All Four Seniors Contribute in Final Regular Season Home Match
Saturday was Senior Day for the Kentucky volleyball team, with Merideth Jewell, Brooke Morgan, Anna Nyberg and McKenzie Watson all being honored before the match. And while, at times, Senior Day can be largely ceremonial, all four UK seniors started, and contributed, in Saturday’s three-set sweep over Auburn, giving Kentucky a perfect 18-0 finish in Southeastern Conference play.
As she has done all season, Morgan was outstanding again on Saturday. The Dike, Iowa, native had eight kills and just two errors on 13 swings, hitting .462 for the match. Morgan entered Saturday’s match second in the SEC, and 13th in the country, in hitting percentage.
Watson, who had a pair of digs in two sets on Saturday, knew it was going to be a special day for the seniors, even before the match started.
“I think we were all just really excited, I remember before we all ran out, when we were announced, Anna got announced first and we all got chills,” Watson said. “It was really cool, a really cool experience to be able to all start and all contribute in any way we could in this match.”
Nyberg played in two sets, notching one kill in two attempts. And Jewell had two kills in four swings in the match, and added a block assist.
UK head coach Craig Skinner sang the praises of his seniors, who have now won back-to-back SEC titles, after the match.
“You won’t find a group of four people that care more about a program and the people around them than this group,” Skinner said. “Regardless of what their role on the team was, they were in before practice doing something, staying after doing something. What type of leadership does that show? Elite teams don’t just happen during the practice hours, it happens before and after.”
Skinner was also pleased to see all four of his seniors contribute in Saturday’s victory.
“As a coach, you want to get the opportunity to get everybody in, starter or not, especially on Senior Day,” Skinner said. “They were awesome. They’ve earned everything they’ve gotten. For a group of seniors to go out with two championships in four years, as a coach, you’re pretty proud. I know our staff loves this group and is going to miss them.”
Junior Leah Edmond also knows how important this senior class is to the UK program.
“They’re just great people, they just constantly work, they constantly push us to be our best all the time,” Edmond said. “They’re always in the gym. Having people that are constantly in the gym makes you want to be in the gym more. They’re such great leaders. They’ve dedicated and sacrificed so much for this team. They’ve been through so much, all of them, through their whole four years. It’s really nice to have people who are such great leaders and amazing people in general.”
And while Saturday’s match was the last regular season match in Memorial Coliseum for this group of seniors, they hope to be playing at home again next week in the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament. The field of 64 will be announced on Sunday night, and the Cats are already looking at what could lie ahead.
“National championship,” Watson said. “We go first round of the tournament, then go from there, but a national championship is in our sights for sure.”
Talk of championships has become the norm around the UK program. And the 2018 senior class is a large part of the reason why.
