No. 7 Kentucky Drops Opening Night Match in Straight Sets to Utah
SALT LAKE CITY – The No. 7 Kentucky Volleyball team fell to the Utah Utes in 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-23) sweep on Friday night to wrap up day one of the 2019 Utah Classic.
The Wildcats fell victim of uncharacteristic errors all night long, falling behind early in all three sets and hitting at just a .056 clip for the match. Sophomore Alli Stumler led all UK players with 11 kills in the match. Leah Edmond had eight.
“Fundamentally, we weren’t very good tonight in several aspects,” UK head coach Craig Skinner said. “We need to learn from this and get better. Our determination and fight didn’t come until the third set. Credit Uah for taking advantage of their opportunities. Back at it tomorrow.”
UK is now 1-1 on the season after its win over No. 23 Cal Poly to begin the day.
Kentucky closes out the 2019 Utah Classic and opening weekend of play on Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. ET from the Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City against St. Mary’s. The match can be seen live online at the Utah PAC-12 Networks website.
Set One
Kentucky controlled a majority of the opening parts of the set, leading by two or more for the first several points. The Utes put together two large runs in the set, the first put Utah ahead 13-10 after a 10-8 UK lead evaporated to force the Wildcats into a timeout. After UK had rallied to tie the frame at 18 all, Utah responded by winning six points in a row and eight of the last nine in the set to collect the opening victory. UK struggled offensively hitting just .121 in the set, despite sophomore Alli Stumler’s five kills.
Set Two
Utah took a two sets to none lead in the match thanks to an uncharacteristic 11 attack errors by the Wildcats. UK hit dead even at .000 in the set, while allowing the Utes to hit at a .231 clip for the frame. The Utes took as big of a lead as 18-9 before a UK timeout tried to stem the tide, but Utah remained balanced down the stretch and won the last four points of the set to win it, 25-16 and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
Set Three
Kentucky again fell behind early in the third, dropping six of seven points to find themselves trailing 11-6 in the start of the set. The two teams kept pace for a majority of the set, before Utah earned four match points at 24-21. Kentucky fought off three match points, surviving a long delay for a challenge at 24-22 and got a good swing at 24-23, but it was blocked at the net and Utah ended up taking the sweep.
Follow along with the Wildcats on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
