No. 9 Kentucky Faces No. 8 Washington in Sweet 16
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 9 Kentucky Volleyball team will travel south to Waco, Texas this weekend to compete in the 2019 NCAA Volleyball regionals, where first it will face No. 8 Washington in the regional semifinal on Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. ET.
The match will be streamed live on ESPN3 and the ESPN app with Sam Gore and Katie George on the call from the Ferrell Center in Waco. The winner of the UK/UW match will face the winner of the Baylor vs. Purdue match (12:30 p.m. ET, Friday) on Saturday afternoon for the right to go to the Sweet 16.
Kentucky is back in the Sweet 16 for the third year in a row and looking to punch its ticket to the Elite Eight for the second time in three years. In 2017, UK advanced past BYU in the Sweet 16 before falling to Nebraska in the regional final. Last year in Minneapolis, UK advanced into the Sweet 16 with a sweep of Purdue in the Lexington Sub-Regional.
This season, UK has won all six of its NCAA Tournament sets, sweeping SEMO and Michigan inside of Memorial Coliseum this past weekend to advance to Waco. Kentucky hit .312 as a team on the weekend, and senior outside hitter Leah Edmond had 5.50 kills per set on the weekend. Junior libero Gabby Curry, the SEC Libero of the Year, registered 5.67 digs per set in the Lexington Sub-Regional and setter Madison Lilley averaged 10.67 assists per set in UK’s two matches.
Washington leads the all-time series with Kentucky, 2-1. The last meeting between the Huskies and Wildcats came in 2016 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, with Washington sweeping UK to advance into the Sweet 16. UK’s only win in the series came in 1988 (3-1) in Lexington.
The Huskies are 26-6 on the season and finished the Pacific-12 season with a 15-5 record. Keegan Cook is in his fifth season as UW’s head coach and has a 131-35 record. The Huskies are ranked ninth in both the NCAA RPI and the latest American Volleyball Coaches’ Association top-25. Kara Bajema leads UW with 4.57 kills per set, which sets up for a great match-up with UK’s Edmond, who is averaging 4.43 kills per set.
On Tuesday afternoon, Edmond was named the AVCA Southeast Player of the Year and UK head coach Craig Skinner was awarded the region Coach of the Year. It was Skinner’s second coach of the year title in back-to-back years, and Edmond’s second-career player of the year award (2017). Alli Stumler, Lilley, Curry and Leah Meyer were also named to the All-Region team and will be considered for All-America status.
The winners of UK/UW and Purdue/Baylor will face off on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET live on ESPNU for a spot in the 2019 NCAA Final Four.
2019 NCAA Volleyball Championships
Waco Regional – Waco, Texas
Friday, Dec. 13
12:30 p.m. ET – (1) Baylor vs. (16) Purdue, ESPNU
2:30 p.m. ET – (8) Washington vs. (9) Kentucky, ESPN3
Saturday, Dec. 14
4 p.m. ET – Winner match 1 vs. Winner match 2, ESPNU
Follow along with the Wildcats on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
