UK’s defending champions needed stability. They turned to a freshman from Louisville.
Eleanor Beavin had approximately five minutes to prepare for one of the biggest moments of her life.
The Kentucky volleyball team was down two sets in a marquee early-season road match at then-No. 2 Wisconsin, and nothing was going right for UK.
In search of a stabilizing presence, one that would calm the Wildcats and reset their focus, head coach Craig Skinner turned to a freshman.
Beavin was a standout libero at Louisville’s Mercy Academy, earning 2020 Gatorade Kentucky Volleyball Player of the Year honors in addition to being a three-time state defensive player of the year, and she had already carved out a role within the UK program as a defensive specialist.
But in just the seventh match of her college career and in front of more than 7,500 fans, Skinner moved Beavin back to her traditional spot at libero.
While the Wildcats lost the match in four sets, Beavin’s impact was immediately felt.
In the third set alone, which Kentucky won, UK recorded 16 kills. The Wildcats had 15 kills in the first two sets combined.
Wisconsin’s hitting percentage also dropped drastically in the third and fourth sets with Beavin leading the UK defense.
“We had no idea how she would handle that, but she handled it like a champ,” Skinner said. “She earned the opportunity and because she earned it we gave her that and felt like it was the right thing to do at the right time. And then she took advantage of it.”
“I didn’t have time to stress over it, analyze what I was going to do ... I genuinely don’t remember how well I even did that game because I was just like, ‘You got it, you can do it, you can do it, freaking out,’” Beavin recalls. “But after the game I was like, ‘You just did that. You were a freshman libero against the number two team in the country with the biggest fan base that you’re ever going to play against pretty much ...’ my mind was just on overdrive and I just went in and did my job.”
Beavin has started 12 straight matches at libero for UK, providing a steady hand as the Wildcats are now 16-3 on the season, ranked No. 5 in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association poll and the only team still undefeated in SEC play at 9-0.
The libero, easily distinguished by the different color jersey worn by the player at that position, is one of a team’s best defensive players and passers.
This means Beavin is involved in most points for Kentucky, from recording digs on opposing serves to helping facilitate ball movement offensively.
Despite rarely starting freshmen at libero — Skinner can only recall doing so once at Kentucky and that was due to an injury — he remains confident and comfortable with Beavin in that role, and the results have followed.
“To see the way she performed and got a starting spot as a defensive specialist initially, then to come in against Wisconsin and do what she did, it really says a lot about her and it’s pretty exceptional of her to be able to do that,” Skinner said.
Calm and collected
Connie Hulsmeyer has observed Beavin’s development as a person and player.
She spent several years on the coaching staff at Mercy and also coached Beavin at the club level with PNK Volleyball in Louisville.
Her first memory of Beavin is of a 10-year old girl being one of the best players on one of the country’s best under-12 teams, already displaying some of her current skills.
“Even at 10 or 11 years old, always focused on what she was doing in practice, which is really special for a kid that age,” Hulsmeyer said. “Her attention span wasn’t all over the place. She was dialed in and working hard every minute of practice, every minute of conditioning.”
Beavin’s mother, Andrea, was part of the 1985 Mercy team that won the school’s first state title in volleyball, before going on to play at Bellarmine University in Louisville.
Beavin, who is the youngest of five girls, began playing volleyball when she was around 4 years old.
All of her sisters played the sport in grade school, but Beavin has stuck with volleyball the longest, and has come to value the sport as a therapeutic activity, one that brings her comfort during chaos.
“If my personal life isn’t going well, if school isn’t going well, I always have volleyball,” Beavin said. “It just clears my mind and I think that’s why I keep going back to it.”
But Beavin’s even-keeled demeanor wasn’t always in place.
She cried during practice as a 13- and 14-year old, overwhelmed with frustration after making mistakes.
“That’s been a big part of her growth, that she’s learned to kind of be steady, no matter what the situation,” Hulsmeyer said. “A lot of it is confidence ... she’s really learned to go, ‘I am who I am, I know what I can do and I’m going to do what I do.’”
By the time Beavin was in high school, Skinner and the Kentucky program had taken notice of not only her stellar play at libero, but also of her consistency.
“She was always the same presence,” Skinner remembers. “When you went to watch her, it was just always the same person. The same result. The same consistency. The same teammate. That’s reassuring for people to play around her.”
Growing up in the volleyball hotbed of Louisville, Beavin had several people pulling her toward joining the Cardinals.
But this was also true for Kentucky.
Current Kentucky senior libero Lauren Tharp and Beavin overlapped for one season at Mercy, and that connection gave Beavin a resource to learn more about what the Wildcats program had to offer.
In September 2018, at the start of her sophomore year, Beavin committed to Kentucky.
“I just remember telling her this is the place to be,” Tharp said of her conversations with Beavin. “Some people call it ‘Libero University.’ I just remember emphasizing to her that if you want to be the best at your position and get the most out of coming here and being a libero, you need to come to Kentucky because we focus heavily on passing and fundamentals and defense and it’s really what our program is known for.”
‘The pain of losing’
During her time at Mercy, Beavin and the Jaguars reached four straight Kentucky high school state championship matches.
Mercy lost all four, the first three to Louisville rival Assumption High School and the final one to Notre Dame Academy last November.
Progress was made each year, with Mercy losing the 2017 finals in straight sets before losing last year’s finals by just two points in a five-set match.
Beavin knows she will never win a state championship, but the experience has increased her desire to win at the college level as part of a program that won its first national title just seven months ago.
“I know girls who won (in high school), pretty much every year, and they’re not at the same level of where me and my high school teammates are in college now, because we understand the pain of losing and the pain of working so hard to get to that championship and continuing to lose it so close to your goal for that year,” Beavin explained. “I think that was actually really important for me, as opposed to just winning like three or four times.”
Beavin compares the Southeastern Conference championship — of which UK has won the last four — to the “state tournament” of titles she could win at UK.
Thus far, Beavin’s play at libero is a major reason why UK has a lead atop the SEC standings over Florida and Mississippi State.
Beavin has recorded double-digit digs in all 13 matches she’s appeared in at libero this season, with a season-high of 20 coming in a four-set win at Mississippi State and a five-set win at home against Arkansas.
Beavin was named the SEC Freshman of the Week in late September, joining setter Emma Grome as UK freshmen to earn an league honor this season.
Through both correlation and causation, Beavin’s switch to libero has allowed the Wildcats to win.
UK is 11-1 since the Wisconsin defeat, with ranked wins over Stanford and Tennessee and the only loss being a five-set defeat at still-unbeaten Louisville.
“As a libero, you have to communicate, way, way more. You have to be a leader,” Beavin said, noting that she often spends 30 minutes on individual work after three-hour practices. “You have to take control of everyone in the backcourt and make sure that they’re doing their job, as well as doing your own. It’s a huge responsibility.”
During that Friday night in Madison, Skinner said the only reservation he had was if a move to libero would backfire and lead to a lack of confidence for Beavin.
Two months later, the same qualities that earned Beavin that opportunity are the reasons why she’s enjoyed continued success.
“She just has observations that you wouldn’t think normally a freshman would pick out, either about herself or about the play or about the game,” Skinner said. “So she’s very into it, very detailed and I think the combination of everything is why she’s really excelling at her position right now.”
This week
No. 5 Kentucky at South Carolina
When: 7 p.m. Thursday and 7 p.m. Friday
Live video broadcast: SEC Network Plus (online only)
Records: Kentucky 16-3 (9-0 SEC), South Carolina 12-10 (4-8)
SEC standings
Kentucky 16-3 (9-0)
Mississippi State 17-5 (8-2)
Florida 14-6 (8-2)
Tennessee 16-5 (8-3)
Arkansas 15-6 (6-4)
Ole Miss 17-5 (6-5)
LSU 10-12 (6-7)
Texas A&M 11-9 (4-6)
Auburn 12-9 (4-7)
Georgia 8-14 (4-7)
South Carolina 12-10 (4-8)
Alabama 10-13 (2-9)
Missouri 4-20 (1-10)
