Balanced Offense Paces Kentucky Volleyball Team on Sunday

The Kentucky volleyball offense showed great balance in Sunday’s win over Ole Miss. In the four-set victory, the Cats had three players reach double figures in kills and two others notch at least seven.

Having offensive success is a multi-layered process. To a common fan, it may be just about hitters making plays. However, following the match, UK associate head coach Kyle Luongo said that he knows it’s about much more than that.

“It definitely starts with the passing,” Luongo said. “Because that opens up the opportunity to (produce offensively). But also, what we wanted to do going into the match, we wanted to increase our involvement and our set distribution in the middle third of the court. That obviously involved players like Kennedy (Washington). So, being able to do that was important for us.”

The good passing allowed setter Kassie O’Brien to choose from a number of hitters on Sunday, almost all of whom were able to produce. O’Brien had 43 assists in the match, setting up a plethora of hitters for success.

Brooklyn DeLeye led the way with 14 kills, while Morgan Gaerte added 13. UK got good production out of its middle blockers as Lizzie Carr had 11 kills, while Washington added eight. Asia Thigpen had seven kills for the Cats as well.

Washington, who is not necessarily known for her offensive performance, notched her second-highest kill total of the season with eight. She knows that, even if she’s not putting up offensive statistics, there are plenty of ways for her to contribute to the team.

“I think my mindset coming in is just giving to the team,” Washington said. “Just doing the little things for the team, like getting block touches that might not show up on the stat sheet, but I know that in the end, it could turn into a free ball and we set Morgan (Gaerte) or (DeLeye). So, just doing the little things to set my team up and put them in a good position.”

Having offensive balance will continue to be important as the Cats move toward the postseason. Teams that are able to set the balls to multiple hitters become tough to defend, opening up hitters for one-on-one opportunities.

The way Kentucky distributed the ball on Sunday is how the Cats would like to execute in every match, especially as the regular season moves forward with games that will become increasingly important.