Total Team Effort Lifts Kentucky Into Elite Eight
For the Kentucky volleyball team to make it to the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight for just the third time in school history, head coach Craig Skinner knew it would take a special effort. What Skinner didn’t know was that it would take career and season-best efforts from multiple players for his team to do so.
It was that type of effort that was needed, and it was that type of effort that Kentucky got on Friday, as the Wildcats rallied to top BYU in five sets inside Memorial Coliseum. It was the second consecutive match in which Kentucky needed five sets to win, and this one took big efforts from multiple players.
Freshman Avery Skinner came up huge in the biggest match of her young career. The outside hitter from Katy, Texas, had a career-best 20 kills. Junior Brooke Morgan tied a season high with 12 kills. And Kaz Brown set a season high with nine total blocks.
If that wasn’t enough to get the job done, freshman setter Madison Lilley had 63 assists, just short of her career-high of 65, while setting a new career standard of seven block assists in the match. She also tied her career-high with 12 digs.
Kentucky needed every one of them. The Wildcats lost the first set 25-20 before winning the second set 25-17. BYU won the third set 25-22 before Kentucky was able to win set four 25-18.
In the fifth and deciding set, Kentucky fell behind 5-1. But these Cardiac Cats were not about to let this match slip away. Kentucky scored 14 of the match’s final 18 points to win the fifth set 15-9 and claim the match.
By winning on Friday, Kentucky advances to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for the first since 1987. And it took the entire team to get it done on Friday.
“Well this time of year you have to have more than one or two options,” Skinner said. “Because even in this match you saw some people get hot then cold or they started cold then got hot.”
Kentucky experienced its share of ups and downs on Friday. Leah Edmond had a big first set, but went cold for a while before heating up again late. Edmond had five kills in the fifth set and 21 in the match.
“I have to give credit to my team definitely for that,” Edmond said. “They have confidence in me, and them having that confidence in me makes me want to play better.”
Skinner knows that the total team concept is why his team is 29-3 and battling for a Final Four berth.
“We’re a very difficult team to play against because there are three, four, five options that we can go to in the fifth set,” Skinner said of his team’s multiple offensive options.” If you have one or two it’s easy for a defense to set up. For us to have four people with double-digit kills, the next person was eight then we have 72 digs, they have 61 and 69 blocks to 10. That’s a total team effort. Something that we’ve talked about since August 8th when we started practicing.”
It was that type of effort that got UK to the Elite Eight for just the third time. And it’s that type of effort that the Wildcats will need on Saturday if they are to make Kentucky’s first Final Four appearance.
