They teach scribes early on in journalism 101 to avoid cliches at pretty much all costs. Pardon me just this once for saying it: Defense wins championships. In the season’s most important game of the year, UK’s defense dominated the Oregon Ducks. The Cats recorded a season-high 17 blocks Saturday night in Memorial Coliseum, stuffing the No. 14 seed’s chance at advancing to the Sweet 16.Instead, it will be UK moving on to Minneapolis next week, matching the school’s deepest NCAA Tournament run since 1992.”Well, that was fun,” head coach Craig Skinner said. “One of the things that we’ve had written on our erase board all year long is good teams never stop getting better. That’s been evident the last week. It’s hard to do when you get towards the end of the season. The nice thing is our blocking has been OK this year, and it really turned out tonight. That is critical when you get into the NCAA Tournament.”It’s the difference between the winners and the losers, the second round and the round of 16. UK had it (17 blocks) and Oregon (three blocks) didn’t.”I thought we set up really well,” Skinner said. “We were very assertive and aggressive. Typically when you don’t block well you reach your hands all over the place. We were really structured and disciplined with what we did. We had a great game plan and the team followed it extremely well.” That game plan centered on minimizing former All-American Sonja Newcombe from doing what she’s done all season. She’s been one of the best terminators in the Pac-10, averaging a gaudy 4.34 kills per set. Newcombe tallied 14 kills on the night and hard-hitting Heather Meyers notched 16 of them, but for the most part, UK limited the Oregon attack and forced it from playing its typical fast-paced style by taking away the center of the court.”We needed to give up some line shots a bit and they got some kills down the line, but we did not to let them pound the ball in the middle of the court,” Skinner said. “I thought we did a great job making that happen.”It was Skinner initially who predicted UK would have to play defense to advance in the NCAA Tournament. Fresh off the Cats’ victory Friday night, Skinner said defense would play a critical role in Saturday’s match.He stopped short of allowing anyone to call him a prophet after the big win.”I wish I was that good at predicting like that,” Skinner said. “We’ve worked on defense every single day in practice. It was bound to come through. I think we’re just starting to continue to get better. Everyone recognizes that at any point in time in the match the ball can come to you. We were very alert tonight and made a lot of plays.”Few were more alert than Lauren Rapp. The junior right-side hitter recorded a career-high 10 blocks and it seemed as if she, Gretchen Giesler and Becky Pavan had a hand on nearly every Oregon shot. When they weren’t stuffing the shots to the hardwood on the floor, they were usually altering shots. Rapp, who credited the Cats’ positioning and preparation, said they built more and more confidence with each smothering block.”It just gives you so much momentum,” Rapp said. “I think it’s the biggest momentum booster, getting a block for your team. We went on a run of three blocks in a row at one point (in the third set). It’s just so much fun and it gives you so much energy.”Speaking of a jolt, if there was any thought about any lingering demons after last week’s late-season collapse, they’ve been completely erased. UK has discovered newfound life and will enter the Sweet 16 as one of the hottest teams in the tourney.It comes at a time when the Cats are on the verge of taking the program’s next step in joining the nation’s elite.”It’s very difficult to get to a regional,” Skinner said. “It’s not just the matches you speak of in building a program. It’s getting to the point where your players in the program believe that you can do that. It’s a lot of hard work. They put the energy into it and we don’t want to go participate. It’s about going to the next step. It’s a six-match season and we’ve got two down and the third one comes up on Friday.”That means four more until the championship. If the Cats keep playing defense like they did in the first two rounds, they have as good of a shot as anyone.,
