Fresh off its first win of the season, the Kentucky volleyball team embarks on its opening road trip of the year Friday when it travels to Syracuse, N.Y., to participate in the Big Orange Tournament. The Wildcats face host school Syracuse at 3 p.m. on Friday, followed by a pair of Saturday matches against Siena College and San Diego State at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., respectively.
The trip will mark just the second visit by the Wildcats to the Empire State in the program?s history and their first since the 2002 season. That year, UK placed third in the Hofstra Invitational in Hempstead, N.Y.
The Cats are coming off a 3-0 sweep of intrastate foe Western Kentucky on Tuesday in Memorial Coliseum. Junior transfer Nicole Britenriker (Cincinnati, Ohio) and sophomore outside hitter Ashlee Fisher (West Bend, Wis.) each registered a team-high 12 kills in leading UK to the season-opening win. Tess Edwards (Ottawa, Ontario) had a career-high six kills in the win over Western.
?Our first recruit as a staff here at UK was Tess Edwards,? said head coach Craig Skinner. ?We are excited to bring UK volleyball closer to her home and family in Canada. It will be a great weekend of volleyball and we are looking forward to the challenge this tournament will bring to our team.?
The Cats hold a 3-2 all-time record vs. this weekend?s tournament field. Kentucky leads the all-time series with Syracuse 2-0 and the Wildcats last defeated the Orange 3-1 in Memorial Coliseum on Nov. 12, 2003. UK holds a holds a 2-1 edge in the series over San Diego State, though the two schools have not met since the 1983 season. Saturday?s match will be the first volleyball meeting in school history between Kentucky and Siena College.
The Orange enter Friday?s match with a 1-3 record after dropping three of four matches Best Western Volleyball Classic, hosted by Wichita State, this past weekend. Siena has yet to post its first win of the season after going 0-3 at the Wildcat Invitational in Tucson, Ariz. San Diego State fell to the College of Charleston on Wednesday night to move its record to 1-3 this season.
