The Kentucky volleyball team closes its four-match league homestand by hosting Florida and Georgia this weekend in Memorial Coliseum. The Wildcats, winners of three of their last four Southeastern Conference contests, host the No. 5 Gators at 7 p.m. Friday and the Bulldogs at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Kentucky defeated Arkansas and LSU this past weekend in Lexington to improve to 11-5 and 4-1 in the SEC. In Sunday?s 3-1 win over the Tigers, the Cats were led by senior middle blocker Amy Kaplan who registered 17 kills on .414 hitting, while setter Leigh Marcum had 51 assists, five kills, seven digs and three blocks on the afternoon.
The Wildcats have now exceeded last season?s SEC win total and currently are tied with Alabama and Arkansas for second place in the league, trailing only first-place Florida. The Cats rank fourth in the league in digs and fifth in kills.
Kaplan leads the team with a .362 hitting percentage, averaging 3.15 kills per game, while fellow senior Danielle Wallace is posting a team-high 4.32 put-downs per game which ranks sixth in the SEC. Junior libero Jenni Casper, the school?s new all-time leader in digs, is averaging 4.48 digs per game, good for fourth in the SEC.
Marcum is dishing out a team-high 11.98 assists per game, while freshman Queen Nzenwa has registered a team-high 77 blocks on the year.
No. 5 Florida enters Friday?s match with a 17-1 record, including a perfect 7-0 mark in league action. The Gators defeated Georgia in Gainesville, Fla., on Wednesday night 3-0 after never trailing in the match.
Florida is led by senior outside hitter Jane Collymore, who is averaging a team-high 4.36 kills per game, while sophomore middle blocker Kisya Killingsworth is hitting a team-high .396 on the season. Killingsworth is also tops on the squad with 80 blocks.
The Gators are coached by former Kentucky assistant Mary Wise, who is in her 15th season at the helm of the Florida program. Wise is 476-49 during her tenure at UF.
This marks the 47th meeting between Georgia and Kentucky with the Bulldogs holding a 24-22 advantage in the all-time series. The Wildcats swept UGA earlier this season in Athens, Ga.
Georgia, under the direction of first-year head coach Steffi Legall, is 7-9 on the season and 2-4 in league play. The Bulldogs dropped a 3-0 decision to Florida on Wednesday in Gainesville, Fla.
UGA is being led by senior outside hitter Alexandra Oquendo, who is hitting a team-high .356 and averaging 4.20 kills per game. Senior outside hitter Julia Petruschke is registering a squad-best 4.68 kills per game.
Live stats for both matches will be available at ukathletics.com.
