No. 16 Kentucky Travels to Knoxville for Showdown with Tennessee

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 16 Kentucky Volleyball team will open a two-match road stretch on Wednesday night at Tennessee, as the Wildcats travel to Rocky Top to take on the Lady Vols at 7 p.m. ET inside Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville. The match will be shown live on ESPNU, ESPN3 and the ESPN app with Dawn Davenport and Jenny Hazelwood on the call.
 
UK will be looking to avenge its first Southeastern Conference loss in almost two calendar years Wednesday night, having suffered a five-set defeat to Georgia on Friday night in Memorial Coliseum. The loss snapped Kentucky’s 29-match SEC winning streak, the longest of anyone in the league over the past three seasons.
 
Overall, Kentucky sits 11-5 on the season and 4-1 in the SEC, still just one game out of the top of the table with 5-0 Ole Miss currently left standing as the only undefeated team in SEC action remaining. The Wildcats are slotted No. 16 in this week’s American Volleyball Coaches’ Association top-25 poll and are No. 8 in the NCAA’s ratings percentage index (RPI), which is one of the key measuring sticks for postseason selection.
 
Tennessee enters Wednesday night’s match 9-7 overall and 3-3 in its six league matches. The Lady Vols last time out swept Mississippi State 3-0 in Knoxville on Sunday afternoon. UT has SEC wins over Texas A&M, Auburn and MSU this season. The Lady Vols are led by second-year head coach Eve Rackham who took Tennessee to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in her inaugural campaign a season ago.
 
Kentucky embarks on a stretch of three out of four games on the road Wednesday night. Sunday’s match vs. Alabama will be in Tuscaloosa before a home match vs. LSU sandwiches the Bama match and a road match vs. SEC leaders Ole Miss on Oct. 27 in Oxford.
 
Follow along with the Wildcats on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and on the web at UKathletics.com.