Nov. 17, 2012
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky volleyball will take on Georgia at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday in its final regular season home match of the season. Prior to the match the Wildcats will honor their three-member senior class of Ashley Frazier, Christine Hartmann and Stephanie Klefot. UKathletics.com will again provide free live audio with Dick Gabriel and Mandy Robbe on the call.
Kentucky enters the matchup owning a 17-10 overall record and an 11-6 in Southeastern Conference action. Georgia suffered a 3-1 loss at Arkansas on Friday and travels to Lexington possessing a 13-14 overall record and a 7-10 mark in league competition.
UK will honor the three seniors who have amassed more than 90 career victories and have advanced to a pair of Sweet 16 matches.
Frazier became the 15th Wildcat to accumulate more than 1,000 career kills from her outside hitter position earlier this season. Frazier is an All-SEC performer and earned All-Region Tournament accolades at the 2011 NCAA Regionals. She’s a four-time All-SEC academic team selection and twice been tabbed to the Capital one Academic All-District first team. She’s currently a finalist for the senior CLASS award that recognizes outstanding performances of student-athletes in community service, classroom, character and on-court performance.
Hartmann is a setter who has tallied more than 3,330 career assists which currently ranks fifth all-time in the UK record books. She was a 2011 honorable mention All-America selection, an All-SEC first team pick and a three-time SEC Player of the Week selection. Hartmann is a multi-talented player who in addition to leading the team in assists over the last three seasons, has ranked among the team leaders in digs and blocks as well. She’s charted career-high numbers in both kills and digs to accompany a team-leading two conference player of the week honors this season.
Klefot has been a starter since the day she arrived in Lexington. The libero has established herself as one of the best defensive specialists in school history with more than 1,800 career digs which ranks second all-time in UK’s record books and fourth all-time in the SEC. She was a second-team All-America selection as a junior and has twice been named the SEC’s Libero of the Year in addition to begin a three-time All-SEC selection. Klefot has played in the fifth most sets in school history and also ranks as one of UK’s best servers with more than 70 career aces.
Georgia and Kentucky met three weeks ago in what became a thrilling five-set affair with the Blue and White eventually prevailing. The Bulldogs have suffered five consecutive losses since that meeting.
Tirah Le’au led the Georgia attack with 13 kills while Brittany Northcutt and Briana Bahr chipped in 11 kills for the Bulldogs. Allison Summers led the Bulldogs with 22 digs in the match. Le’au, Georgia’s sophomore outside hitter, leads Georgia with 258 kills on the season averaging 2.72 kills per set. Northcutt has kicked in 241 kills of her own, averaging 2.94 kills per set. Summers, the libero, has tallied 468 digs on the season (4.78 D/Set). Middle blocker Elena Perry is averaging 1.08 blocks per set.
UK outlasted the Georgia 3-2 (25-13, 24-26, 25-19, 23-25, 15-12). Hartmann directed the offense to 72 kills on .338 hitting while contributing a career-high 19 digs in the win.
Kentucky got off to a quick start in the decisive fifth set as junior Whitney Billings began the scoring with a kill. Junior Alexandra Morgan tallied a pair of kills in the stretch as UK took a 4-1 lead. Following a Georgia timeout, the home team scored three-straight to knot things at four. The teams would swap points, and then UK earned a 3-0 run of its own to take an 8-5 lead into the switching of sides.
The Bulldogs did not go away, however, climbing back to within two at 9-7 after consecutive points. UK took a break to attempt to quell the Bulldog run. Georgia would eventually knot the score at 11, before the Wildcats scored two straight capped by a kill high off the hands from sophomore Lauren O’Conner for a 13-11 edge.
Georgia then took its final timeout. The Bulldogs scored off a kill out of the break, but the Wildcats closed out the set by scoring the final two points for the 15-12 win.
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.
