Stakes High as In-State Foes UK, WKU Meet Again

Three-and-a-half months ago, Kentucky and WKU met in Memorial Coliseum.
 
It was a high-level match with all kinds of skill and talent on the floor, but the stakes were minimal. UK, after all, was playing its first-ever exhibition match ahead of the start of the 2017 regular season.
 
Saturday, the Wildcats and Hilltoppers will go toe to toe once again. The stakes couldn’t be much different this time around.
 
A trip to the Sweet 16 is on the line.
 
The two in-state foes took care of business on Friday night, with host and No. 4 overall seed Kentucky (27-3) eliminating East Tennessee State in a 3-0 sweep in front of 4,005 fans. WKU (31-3), meanwhile, swept Notre Dame in the first half of the evening’s doubleheader.
 
“Travis Hudson and Western Kentucky don’t win 90 percent of their games because it’s luck,” Skinner said. “They’re very skilled, they’re very talented on defense. Yes, their offensive hitting percentage is impressive, but perennially they’ve been really known as a great defensive team.”
 
Back in August, Skinner knew he had a group with incredible potential. Adding a fifth-ranked recruiting class to already with plenty of standouts, that exhibition gave the Cats an early chance to test themselves. They showed encouraging signs back then and backed that up throughout the year, punctuating a memorable regular season by clinching the program’s first Southeastern Conference championship in 29 years.
 
“This Kentucky team, there’s been a lot of talk this week about Kentucky getting one of the top-four seeds and did they deserve it and other teams that did and all that,” Hudson said. “Man, I think that’s completely unfair to these kids in this program because yes there are other teams that could have made their case too and that’s easy to do for people to stand out there and do, but this Kentucky program absolutely has earned where they are right now.
 
“They’re absolutely deserving of being a top-four seed. They’re a talented group, they’re a very well-coached group, they’re physical and they’re a team that could play with anybody in the country.”
 
WKU matched UK’s regular-season conference title with a 13-1 run through Conference USA before claiming the league tournament to boot. The two Kentucky squads will now match up in a showcase for volleyball in the Bluegrass State.
 
“Well it’s a great time for volleyball in this state,” Hudson said. “I think the fact that Louisville and UK and Western Kentucky are all not only in this tournament but as conference champions in each of our respective leagues and you know, we have a chance to match up against them tomorrow.”
 
The matchup might be a reprisal of that August exhibition, but times have changed.
 
“It’s completely different teams,” Skinner said. “Our team is way different than we were back then and their team is way different than they were back then. I don’t even think in that match either team had their entire starting lineup in each set. As a coach and a team, you don’t ever take history as what’s going to happen in the future definitively.”
 
Skinner and the Cats put a lot more stock into what they saw from the Hilltoppers on Friday. WKU handcuffed Notre Dame to the tune of a .144 hitting percentage
 
“Definitely their whole team has improved and their defense is really incredible,” Leah Edmond said. “That was nice to watch. It’ll be a nice battle between their defense and our offense tomorrow.”
 
Exactly what you’d expect of a match of this magnitude.
 
“Western Kentucky had a great year, we had a great year and tomorrow’s another opportunity to lace ’em up and go,” Skinner said.