Service Pressure Leads Kentucky Past Creighton, Into Final Four

On Friday, Kentucky volleyball head coach Craig Skinner and Creighton head coach Brian Rosen talked about serving and how important it would be in Saturday’s NCAA Volleyball regional final between their teams.

Turns out, they could not have emphasized just how important it would be in the match. The Cats pressured the Blue Jays from the service line all night, taking the Creighton offense out of system on the way to a 3-0 win on Saturday inside Historic Memorial Coliseum.

With the win, Kentucky advances to the second Final Four in school history. This year’s event will be played at the T Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri. UK will open play on Thursday against either Texas or Wisconsin, who play in their regional championship on Sunday.

After the match, Skinner was asked about how much pressure his team was able to put on Creighton in Saturday’s match and how that effected not only what Creighton was doing, but also how it aided Kentucky’s defensive effort.

“A significant amount,” Skinner said. “I don’t know what their good pass percentage was but it was probably under 50 percent. If you’re under 50 percent, then it gives us a great chance to set up our block and defense.”

With the Blue Jays out of system, Kentucky was able to convert free balls or other soft attacks, getting into their offense, where the Cats were very effective.

“Someone said 62 digs (for Kentucky, compared to Creighton’s) 47 digs,” Skinner said. “(That’s big) in a match like that, and a big part of that is serving pressure to force them into uncomfortable situations.”

Skinner thought that the effort from the service line was across the team rather than one particular person doing most of the damage.

“We had several people really do a good job of that and I’m not sure that Creighton had felt that in a while,” Skinner said. “So, it was really important for us in this match.”

Some people believe that the measure of effective serving is  the total number of service aces. However, in Saturday’s match, Kentucky had just two aces, but the Cats also had just two service errors, continuing to pressure Creighton and to get the Blue Jays out of what they were trying to do. That service pressure was massive on Saturday and was one of the biggest reasons Kentucky was able to win the match and advance to the Final Four.