Aug. 30, 1999
The University of Kentucky volleyball team opened its season on Saturdayafternoon with the annual “Blue and White Scrimmage, ” an intra-squad match inMemorial Coliseum. The match gave the Wildcats an early chance to play in frontof their home fans before the season and home opener on September 1st againstEastern Kentucky.
The match consisted of five games with many of the players switching teamsafter each game. The Blue team won the match 3-2 with the games going 9-15,9-15, 15-4, 15-11, 15-13.
Seniors Katie Eiserman and Terri Crabb starred for the Wildcats as Eisermantotaled 19 kills while Crabb had a total of 46 assists. Freshman Kristen Battgot her UK career off to a fast start with 14 kills and 17 digs. Fellow froshAleisha Craven also had 17 digs.
“Today was a good chance for the freshman to work through somejitters,”said Head Coach Jona Braden. “They all made some good digs on balls, but stillneed to improve on directing the ball to a specific target in order to puttheir teammates in a position to make a play.”
In the beginning of the match it was obvious to even the untrained eye thatthis scrimmage marked the Cats? first public appearance this season. In thefirst game the teams combined for 15 hitting errors, 4 service errors and 3service receiving errors while overall playing tentatively.
“We were tipping too many balls early in the match, generally not making solidcontact,” said Braden. “After that first game we talked to our players aboutfocusing on their aggressive-ness and improving their ball control off ofservice receptions. We were impressed with the way that they addressed theideas we had touched on and improved their play throughout the match. We?d justlike to see them start with a higher level of play at the beginning of thematch and sustain it.”
The Cats will have three days of practice before they lace ?em up forreal on Wednesday. The players will use those last three days to focus on theirserving, transition game from defense to offense and ball control. Wednesday?sgame will begin at 7 p.m. in Memorial Coliseum.
