The Kentucky volleyball team started out the 2009 season with the highest of expectations: win the Southeastern Conference championship for the first time since 1988 and compete for a national championship.In one aspect, the Wildcats fell short. Losses to Florida and Tennessee to end the season dashed what looked to be a magical conference title run.But in just about any other way you choose to view the season, it was yet another historic success for fifth-year head coach Craig Skinner and his team. For the fifth consecutive season, the Cats landed an NCAA Tournament berth – one of just 20 teams to accomplish that feat five years in a row – and UK was just mere points away from an Elite Eight berth, its longest trek into the tournament since 1992.”After we lost consecutive matches to Tennessee and Florida at the end of the year, going into the NCAA Tournament we had a tough draw,” head coach Craig Skinner said. “They decided as a group to come together and make sure that we were able to have success and play well when we needed to.”The Cats dominated the first and second rounds of the tournament, sweeping Clemson and No. 14 seed Oregon on their home court at Memorial Coliseum. UK marched into Minneapolis, Minn., as one of the hottest teams in the tournament, but a five-set heartbreaker to Florida State finally ended the Cats’ run. Ultimately, UK finished the season with 29 wins, the most “Ws” since the 1993 season.”We have a lot of great players and competition in practice was extremely high every single day,” Skinner said. “I don’t think there was a situation that we saw in matches that we hadn’t seen in practice on a daily basis. That really helps you be successful. Even though we lost five matches on the year, I don’t feel like any of those matches we did not have a shot to win. Unfortunately a couple of them were big ones, but when you win 85 percent of the matches during a year, very few teams can say that.”And very few teams can say they’ve come as far as Skinner’s has in the last five years. Although the Cats have been to the NCAA Tournament the last five seasons, Skinner has taken a program that was content with mediocrity and put it on the brink of excellence.”The culture has completely changed,” Skinner said. “It’s going from maybe we can do this and maybe we can win to expecting to being one of the best teams in the SEC conference.”Skinner didn’t do it alone. Along the way, he has assembled some of the nation’s top talent on one roster, including one of best senior classes to ever come through UK.After another historical season, the Cats will have to say goodbye to seniors  Sarah Rumely, BriAnne Sauer and Brooke Bartek, who single-handedly laid the foundation for UK’s current success.Rumely, the school’s only SEC Player of the Year, will leave UK as the all-time assists leader and the face of the current program.
“I know she’s devastated that she doesn’t get to play anymore in college,” said Skinner, who believes that she’ll have ample opportunities to play volleyball after college, including overseas. “She just loves competition and loves playing at a high level. I know she’s just going to be sick to her stomach next semester just being a student. We’ll have to call her into practice and see if she can run the other side for us during the spring.”Sauer, essentially a three-year starter at libero, set the single-season dig record (580) in her final season, and Skinner called her the most improved player on the team. While Bartek didn’t get significant playing time this season, she’s been a valuable contributor throughout her career at UK.”They have so much experience in their positions and they’ve really locked down their positions – Sarah for four years and BriAnne for basically three. It’ll be a changeover,” Skinner said. “I would like to think they have prepared the people behind them to step into those roles and continue the success. They would be as proud as anyone if we can continue to take this program to new levels knowing that they had a big impact on where we are now.”Replacing them won’t be easy, but Skinner does have the pieces – or at least the talent – to fill their voids.Freshman Stephanie Klefot, who finished second on the team with 318 digs, is expected to make a smooth transition to the full-time libero postions. Meanwhile, at setter, Skinner will welcome in the nation’s No. 3 ranked freshman setter, according to PrepVolleyball.com, in Elizabeth Koberstein. She, however, will have a tough time overtaking redshirt freshman Christine Hartmann, who made the made the most of her chances this season when she was called upon. “Hartmann is a fierce competitor,” Skinner said. “She took every day in practice like it was a national championship when she was out there. I think she is someone that refuses to accept mediocrity. I just talked to her this morning. She’s excited to get working out in January and get in the gym with the team. It’s going to be an exciting team with her.”The good news for the Cats is that they still have a solid core of current sophomores and juniors returning. This year’s SEC kills leader, Sarah Mendoza, will return as the center of the UK offense. The junior outside hitter totaled a career-high 500 kills on the season.”I would love to see a 5-10 outside hitter in the country that gets 1,300 swings for us,” Skinner said. “That’s a ton of swings. She handled it very well. She’s a hell of an athlete.”Even more encouraging is she got help as the season wore, especially from junior right-side hitter Lauren Rapp. After a midseason “tweak” in her position, Rapp was nothing short of dominant. “Ever since then she’s just been on a mission,” Skinner said. “I don’t see a player that we’ve faced that has been as hot as she has. The last month she has probably hit close to .450 hitting percentage and really was unstoppable the last few matches of the year. … She was a force.”With yet another highly successful season in the books, Skinner and his team will break for finals and Winter Break. Skinner is scheduled to speak at the Final Four and then will hit the road recruiting in mid-January before returning for the spring season in April.The 2009 season was another success, but Skinner is already thinking about the next step.”We still haven’t won a conference championship,” Skinner said. “I think we put ourselves in a position where that’s an expectation to compete for. The goal is to compete to go to Final Fours and compete for a national championship. I think our team needs to see itself as one of the elite programs in the country. I look at who we have coming back and they’re great competitors and I think they’ll embrace some of those opportunities.”