Nov. 9, 2012
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Kentucky could not overcome its own errors on Friday in a four-set loss to Alabama. The Tide earned a 3-1 (25-23, 15-25, 25-18, 25-20) victory over the Blue and White in front of 421 fans at Foster Auditorium.
With the loss, Kentucky falls to 17-9 on the season and 11-5 in Southeastern Conference action. Alabama improves to 16-12 overall and 5-11 in league action. Kentucky will return to action with a 1 p.m. ET tilt at Arkansas on Sunday. The match will air live on Fox Sports South.
“Give credit to Alabama for applying pressure on is,” UK coach Craig Skinner said. “Mentally we weren’t sharp to start the match and as it went on we weren’t able to engage ourselves.”
The Wildcats hurt themselves in the match committing 25 hitting errors, 13 service mistakes and seven blocking errors in the match. UK posted just a .176 hitting clip in the match.
Senior Ashley Frazier logged 10 kills to lead UK’s offensive effort. She’s had 10 or more hammers in five-straight matches for UK. Freshman Sara Schwarzwalder had a career-high nine hammers within SEC play. Juniors Whitney Billings and Alexandra Morgan contributed eight each.
Senior setter Christine Hartmann had 38 assists and added nine digs in the loss. Senior Stephanie Klefot logged a match-high 14 digs to lead the defensive effort.
Alabama opened with a 25-23 opening set victory to go ahead 1-0 in the match. The Tide posted 17 kills on a .424 hitting percentage. Kentucky managed 16 hammers on .344 hitting with Frazier and Billings both logging four apiece.
The Blue and White trailed 20-16 late in the set before Billings brought the Cats to within one following a kill and a solo block. The Tide kept the Blue and White at bay, however, and earned set point at 24-21. UK saved set point twice thanks to a kill from Frazier. However, Alabama opted for its final timeout and came up with a kill out of the timeout for the winning point.
Kentucky captured a dominating 25-15 second set win to even the match at one set apiece heading into the break. UK utilized 13 kills on .385 hitting with Schwarzwalder tallying four to lead the way. UK forced Alabama into six hitting errors and the Tide only struck for 10 hammer son .129 hitting.
UK jumped out in front by a 4-0 score and never looked back in the frame. The Wildcats stretched its lead to as large as nine at 12-3 on a kill from Frazier. The Blue and White closed the frame on a 4-0 run with a pair of kills from Schwarzwalder and an ace from Frazier to highlight the run and the win.
In a back-and-forth battle to begin the third set the home team posted three-straight to earn a 9-7 lead early in the opening stages of the frame and forcing UK to burn a timeout. Out of the timeout the Tide continued the scoring onslaught and opened up an 11-7 lead. The Tide maintained an edge and stretched the lead to six at 17-11 with the Wildcats using their final timeout to attempt to stymie the run. Alabama held on for a 25-18 win to take a 2-1 edge in the match.
The Tide capitalized on nine hitting errors and six service mistakes by the Cats in the third set.
Alabama opened the fourth set scoring the first three points to grab an early 3-0 edge. The Tide maintained the lead and UK burned its first timeout trailing 8-4. Kentucky mounted a run of its own to fight back to within two at 11-9 following kills from Morgan and Billings prompting the home team to take a timeout. UK forced the Tide into a hitting error to get within one before the home team scored three-straight to retake a four-point lead at 14-10. The margin would be too much for UK to overcome as the Tide held on for a 25-20 win.
Visit UKathletics.com for the most up-to-date information on the UK volleyball team. For additional coverage of the volleyball squad be sure and check out CatScratchesBlog.com/volleyball.
