Nov. 12, 1999
LEXINGTON, Kty. — The Wildcats were unable to take advantage of their opportunity to clinch a berth in the SEC Tournament as the Cats lost on UK Senior Night, 3-0, to the Georgia Lady Bulldogs. Kentucky (13-13, 5-8 Southeastern) now must win its match on Sunday against South Carolina to have a chance to qualify.
In the match, UK senior Katie Eiserman became the all-time UK dig leader when she recorded her 1,140th career dig early in the first game. Eiserman passed Ann Hall who posted 1,139 digs from 1989-93. The Lake Bluff, Ill. native also accumulated her team-high 16th double-double in the match with a 10 kill, 10 dig effort.
The match began well for the Cats as they started out strong defensively in gaining a 7-5 lead. But Georgia (9-14, 5-8 SEC) stepped its offense up a notch as Rebecca Dady led the Dawgs back for a 15-9 victory with six game-one kills. The UGA attack took off when the strong early blocking of the Cats slowed down. Stephenie Taylor and Jaclyn Homan each recorded five block assists in game one, but the Dawgs just found other ways to score.
“We played great defensively in this match,” UK Head Coach Jona Braden said. “Our blocking started out especially tough, but Georgia, like any good team, adjusted to what we were doing and executed their opportunities for points.”
The UK block took over once again in game two as the Cats jumped ahead to a large lead as Taylor and Homan reached season-highs of nine and 10 block assists, respectively, with UK leading 14-7. Georgia began to chip away at the lead as the Cats were able to get sideouts on several occasions, but never able to record the all-important final point as UGA took control of the match with a surprising 16-14 win for a 2-0 lead.
“We did not have that killer instinct when we got to game point in game two,” Braden said. “We continued to fight hard, but we did not produce offensively and that cost us the game.”
With all of the momentum on the UGA side, the Cats continued to sputter offensively in game three and fell into a 10-1 hole. The Dawgs then quickly closed the door on UK?s Senior Night activities with a 15-2 game three win to complete the sweep.
Dady led Georgia with 19 kills while Stacey Buerger also posted 13. Other than Eiserman, no other Wildcat reached double-figures in kills.
UK began play today with a one-match lead over Georgia for the final spot in the SEC Tournament. With two wins over the Cats in ?99, UGA now holds the No. 8 seed in the tourney heading into the Sunday?s final day of conference play. UK can still be among the postseason field if the Cats beat USC when the teams meet at 2 p.m. on Sunday and if UGA losses at Tennessee. Even if the Cats lose to the Gamecocks, Alabama could drop out of the tournament field with losses this weekend at LSU and Arkansas.
