The Kentucky volleyball team closes its home slate on Friday, Nov. 17, when it hosts Auburn on Senior Day. Opening serve is set for 7 p.m. in Memorial Coliseum and seniors Jenni Casper, Julie Gagnon and Melissa Popp will be honored at the conclusion of the match. Managers Abbey Buchert and Philip Bennett will also be recognized for their years of service to the UK Volleyball program. The Cats then travel to No. 7 Florida for a 1:30 p.m. showdown on Sunday, Nov. 19, in Gainesville.
?We are very proud of our seniors and what they have done for Kentucky volleyball,? said head coach Craig Skinner. ?Their contributions since we have been here as a staff have been enormous and I hope that we can give them a memorable final SEC weekend.?
Kentucky (17-9, 10-8 Southeastern Conference) has won five of its last six matches and is coming off of a 3-0 sweep at Georgia last Sunday. Sophomore middle blocker Queen Nzenwa led the Wildcats with a match-high 13 kills while hitting .750, to go along with six blocks in the win over the Bulldogs.
Nzenwa leads the Cats in hitting percentage this season with a .328 clip, which ranks 10th in the SEC. She also is seventh in the league and first on the team in blocks with 1.20 rejections per game. Freshman setter Sarah Rumely is one of only two players in the SEC to rank in the league?s top 10 in assists and service aces. She is third with 12.48 assists per game and also third with 0.49 aces per game. Her team-leading 49 service aces rank her seventh at UK on the single-season record charts.
Auburn enters Friday?s match in last place in the SEC Western Division. The Tigers are 13-16 with a 5-13 league mark, having split a pair of matches with Mississippi State and Ole Miss this past weekend. Rachel Shanks has tallied a squad-best 18 double-doubles on the season to lead Auburn, while sophomore Jessica Glover has charted 15 double-doubles. Shanks is averaging 3.85 kills per game, which ranks eighth in the SEC.
UK and Auburn meet for the 30th time in program history with the Cats owning a 20-9 lead in the all-time series. Kentucky has won six of the last 12 meetings between the two teams with the Tigers dating back to the 2000 season, however the Tigers have taken four consecutive from the Wildcats including a 3-2 decision earlier this season (Oct. 1) in Auburn.
The Gators, coached by former UK assistant Mary Wise, enter the weekend with a 24-2 record and a 17-1 mark in league action. Florida clinched at least a share of its 16th consecutive SEC title last weekend with a pair of sweeps over the Mississippi schools. As a team, UF ranks first in the SEC in hitting percentage, digs and opponent hitting percentage. Kelsey Bowers leads the league in hitting percentage with a .431 clip and is third in blocks with 1.51 rejections per game. Setter Angie McGinnis ranks second in the SEC with 13.23 assists per game.
Kentucky and Florida meet for the 46th time in school history with the Gators holding a 36-9 advantage in the all-time series. UK has not defeated UF since the 1990 season and currently is on a 34-match losing skid to Florida. The Wildcats nearly upset the then-No. 10 Gators in Lexington on Sept. 29 before falling in a five-game thriller.
Press Conference Quotes
Head Coach Craig Skinner
On the push his team has made?
?The last time I was here we were 5-7 and in a five-way tie for fifth place in the SEC standings. Since then we have won five out of six. We stumbled a little on Friday night against a very athletic South Carolina team. If we had won that we would have had sole possession of third place in the East, which considering we started 2-4 and then 5-7, we as a coaching staff are really proud of what we have done recently. During that stretch we beat Tennessee again, which is the first time since 1995 that a Kentucky volleyball team has swept Tennessee. They were a Final Four team a year ago and having beaten them twice, our kids are excited, especially because we beat them on the road and really played well down there. Through this five or six game stretch it hasn?t been just one player, it has been several different players who have made an impact. In the Tennessee match, it happened to be our middle hitters Queen Nzenwa and Nicole Britenriker who carried us through that match. Our setter, Sarah Rumley, did a great job of feeding them the ball and getting us swings and critical points. Since then, we beat Alabama who beat us earlier this year down there. We beat them at home in five sets and got a great game out of Ashlee Fisher who had 25 kills. Our freshman setter Sarah Rumely has done a fantastic job at distributing the ball to several different players.?
On the upcoming weekend?
?This is a huge weekend for us. Auburn is our last home match and we have three seniors who will be playing their last match at Memorial Coliseum. Those seniors have been very valuable to us. I think everybody knows what a strong defensive player Jenni Casper is, being named SEC Defensive Player of the Year twice in her career. Melissa Popp is a two-time captain for us. She has really been playing great for us off the bench the last few weeks. Julie Gagnon doesn?t get as much press as the others, but she is probably the hardest worker we have on this team. We?re really going to miss them and the contributions that they have brought to this team. We?re really going to need community support this Friday because we play Auburn and then we go down to Florida and every match has big implications on our SEC finish and our NCAA tournament bid.?
On the NCAA tournament picture?
?I think it is very similar to last year where we control our own destiny. We?ve equaled our win total from last year and we have the same number of conference wins. We do have to take care of business and winning takes care of everything. If we can get some wins this weekend, that will give us a huge boost. We play Cincinnati on the road at the end of the season and they can finish anywhere from third to fifth in the Big East conference. I feel good about the way our players have responded the last couple of weeks and I?m hoping they will respond again.?
On Auburn beating Kentucky four straight times?
?We try not to talk about any streaks or any issues that have happened in the past. We?re really just focused on that match on Friday night. It?s hard to not assume that our players don?t remember playing down there this year. Auburn has five wins in the SEC, but I think they?ve had some very good matches and have won some very good matches. Just like anyone else, anybody can win on any given night.?
On making the playoff push like they did last season?
?At the beginning of the year our goal was to win the SEC Championship, but that is not going to happen this year. Our other goal is to go to the NCAA tournament and go further than we did last year. We still have a great shot to do that. We have several individuals who are very focused on doing the best they can for this team to win, so I think it could be a good couple of weeks.?
