Kentucky volleyball closes non-conference play with signature win
Craig Skinner began his postgame interview Sunday afternoon with an admission.
He warned the media members in attendance that they would soon tire of his theme of “growth,” and how his young Kentucky volleyball team continues to take steps in the right direction.
But as much as Skinner has stressed the signs of progress shown during the opening month of the season, the Wildcats now have a tangible result to reflect their improvement.
No. 8 Kentucky recorded its first ranked win of the season Sunday, defeating No. 16 Stanford in five sets in front of a raucous crowd of 3,642 at Memorial Coliseum, the largest home crowd for a UK volleyball match since December 2017.
Both of UK’s five-set matches this season have come in the last week: A rivalry loss at No. 5 Louisville and now in a home win over Stanford, which also marked the final non-conference match of the season for Kentucky.
On Sunday, UK dropped the first set, 25-20, before winning the second set, 25-20, and the third set, 25-19. Stanford won the fourth set 25-22, before UK claimed the deciding fifth set, 15-10.
“You don’t know what a fifth game (set) feels like against a top-10 team until you’re there, and so we got an idea of that Wednesday and improved today,” Skinner said. “I mean (when) what you work on works in matches it adds belief. Finishing the job adds belief.”
The Wildcats finished the non-conference portion of the 2021 season with a 7-3 record. This period featured the team’s first home loss since November 2019 and its first loss to Louisville since 2012, but also seven matches against teams either ranked or receiving votes in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll when UK played them.
An updated AVCA poll was released Monday afternoon, with Kentucky tied for seventh in the country with Purdue. The Wildcats are the highest ranked Southeastern Conference team.
“Playing against a lot of top teams right away and in that short amount of time has been a little bit of a challenge, but it’s helped us grow a lot,” freshman setter Emma Grome said. “We’ve got a lot of potential.”
“We’re really young, so we kind of have to learn what it takes to win and it’s hard,” junior middle blocker Azhani Tealer added. “So I think just being in those matches, in those environments like we have been in preseason, is kind of showing us we’re going to have to dig our feet in a little bit and so that’s good for us to learn.”
Sunday’s victory featured career-best marks from several Kentucky underclassmen.
Sophomore Madi Skinner had 24 kills and 14 digs, while Grome had 58 assists. Kentucky’s final three points of the match were all kills by Skinner assisted by Grome.
“She’s going to make some hitting errors at times, but she’s going to get big kills when we need it,” Skinner, the head coach, said of Skinner, the player. “She obviously adds a dimension that some teams don’t have.”
All seven of UK’s wins this season have come when the Wildcats have posted a hitting percentage above .300. Kentucky had a hitting percentage of .304 across Sunday’s five sets.
When asked what he’s seen his team improve the most during non-conference play, Skinner said composure and being able to move on from one point to the next.
“I think we lacked (it) at Wisconsin, sometimes at Louisville. We were too concerned about how we were playing individually, and if you start thinking about that you’re not ready to compete for the next point. So we need to be thinking about what we’re doing,” he said. “You just got to be as intense about the next point as you were the last one.”
Building confidence and consistency was always the target for Kentucky ahead of its SEC opener, which comes Friday night at home against Missouri.
The Wildcats are aiming for a fifth straight conference title this season, a difficult enough proposition without adding in the fact UK is starting two freshmen: Grome and libero Eleanor Beavin.
This process of attempting to get back to a championship level has already dealt Kentucky more defeats this season than it did all of last. But the progress, measured before in moments, now has a signature win.
“I think that’s one of the biggest things with having a young team and having two freshmen on the court is that you need to have a lot of communication,” Grome said. “Especially as a setter you’re trying to figure out tempos and connections so I think talking is huge and just as a setter, trying to step into the leadership role on the court is big and I think every game I get a little bit better at it.
“I just see so many things that we can improve on,” Skinner added. “Where we’re going to be a month from now and (at) the end of the season from now, it’ll be a big difference.”
Friday
Missouri at Kentucky
When: 8 p.m.
TV: SEC Network
This story was originally published September 20, 2021 at 9:27 AM.
