CLEMSON, S.C. ? The Kentucky volleyball team swept the homestanding Clemson Tigers, 3-0, to claim the Big Orange Bash title and remain undefeated on the season. Amy Kaplan was named the tournament?s most valuable player, while freshman Queen Nzenwa and senior Leigh Marcum joined her on the all-tournament team.
Kentucky (3-0, 0-0 SEC) was led in the match by Danielle Wallace with 12 kills on .318 hitting. Marcum had eight kills on .353 hitting with 30 assists and 11 digs. Nzenwa finished the day with four kills and five blocks.
?Obviously, this was a great tournament win for team and the program,? Skinner said. ?I can?t say enough about the contributions we had from many different players. Each match somebody new stepped up to help us get the win.?
?Clemson is a talented team and they certainly didn?t give us anything. We had to earn the victory.?
The Wildcats? hitting performance was its worst of the weekend at .198, but they managed 10 team blocks. They held Clemson to .101 hitting.
After four early ties, Wallace broke through with a kill to give UK a 5-4 lead in the first game. The Wildcats extended the lead to six at 14-8 on an ace from Casper, forcing a Clemson timeout. Kentucky continued to control the action, extending the advantage to seven at 19-12 to cause another Tiger trip to the bench.
After the break, UK?s freshman put on a show with convincing kills by Nzenwa and Fisher. The Wildcats run included eight straight points to put the lead at 12, 24-12, and UK would roll on from there, setting the final score at 30-18 after a Clemson net violation.
The second game opened much like the first with three early ties before the Wildcats built a 10-6 lead after back-to-back Clemson errors. A Tiger timeout didn?t immediately fix their problems, but miscues from UK let Clemson back in the door at 15-12, forcing a Wildcat timeout. Kentucky, however, found its rhythm again, using a 5-2 run to regain a seven-point edge at 21-14.
Clemson regained momentum following a timeout, using a 6-3 run to slice the Kentucky lead to three at 24-21 in a run that included four Wildcat errors. The Tigers took the next four points to gain its first lead since 6-5, but there was still some fight in the Wildcats. With Clemson leading 26-24, UK showed poise to take six of the next seven points to seal a 30-27 win in the go-ahead game with a kill by Fisher.
The Wildcats opened with a 3-1 run in game three and didn?t look back, stretching the advantage to eight at 15-7. The Tigers took a timeout to regroup and took the next three rallies, but UK didn?t back down. The Cats capitalized on Clemson errors to stretch to a 21-13 tally. A 5-2 run put the Tigers back in the game at 23-18 forcing a Wildcat timeout.
A timeout couldn?t break the Tiger momentum as the home team trimmed the edge to one twice down the stretch. A service error from Clemson put the Cats up 27-25 and after a huge block from Wallace and Kaplan, Wallace put down back-to-back kills to seal the 30-25 win.
Kentucky returns to action on Wednesday, Sept. 7 as they travel 80 miles west of Lexington to face in-state rival Louisville at 7:30 p.m. Both Jenni Casper and Alisa Pierce will be returning home to Louisville, where Casper attended Mercy Academy and Pierce went to Pleasure Ridge Park.
