‘There’s much more in the tank for us.’ Kentucky rallies, loses but learns vs. No. 2.
Prior to Friday night’s match at No. 2 Wisconsin, Craig Skinner said his Kentucky volleyball team would need to be comfortable “when things go haywire” during what might be the Wildcats’ toughest test of the season.
Playing out of system was something the No. 8-ranked Wildcats expected to do plenty of Friday night in Madison, Wisconsin, inside the UW Field House. The result of that improvisation was a slow start and a strong finish, but ultimately a four-set loss to the Badgers.
In front of more than 7,500 fans, most of them wearing red — save for a contingent in blue behind the Kentucky bench — and a national television audience on the Big Ten Network, Kentucky looked flustered in the opening two sets of the match, dropping them 25-17 and 25-11.
The Wildcats, now 5-2 on the season, committed three service errors in the opening 13 points of the match and made seven attack errors in the opening set. Kentucky spent the entire match serving directly in front of a raucous Wisconsin student section.
Kentucky had a hitting percentage of just .033 in the first set and 0 in the second set, startling statistics for a team that entered the match seventh in the country in hitting percentage.
Kentucky has had a hitting percentage of more than .300 in all five of its wins this season. In its losses to Creighton and Wisconsin, those percentages have been .197 and .133.
Both the first and second sets saw Wisconsin close strong. The Badgers won the final six points of the first set and seven of the final eight points in the second set, and for the match Wisconsin finished with 61 kills compared to Kentucky’s 43.
The 11 points registered in the second set by UK was the fewest by the team in a non-fifth set since September 2017.
But the Wildcats sparked to life in the third set behind one of its few standout performers Friday night.
Sophomore Madi Skinner matched four-time Wisconsin All-American Dana Rettke with 16 kills in the match, and Skinner generated many of those after moving to the back row late to help generate offense.
The Wildcats led the third set 19-14, but later had to fend off several match points en route to winning the set, 28-26. Kentucky vastly improved its hitting percentage in the set, hitting .263.
The consistent offensive play from Skinner and the Wildcats continued into the fourth set, but again Kentucky let a sizable 18-14 lead slip. Once again the Wildcats fought off several match points before the Badgers won the set, 26-24.
The tone of the set, and ultimately the match, shifted down the stretch after a controversial attack error was called on Kentucky sophomore middle blocker Elise Goetzinger.
UK saved a total of eight match points from Wisconsin in the third and fourth sets combined.
“We’re disappointed we didn’t pull out the fourth set and push the match to a fifth,” Skinner, the head coach, said. “Our team was upset in the locker room and wanted more. We grew up as a team tonight, though, and there’s much more in the tank for us.”
This was Kentucky’s first match of the season that went longer than three sets, and similarly to UK’s other loss this season against Creighton, the Wildcats did not have much time to linger on this defeat.
Kentucky was to play Marquette on Saturday night in Milwaukee, before starting preparations for a Wednesday night rivalry match at No. 10 Louisville.
