'Mental Fortitude' Helps Cats top Cards on Sunday

The first set of Sunday’s top five showdown between No. 4 Kentucky and third-ranked Louisville could not have started much worse for the Cats. The Cards scored the first four points of the match and would eventually build a 14-5 lead on their way to a 25-19 set one victory.

Many of the issues that Kentucky experienced in the first set were self-inflicted. The Cats had 10 hitting errors in the first stanza and hit just .079. UK also had a blocking error in that set.

From that point on, the Cats were much better, hitting .336 over the final three sets. They were able to right the ship in time to claim a 3-1 win over No. 3 Louisville inside Historic Memorial Coliseum.

UK head coach Craig Skinner liked the resolve his team showed in Sunday’s win.

“I’m just really proud of the mental fortitude of our team after the first set,” Skinner said. “I think our team did a really good job of staying in the moment as the match went on, especially after the first set. Great day. Just proud of our team.”

Skinner was asked in the post-match press conference if he made any adjustments following the first set.

“We didn’t make a ton of adjustments. We had a good game plan going in,” Skinner said. “We made too many hitting errors in the first set. It just came down to execution and finishing things.”

Senior Brooklyn DeLeye, who led everyone with 22 kills in the match, knew that the Cats needed to keep their feet on the gas, despite what happened in set one.

“Everybody knows the first set was bad, but I think the team did a good job of just not letting up. Going into the second set, we knew (the ball) was going to start falling. Making sure that, as a team, we are still being aggressive and not letting up because, against a top three team in the country, they’ll put pressure on you if you just take a little bit off.”

The UK head coach gave a lot of credit to Kassie O’Brien, the UK setter, as well as the Kentucky hitters.

“I thought Kassie really got a lot better as the match went on,” Skinner said. “To get hittable balls to the right people at the right time and (Asia Thigpen and DeLeye) obviously stepped up at crucial times.”

Skinner knows that it is important for a team’s best players to play well against tough competition.

“Against great teams, you need your best players to step up and they did that today,” he said. “I think they expect that from themselves and they’re just trying to win.”

While Sunday’s match did not start the way the Cats had hoped, the final three sets were much better as Kentucky beat another Final Four contender in Louisville.