No. 5 Kentucky Plays LSU Twice on the Bayou Starting Thursday
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 5 Kentucky Volleyball team heads to the Bayou this week for the first of six two-match Southeastern Conference series, as the Wildcats will face LSU at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday night and 9 p.m. ET Friday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge.
Thursday night’s match will be on the SEC Network+, ESPN3 and the ESPN app with Friday’s match airing live on the SEC Network as Sam Ravich and Jenny Hazelwood will have the call from the PMAC.
Kentucky is slotted fifth in this week’s American Volleyball Coaches’ Association top-25 rankings, as the highest-ranked team from the Southeastern Conference. UK us 11-3 on the year with a 4-0 record in SEC play, the final undefeated team in the league standings. LSU is not receiving votes.
Madi Skinner paces the UK offense with 3.84 kills per set as the Wildcats are hitting .272 as a team. Defensively, Azhani Tealer was named the SEC’s Co-Defensive Player of the Week after registering a career-high 10 blocks vs. Mississippi State and has scored in double figures in all four SEC matches to this point in the year.
LSU is 7-9 overall and 3-4 in the SEC, as the Tigers have battled the injury bug all season. LSU beat Florida on Sunday afternoon 3-1, picking up its first win over the Gators in over 10 years to improve to 3-4 on the year. Missouri transfer Kylie Deberg is averaging over 4.22 kills per set to lead the SEC and she’s joined by Taylor Bannister as the pair is healthy for the first time together all season.
UK leads the all-time series with LSU, 44-24, including a two-match sweep of the Tigers last season in the spring portion of UK’s national championship season. The Wildcats have won 16 of the last 17 sets against the Tigers and have won 10 matches in a row dating back to Oct. 19, 2014 when UK last lost to LSU.
Tickets to the matches at LSU are free of charge.
Follow along with the Wildcats on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
