Versatile Stumler Producing Big Results for UK Volleyball

Volleyball coaches love to have players with versatility on the floor as much as possible. If a player can perform multiple skills and play full rotations, it makes the coaches’ jobs that much easier.

Kentucky head coach Craig Skinner has a number of those players on his 2018 squad, including freshman Alli Stumler, who showed her all-around game once again on Sunday. Stumler was stuffing the stat sheet as the Wildcats swept South Carolina (25-18, 25-12, 25-23) at Memorial Coliseum. Stumler continued her season-long trend of doing a number of things well for the Cats.

“Great day for her,” Skinner said after Sunday’s match. “She certainly stepped up and started blocking and she passed well and offensively got it going at the end.”

The match did not start well for Stumler, who saw two of her early swings stuffed by South Carolina blockers. But the freshman from Floyds Knobs, Indiana, was not phased.

“It’s very mental whenever you get blocked your first couple of swings,” Stumler said. “Just to come back and know that I have to work even harder, they’re going to be physical on me, so I have to work even harder and be more physical right back, swing higher, swing more aggressively, really work on the shots that I’ve been taught and have been trying to work on this year.”

Skinner was also impressed with Stumler’s bounce back after her early troubles.

“First couple of swings came right back at her, but she responded well to that,” Skinner said. “Sometimes it’s tough to respond in a situation like that, but she certainly stepped up.”

Stumler finished Sunday’s match with 10 kills and just three errors on 25 swings (.280 hitting percentage). She added four digs, four block assists and two service aces in the match. Stumler, along with teammates Brooke Morgan and Kendyl Paris, led Kentucky’s blocking effort on Sunday, something that Skinner noted after the match.

“Defensively, we were very good today,” Skinner said. “Floor defense, the blocking was impressive today. Really good moves behind the setter. I thought we did a really good job on the back row attacks, getting the hands up.”

Stumler said that discipline was the key to Sunday’s blocking effort, which produced 11.5 team blocks for the Cats.

“We didn’t really focus on one thing, we just knew that we had to be very disciplined and know that we couldn’t guess on where the ball was going,” Stumler said. “They were setting all three positions equally. We knew that we had to stay disciplined and don’t try to cheat or read one way, just be patient and then go where the ball is set.”

Before the season started, Skinner thought that Stumler, along with fellow freshman Lauren Tharp, could contribute to this season’s team. He loves how his freshman duo is responding to the season.

“You never know what to expect, so no, I couldn’t have predicted a few months ago that this is where we would be with them,” Skinner said. “Pressure hasn’t phased them much. They’ve really responded and are really impacting our team, both in practice and matches.”

In addition to responding to the pressure, Stumler continues to display an all-around game that’s helping Kentucky maintain its lead in the SEC standings.