One Week After Injury, Edmond Returns to Old Form
What a difference one week can make. Last Friday, as the Kentucky volleyball team was beating Mississippi State in four sets, UK All-American Leah Edmond missed the last three sets with a leg injury.
No worries, Big Blue Nation. Edmond is more than fine, and she showed that on this Friday night as the Cats swept South Carolina 25-14, 25-19, 25-19 at Memorial Coliseum.
Edmond was her normal standout self in the win, registering 14 kills with just two errors on 28 swings (.429 hitting percentage). For good measure, Edmond added 10 digs, notching her fourth double-double of the season and the 25th of her illustrious career.
Edmond is feeling no effects from last week’s injury.
“Feels good, I feel like myself again,” Edmond said. “I definitely felt like myself, not like I was harboring anything.”
Kentucky head coach Craig Skinner was pleased that Edmond looked much more like herself in Friday’s match.
“Credit her and (trainer) Katy Poole for putting in the time this week in the training room and getting her back to close to full strength,” Skinner said. “She was jumping well today, that’s for sure.”
Edmond broke her own school record of matches with at least 10 kills on Friday. It was the 95th time in 109 career matches that Edmond notched double figures in kills. That’s 21 more matches than Whitney Billings, who is second on the same list with 74 matches of double figure kills.
Kentucky stared the match quickly, building a 7-1 lead that ballooned to 13-3 in the first set. The Cats would cruise to an easy first set win before fighting past South Carolina in the final two stanzas.
Edmond knew it was important for the Cats to get off to a fast start in Friday’s match.
“I thought it was really important, knowing that the game can either start 7-1 or we can be down 7-1, so being able to maintain that focus, no matter what was happening was really nice to see,” she said.
With Edmond healthy, and with South Carolina now in the past, the Cats can focus on Sunday’s match with No. 12 Florida, something that wasn’t lost on Edmond after the match.
“We have tomorrow to focus on Florida,” Edmond said. “South Carolina is a really good team, so we needed to give them all the attention and not worry about Florida. Now we can be excited about Florida.”
With a fully healthy Leah Edmond back in the fold, the Cats are ready to face one of their biggest challenges of the year on Sunday at Memorial Coliseum.
