Oct. 27, 1999
LEXINGTON, Kty. – The University of Kentucky volleyball team will be looking to stop its fourth two-match losing streak of the season on Friday when the Cats begin a weekend home-and-home series with the University of Tennessee.
The match Friday will be a home match for UK (11-10, 4-5 Southeastern) at Memorial Coliseum set for 7 p.m. The Cats will then travel to Knoxville to take on the Lady Vols on Sunday at 2 p.m. in UT?s Stokely Athletics Center, the site of this year?s Southeastern Conference Tournament. Tennessee is currently tied for third in the SEC with a 6-3 record while UK is tied for 6th at 4-5. Only the top eight teams qualify for the SEC tournament.
UK senior Katie Eiserman should reach another career milestone soon into Friday?s match as she is two attack attempts from 3,500 in her career. Only two UK players in history have totaled that many career attacks.
In Tennessee (16-9, 6-3 SEC), UK will be facing another streaking opponent as the Lady Vols, coached by Rob Patrick, have won ten of their last twelve matches. The team?s only losses in that stretch were to ranked opponents, No. 21 Arkansas and No. 4 Florida, who UK also lost to last weekend. UT was a loser in its last conference match, Oct. 24 to UF, but previously swept Ole Miss and Mississippi State. The Vols are an efficient attacking team that stands 2nd in the SEC in attack percentage and kills. They are not a strong blocking team, ranking ninth. Tennessee features a three-pronged attack powered by Ariana Wilson, Erika Brez and Stephenie Knight who have all accumulated at least 280 kills this season.
The Cats need to step up their play after dropping a pair of 3-0 decisions last weekend to No. 4 Florida and intrastate rival Louisville. Against Florida, the Cats played well, putting up a .220 hitting percentage in the match, but could not keep up with the potent UF attack, which hit at a .330 clip. The Cats did well to contain UF’s top player, Jenny Manz. The 1998 SEC Player of the Year had only eight kills and a .104 hitting percentage. UK had only two players hit double figures in kills for the match as Stephenie Taylor and Kristen Batt each totaled 10. In the match, sophomore setter Whitney Sample reached a milestone when she served up her 1,000th career assist. The native Texan is 8th on the UK all-time assist list.
Against, Louisville the Cats dropped their rematch with the Cardinals on Sunday, 3-0, in front of a boisterous crowd of 2,238 at the Louisville Gardens. The Wildcats had claimed a 3-2 victory in Lexington on Sept. 21. Megan Weiskircher led the Cats in the match with 14 digs and April Barnhorst added six blocks, but UK stalled offensively, hitting only .101 for the match.
