Career-High Efforts by Paris, Tharp Boost Volleyball Cats
In Sunday’s SEC match against Missouri, the Kentucky volleyball team did not have its best offensive effort. However, the Wildcats were still able to find a way to win.
Kentucky used its serving and blocking games to down Missouri 21-25, 25-14, 25-17, 29-27 on Sunday afternoon at Memorial Coliseum. The Wildcats had 15 blocks and 11 services aces in the match, numbers that more than made up for a slow offensive day.
“Great defensive effort, with 15 blocks and 11 serving aces, you don’t get many matches like that,” said Kentucky head coach Craig Skinner. “Really pleased with that effort.”
Kentucky’s All-Americans played as such on Sunday, with Leah Edmond registering 26 kills, while setter Madison Lilley had 45 assists and a career-high 16 digs for her fifth double-double of the season.
But career-high efforts from Kendyl Paris and Lauren Tharp gave the Cats the extra boost they needed to earn their ninth win of the season and third straight win in SEC play.
Paris, a 6-3 sophomore from Hilliard, Ohio, had a career-high 10 block assists in Sunday’s match, doubling her previous career high of five, set earlier this season. Paris’ effort also marked the first time in nearly two years that a Kentucky played had at least 10 blocks in a match.
After seeing limited playing time as a freshman last season, Paris has established herself as a solid contributor at the middle blocker position this season.
“Kendyl’s IQ of the game is really, really good,” Skinner said. “She has great hand position, blocking-wise. She does a nice job of being strong in the hitting zone. Ten blocks is a huge number in a four-set match.”
Paris thought the team’s effort in practice paid off in Sunday’s match.
“The focus that we all had, we’ve worked on blocking and covering,” Paris said. “We’ve done a lot of individual blocking as middles in practice this week and today, that really paid off for everyone.”
Paris had the opportunity to learn from Kaz Brown and Emily Franklin last season, and while she was frustrated by not playing, she is now a better player after watching how Brown and Franklin handled their business.
“I knew, coming into (last season), that unless something went wrong, there wasn’t a huge chance of me playing,” Paris said of her freshman season. “I was small, I was a little undersized, but (not playing) instilled, especially in the spring, that I wanted to start in the fall and I wanted to be the one that plays.”
What did she specifically learn from Brown and Franklin?
“I’ve taken a lot of things that I remember them specifically telling me,” Paris said. “Even things that I don’t even realize that they’ve put into my brain that sit with me help me do my thing.”
Tharp, a 5-6 freshman from Louisville, earned her first career start on Sunday, and responded accordingly. Tharp set new career highs in digs (nine), service aces (two) and kills (one) in the match.
Skinner said Tharp earned the starting nod with hard work in practice.
“She’s practicing really well, she’s making a lot of plays in practice,” Skinner said. “She’s got a great serve that’s different than other people on the team. She’s very fast and covers a lot of ground.”
Tharp is known as an effective server, something she showed again on Sunday.
“I think my serve is most effective because I stand so far back,” Tharp said. “It really messes up the passers on the other side because it floats and it stays in the air for a while.”
That serving technique was not one that Tharp brought with her to UK. Instead, it was an adjustment after Kentucky’s first weekend of matches.
“After our first week of games, we came back to practice and Craig told me to start serving from a lot further back, and it started working, so we stuck with it.”
In Sunday’s match, Paris and Tharp were part of a team effort that helped the Cats win their fifth straight match. And the duo proved that the Cats can beat opponents with more than just a powerful offense.
