Kentucky visits Wisconsin in battle of volleyball’s elite. ‘You just learn so much.’
Playing in the Southeastern Conference affords Kentucky volleyball plenty of scheduling advantages, from the guarantee of high-profile matches to opponents that are often ranked in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll.
Something that hasn’t been provided to the Wildcats in their conference schedule since 2018, though, is the chance to play a defending national semifinalist.
That is again true in 2021, as last season’s Final Four of the NCAA Tournament featured UK as the lone SEC representative, along with Texas of the Big 12, Washington of the Pac-12 and Wisconsin of the Big Ten.
But Friday, one of Kentucky’s marquee non-conference matches of the season will see the No. 8-ranked Wildcats travel to Madison, Wisconsin, for a 9 p.m. EDT match against the No. 2-ranked Badgers, offering head coach Craig Skinner an early measuring stick moment for his team.
“It’s a hell of an opportunity for us. This is why we schedule these matches, to give yourself an opportunity to win and beat those teams,” Skinner said Wednesday. “If we win, then we know we’re on the right path. If we don’t win, then we know the things we need to work on to get to the level that we need to be by the time the (NCAA) tournament starts.”
“I love playing these types of matches, (rather) than someone that’s ranked 75 in the country or even 30 in the country. You just learn so much.”
It’s a year-delayed homecoming for Skinner, who began his college coaching career at age 24 with a three-season stint as an assistant at Wisconsin from 1994 to 1996.
The matchup also pits longtime friends against each other in Skinner and Wisconsin head coach Kelly Sheffield. The pair began their coaching careers together at Burris Laboratory School in their shared hometown of Muncie, Indiana, where they both also attended Ball State University.
The match against Wisconsin, along with Saturday night’s trip to Marquette, were both part of Kentucky’s planned 2020 non-conference schedule before UK played only conference matches last season.
As such, the matches carried over to Kentucky’s 2021 schedule, and now offer Skinner the chance to simulate an NCAA Tournament weekend with one match quickly following another.
Through six matches this season, Skinner said his team is further along than he and his staff expected.
The Wildcats are 5-1, having swept through their opening weekend tournament in Dayton, Ohio, before going 2-1 last weekend in the Bluegrass Battle at Memorial Coliseum.
Kentucky handily defeated Northern Iowa in its home opener Friday night — unveiling its national championship banner prior to the match — before splitting Saturday’s matches against Creighton and Southern California.
The 3-0 loss to Creighton on Saturday morning was Kentucky’s first straight-sets defeat in more than two years.
But the bounce-back win over Southern California just hours later displayed Kentucky at its early-season best: Defending diligently and hitting effectively.
“I would not have expected us to be hitting over .300 in five of the six matches that we played in,” Skinner said. “That’s a pretty impressive number to this point, regardless of who you’re playing.”
Through six matches, opponents are hitting just .111 and averaging only 10 kills per set against Kentucky.
The Wildcats are averaging more than two digs more than their opponents per set, 14.9 to 12.7, and Kentucky as a team has 48 blocks this season compared to just 22 from its opponents combined.
But these impressive defensive data points will face their biggest test of the season Friday night.
The Badgers are 4-0, only dropping one set to No. 17 Baylor. Wisconsin middle blocker Dana Rettke, a graduate student, has 26 kills and 10 blocks this season and is trying to earn an unprecedented fifth straight All-America honor in 2021.
Rettke represents the experience Wisconsin boasts, as the Badgers made the Final Four last season, the national championship game in 2019 and the Elite Eight in 2018.
This experience contrasts with a young Kentucky team that replaced three starters from last season’s title-winning team.
Friday will also mark the most challenging road test yet for Kentucky, which will also face a hostile environment Wednesday at No. 10 Louisville.
After the Southern California match, Skinner said he feels like the Wildcats are still about a month away from “really kind of seeing where we are as a team.”
Kentucky doesn’t have that kind of time to prepare for one of its toughest challenges of the season, but nonetheless Friday will be a chance to evaluate where the Wildcats are in their quest to repeat as national champions.
“They’ve (Wisconsin) played in big matches over and over and over again,” Skinner said. “You have to be comfortable when things go haywire. We’ll be out of system a lot, they’ll be out of system a lot. Can we be better than them when it’s not passed perfectly or done perfectly? I think that’s something that we can manage pretty well and we’re going to have to do it in that environment.”
Friday
No. 8 Kentucky at No. 2 Wisconsin
When: 9 p.m. EDT
TV: Big Ten Network
Records: Kentucky 5-1, Wisconsin 4-0
Series: Kentucky leads 4-2
Last meeting: Wisconsin won 3-0 on Aug. 30, 2008, in Lexington.
