball near the “Bubble,” and a first date at the UC, we fell in love across campus. We got married in 1997, on the same day Peyton Manning lost the Heisman, and now we’re the proud parents of four Vols (past and present). We don’t have a single student photo of us, but we have a lifetime of memories.
Avery (’21) + Nathaniel (’23) Hutchison
Nate and I met our freshman year (2018) and became best friends immediately. We studied, ate in PCB dining hall, and spent most of our time in AFROTC. Nate was also in the Pride of the Southland, where I looked for him at every football game.
I promised myself I would tell him how I felt before I graduated (Dec 2021), but at Cool Beans in November he made the first move to tell me how he felt. After a few short months close together, I entered active duty in April 2022 and moved to Panama City, FL, then was stationed in Oklahoma City, OK in February 2023. Nate graduated in May 2023 and commissioned into the Space Force, and we made time for visits as we could.
Nate trained in Lompoc, CA in February 2024, then was stationed in Cavalier, ND in September 2024. In February 2025 he proposed in OKC and I said yes. We eloped in June in North Dakota, then had the most beautiful ceremony in Pigeon Forge on January 18th with Tennessee orange and white shakers. After serious health issues and a long road toward medical retirement, we will finally be together in March in Denver, CO. Rocky Top will always be Home Sweet Home to us. 🧡
Gage Johnson (’25) + Olivia Russo (’25)
I met Olivia in 2021 after a desperate, seven-flight sprint to my Chemistry lab in Strong Hall. Out of breath and looking for a lab partner, I asked the prettiest girl in the room to team up. I spent the rest of the semester “accidentally” sabotaging our experiments just to spend more time with her. It worked,that November, she asked me to her formal, and four years later, we’re still together.
Kate (’21) + Payton (’21) Laurence
In 2017, on the eighth floor of Morrill Hall, we were just two freshmen finding our footing. What started as shared moments at RA events, the Rock, and the T-Recs shifted into something certain just three weeks into the semester.
We loved campus life so much we stayed in the dorms all four years, working everywhere from Hodges Library to the Papa John’s by Cool Beans. Morrill Hall may no longer be standing, but that floor marked the beginning of our lives together. After graduating in 2021 and starting our careers in Knoxville, we married in 2023, playing “Rocky Top” at the wedding to honor where it all began.
Today, we live in Chicago, but our Vol pride stays strong through the local alumni group. A single dorm floor changed everything.
Jennifer (’97) + Scott (’95) Lemmons
I spotted him across the room in a religious studies class. He had his fitted baseball cap on (turned backwards with his fraternity letters) and I would watch him and he was the only reason I went to class. We actually met at a party and I walked up and introduced myself. It’s been 33 years and we’re still supporting the Big Orange together.
Marianna (’00) + Keith (’20) Ryan
We both went to UT and graduated on the same day, had some of the same friends, but never met until the year after graduation at the Tennessee Georgia game. He was visiting one of his friends that still lived here, who happen to be dating my friend who still lived here. Terrifyingly, he told his friend the night we met that he was going to marry me. Two years later, it came true. I don’t have any pictures handy from back then, but here is us in 2023, and with our kids.
Rachael (’25) + John (’24) Schmudde
My husband and I first met at the University of Tennessee through our church group. By the second semester of my freshman year, we joined our friends on a spring break trip, and soon after, we went on our very first date. From the beginning, our relationship was rooted in a shared love for faith, the outdoors, and cheering on the Vols.
We became engaged in April 2025 and joyfully celebrated our wedding that August. For our honeymoon, we traveled to Japan, where we even found a little piece of home at the Good Ole Tennessee Bar. Since then, we’ve continued a tradition of attending every UTK football home game together.
The University of Tennessee is more than just where our story began—it will always hold a special place in our hearts.
David (’75) + Malinda (’73) Torbett
In early 1971, during All-Sing rehearsals for Reese and Humes Hall, I was a freshman tenor sitting behind a sophomore alto who wouldn’t stop complaining about her dirty glasses. I finally had enough and, in a manner I’ll not repeat here, told her to hand them over so I could clean them myself.
After a few delays and a stint in the UT hospital, we finally set our first date. The concert we planned to see was canceled an hour before the show, but we made the best of it over supper in the Humes lobby.
We married in June 1977 and shared 48 years and 11 hours together.
In memoriam of my favorite alto, who passed away June 19th.
Anna (’20) + Bryce (’20) Wade
After being set up by my best friend, Bryce and I spent our time at UT inseparable. Our May 2020 graduation was delayed by the pandemic, but by the time make-up ceremonies were scheduled, we were married and about to leave for our honeymoon. We signed up for the only time slot that worked, a Thursday morning, and discovered we were the only two students there. Having a private graduation ceremony in Thompson-Boling Arena remains one of our favorite memories!
