The Kentucky volleyball team was overpowered 3-0 by the fifth-ranked Florida Gators Sunday afternoon in the Stephen C. O?Connell Center in Gainesville, Fla. Three Wildcats tallied double-figure kills but the Wildcats couldn?t overcome a .160 hitting performance.
Florida native Danielle Wallace led Kentucky (9-5, 2-2 SEC) with 17 kills but hit just .191 on the afternoon. Senior Amy Kaplan had 10 kills on .348 hitting, while freshman Ashlee Fisher was explosive in the third game, finishing with 12 kills on .333 hitting. Eight of those kills came in the third game.
Juniors Julie Gagnon and Jenni Casper combined for 30 digs in the match, while setter Leigh Marcum had 41 assists, six digs and two block assists. Florida?s Amber McCray had 15 kills on .636 hitting, while Rachel Engel added 23 digs for the Gators (14-1, 4-0 SEC).
?Florida is a great team,? UK Coach Craig Skinner said. ?After playing that match, our players believe they can compete and win matches against top-level teams. We tried hard, but our execution needs to be better to win close games against top-10 teams.
?It was great to see that for the second consecutive match, our passers played at the top level. That will help us as we go down the road in the competitive SEC.?
Kentucky opened strong in the first game, taking a 1-0 lead on a block from Marcum and Nzenwa, but a Florida kill from Angie McGinnis quickly knotted the score. The game saw one more tie before the Gators stretched out to a comfortable lead. With the home team leading 17-13, UK burned a timeout.
Florida returned from the break and used a 4-1 run to extend the advantage to seven at 21-14. After another Kentucky timeout, the Wildcats were able to whittle the gap to five at 25-20 on a kill from Wallace, but would get no closer as UF sealed the 30-22 win on a kill from Amber McCray.
The Wildcats fell behind 0-2 to start the second stanza, but were able to tie the score at three on a Marcum ace. Six more ties followed before the Gators took a 16-12 lead with a 4-0 run, forcing Skinner to use a timeout. The Wildcats returned to trim the lead with consecutive kills from Wallace and Fisher, but three straight shots from UF would extend the lead back to four at 18-14.
Following another UK timeout, the Gators stretched to an eight-point lead at 25-17, but UK was abel to cut the advantage to five at 28-23 and again at 29-24 on a kill from Kaplan. But it was McCray who ended the game again, sinking a kill down the line to give UF a 30-24 win.
Three consecutive errors by the Cats gave Florida a 3-0 lead to open the third game and Skinner quickly took a timeout. Kentucky took the next three points to even the score, but later fell behind by six at 16-10 on a Jane Collymore kill. The Wildcats remained composed, cutting the Gator lead to three at 19-16 with a solo block from Wallace, forcing UF to take its first timeout of the day.
Florida stretched back out to a five-point pad, but three consecutive kills from Wallace put the score at 21-19. Fisher was solid down the stretch, helping UK to tie the game at 25 after three kills sandwiched around a Kaplan ace. Florida rebounded and drove to match point at 29-26. The Wildcats took a final timeout and stayed alive with another kill from Fisher. The Gators, however, ran a play to Marcie Hampton for the game-winning kill and a final game score of 30-27.
Kentucky returns home on Friday, Oct. 7 to face Arkansas at 7 p.m. in Memorial Coliseum.
