Oct. 20, 2012
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky volleyball team returns to action on Sunday in a Southeastern Conference clash with LSU at 1:30 p.m. ET in Memorial Coliseum. The match will also air live on the UK IMG Sports Network on the CWKYT locally in Lexington with Dick Gabriel and Katie Eiserman providing the action.
Kentucky stands at 12-8 overall and 6-4 in SEC action after dropping a 3-0 contest to Arkansas on Friday night. LSU captured a win over Auburn on Friday to improve to 9-11 on the season and 5-6 in conference play. Sunday’s match will mark the second meeting between the two squads this season after the Tigers earned a 3-2 win in Baton Rouge, La., at the end of September.
UK has been paced offensively by a quintet of players who have topped the 100-kill plateau for the season. Senior Ashley Frazier has launched 214 kills (2.89 per set) and junior Whitney Billings has notched 211 on the year. Sophomore Lauren O’Conner (192), junior Alexandra Morgan (173) and freshman Sara Schwarzwalder (100) are the other attackers to have achieved the feat.
Senior setter Christine Hartmann has moved into sixth place all-time in the UK record books with 2,951 career assists. This season she is finding attackers at a rate of 10.50 assists per set with five players striking for 1.59 kills per set or more.
Junior Jessi Greenberg led the Wildcat defensive effort on Friday night against the Razorbacks. For the second time this season she tallied the team-lead in digs.
LSU is fresh off a win over Auburn to advance the Tigers into the SEC Western Division, shifting into third place. Fran Flory’s LSU squad are winners of three of its last four matches with the lone loss coming in a five-set heartbreaker to Tennessee.
Offensively the Tigers are led by Madie Jones who has compiled 257 kills (3.62 K/S) on the season. Desiree Elliot is right behind her with 254 kills (3.58 K/S). On the defensive side, libero Sam Delahoussay leads LSU with 236 digs (3.32 D/S).
The Tigers have not won in Lexington since 2006, with UK leading the all-time series by a 31-23 margin. Kentucky has won eight of the last 11 matchups.
Visit UKathletics.com for the most up-to-date information on the UK volleyball team. For additional coverage of the volleyball squad be sure and check out CatScratchesBlog.com/volleyball.
