Nov. 23, 2001
CLEMSON, S.C. – The University of Kentucky volleyball team ended the 2001 season with a 3-2 loss to the Clemson Tigers on Friday, Nov. 23 in Clemson, S.C. The five-game battle leaves the Cats with a 13-15 record on the season, more than doubling its number of wins from year ago.
In a fairly even battle, Kentucky finished with a .202 hitting percentage to Clemson’s .243. Kristen Batt led the Wildcats on the night with 14 kills and 19 digs for her 11th double-double of the year. Sarah Spinner had 16 kills on the night, but 14 errors held her hitting percentage to .053.
Toni Lee also had a solid defensive performance, posting 10 digs to add to fellow defensive specialist Aleisha Craven’s eight. Anne Koester and Sissy Canfield also had double-digit kill performances with 15 and 12, respectively.
Clemson (11-17) got off to a good start in the first game, hitting .286 to UK’s .114 to grab the 30-17 decision. The Wildcats fought back, though, taking the next two games by a 30-25 margin. Clemson reversed that score in game four to force the final game, which they took by a 15-10 score.
“While we would have loved the victory, we accomplished a lot of things that we set out to in this match,” Coach Jona Braden said. “We wanted to take care of the ball better tonight than we did at Louisville on Wednesday.
“Our team came back from a pretty disappointing first game to grab a lead with back-to-back wins,” Braden continued. “Unfortunately, we came out on the short end of the decision tonight.”
The match marked the final performance for senior April Barnhorst. She closed out her career in grand fashion, recording eight kills and a .533 hitting percentage. Barnhorst also tallied one block assist on the night, bringing her career total to 255 and placing her in eighth place for career BAs at UK.
Batt’s 14 kills bring her career total 1,031. Batt will enter her senior season just 45 put downs shy of moving into ninth place on UK’s all-time kill leader list. She also has 2,877 career attack attempts and ends the season in eighth place on that list.
After a disappointing 6-21 season in 2000, Kentucky more than doubled its number of wins this year thanks to strong leadership and increased athleticism. The Cats will lose Barnhorst and fellow senior Whitney Sample, who has missed the end of the season after a broken pinky sidelined the setter in October, but will look to a strong group of underclassmen to continue the Wildcat climb in 2002.
Game Scores
Game One – CU 30, UK 17
Game Two – UK 30, CU 25
Game Three – UK 30, CU 25
Game Four – CU 30, UK 25
Game Five – CU 15, UK 10
