Kentucky Tops Western Kentucky in Three Sets
Kentucky Tops Western Kentucky in Three Sets
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky volleyball team is headed to the Sweet 16 of the 2022 NCAA Volleyball Tournament after an impressive 3-0 sweep of sixth-seeded Western Kentucky on Friday in the second round of the event at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Kentucky.
The Wildcats won all three sets impressively, grabbing the first 25-17 and the second 25-16. UK used a come-from-behind effort in the third set, winning 18 of the final 28 points of the set to grab a 25-21 victory and seal the sweep.
Senior middle blocker Azhani Tealer led the Wildcats, hitting .455 with 13 kills and two blocks. Senior outside hitter Adanna Rollins had nine kills with seven digs and a block, while sophomore outside hitter Erin Lamb had eight kills and two blocks. Sophomore libero Eleanor Beavin had 13 digs in the match, displaying exceptional defense, while 2022 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year Emma Grome had 40 assists and a block. Juniors Reagan Rutherford and Bella Bell each had seven kills and three blocks.
For WKU, senior outside hitter Paige Briggs had a team-high 10 kills with three blocks, while fifth-year senior Lauren Matthews had nine blocks. Fellow fifth-year senior Katie Isenbarger had five kills with four blocks.
Kentucky’s ticket to the Sweet 16 will most likely take the Wildcats to Palo Alto, California, where top-seeded Stanford started its first-round matches tonight. If the Cardinal advance to the Sweet 16, they will host the regional semifinal and final. UK would be scheduled to play second-seeded San Diego in the Sweet 16 if it advances past seventh-seed Washington State tonight in the second round. That game is scheduled to start at 10:30 p.m. ET.
Set 1:
Both teams started off strong with scores being close at the beginning of the set. With the first point of the match for the Cats coming from Rollins. A 6-1 run including two kills from Tealer forced Western Kentucky into a timeout at 11-6. Throughout the game, Beavin had multiple saves that extended the rally, eventually resulting in points for her team. Rollins also showed her great serving effort with two aces for the Wildcats, making WKU use up their final timeout with UK up 19-21. Tealer hammered one down from the right-side to end the set 25-17, leaving WKU with a hitting average of .154 by the end.
Set 2:
Into the second set, Kentucky kept up the stamina from the first game with the score being quite even throughout the beginning. Kentucky started to pull away with serval serves from Rollins, giving UK a 19-10 lead. Lamb, breaking through in this set with a handful of some great kills had back-to-back kills to give UK a 22-12 advantage. A service error by WKU ended the set as UK had eight aces in the set to WKU’s zero.
Set 3:
WKU started off strong with a 4-0 lead in the second set. A kill from Tealer put UK on the board, but a successful WKU challenge extended the lead to 5-1. A monster block from Bell and Rutherford gave UK some momentum forward. Other notable blocks throughout the game from Lamb, Tealer, Grome and Bell helped UK erase an early deficit and take charge of the set. The Wildcats won 18 of the last 28 points in the set clinch the set and 3-0 sweep for the match.
Kentucky Head Coach Craig Skinner
Opening Statement…
“Well, I’m obviously proud of our players for coming ready to play tonight. Back-to-back with two different opponents is tough. The game-planning, being physical and mentally ready to go. Always hats off to Western [Kentucky] and their coaching staff for the job that they do year in and year out to have their year play at an elite level, and like Travis [Hudson] said about all the things we’ve gone through – they’ve gone through a lot today. Another injury going into this match … but that’s a tough group. Really proud of the way our kids played, hitting .360 and giving ourselves a great chance to score points with our serve.”
On how pleased he is with the energy and enthusiasm from this match…
“We had a really good focus. We were a little squirrelly in practice today, so I was a little concerned about how we’d come out tonight, but I tip the leadership and the upperclassmen … got us locked in and ready to go. You just mentioned [Eleanor] Beavin but, you know – Eleanor [Beavin] and Audrey [Whitworth] and Riah [Walker] held the back row today. It’s really important against a team like Western, because they are going to make you earn points. They’re not just going to let balls hit, and so our players did the same on our side. I think that keeps your intensity going – seeing people make plays like that and receiving serves the way they did tonight.”
On how pleased he is with scouting WKU in a limited time frame…
“Very pleased and I didn’t even bring that up to our players in the locker room. But it is a challenge, and only having literally an hour – hour and a half to get that information to your players. We all know it because we see it all the time, but to get it through and the points … and not [have] too much information but enough information for them to be dangerous. But they did a really good job of absorbing what we’re trying to tell them.
On having players that can step up at any given time…
“That’s your dream as a coach. If you’re one dimensional, two dimensional. We love to play teams that are like that because it’s easier to game plan. I would hope that when people play us, it’s a little bit more challenging game plan. So when an Erin [Lamb] is having eight kills – I think she had one error on the weekend and had eight kills today, hitting .350. Pretty cool for a setter to have those options.”
On the crowd turnout…
“If it keeps growing, you know – my dreams are bigger, and then want that thing sold out … one time here in the NCAA Tournament, but it’s growing and I love hearing from new people all the time, getting emails, text messages, people wanting tickets. There’s a lot more people into it now than there was even three, four or five years ago. So it’s cool to see and I’m going to keep dreaming that thing’s packed [to] the rafters.”
Kentucky’s Azhani Tealer, MB
On getting ready for a match with this much on the line …
“It’s not really hard to find motivation for a match like that, especially this time of year. So we’re all really excited to play and everyone knows, addressing it now, we had an early exit last year, and so really excited to get back in front of BBN. And it’s really easy when the crowds like that really into it. So hats off to the crowd as well.”
On the team’s serving …
“Our serving in practice in the way we start to train serving a little bit later in the season has been really good for us. Obviously, serving been really good in the late part of the season. So are we really aggressive and low air. We hit our serves and Meredith (Jewell) did a great job calling them so it’s good.”
On playing on the road …
“We like going into someone’s house and kind of taken over and that’s a lot of fun and the routine is always the same there and we’ve tried to make sure that’s the case at home as well. So, testament to our coaching staff and how they keep things the same and it’s fun to go in and kind of take someone’s house over.”
Kentucky’s Eleanor Beavin, L
On her defense …
“They were kind of a different offense than we usually see, so there were just kind of a lot of crazy balls that we’re not used to. So I was just trying to be really scrappy, and pick everything up. And then luckily, the ball just kind of got knocked around to me, so we made some big plays. But defense was definitely a big factor. If we knew we could slow down their best hitters, we would definitely be successful.”
On the team’s confidence going forward …
“I think we’re just peaking at the right time. And I think coming back from last year and being so disappointed from the second round and losing on our home court, we weren’t going to allow that to happen again. So we were super focused in practice this week. Coming in, WKU is a tough opponent. But we felt like we were competent today, hitting our stride at the right time.”
On getting down in the third set, but bouncing back …
“They’ve been down a lot this season, so I think we’re pretty comfortable in that situation but we’re also confident in our abilities to do that. We just had a few rough plays and we went that timeout and everyone was super calm, it didn’t really feel like we were down by that much and luckily we were able to come back pretty quickly in a set so it didn’t have to come into the 20s when we were down so that’s a goal for us to go into 20s being ahead.”
WKU Head Coach Travis French
Opening statement …
“My first comment is this, Kentucky is playing at an extremely level right now. Craig (Skinner), Anders (Nelson) and that whole staff are some of the best people in this profession and you know they’ve had their share of adversity this as well. They’re playing well at the right time. I think they’re a team that can go deep in this thing. They have every piece that it takes and so we wish them well. We truly wish them well as they move forward in this tournament. For us, I’ve always said you get to tournament time, you got to be really good, and we are, but you got to get a little bit lucky, and we haven’t been. It’s been a rough week for us. On Monday, Lauren (Matthews) hurt her hand, her hitting hand in practice doesn’t practice all week comes up here and guts it out but both those teams did a good job against Lauren Matthews. But just look at the history of Lauren Matthews and you know. Lauren Matthews didn’t have a block this weekend. Tell me the last time Lauren Matthews didn’t have a block and she didn’t have one all week. Watching her be the gutty warrior that she is and gut it out and appear in our first practice. Abby (Schaefer), our libero goes to dive for a ball and all of a sudden can’t get off the ground. Was dealing was dealing with the lower back issue. We were able to get her out there and she gutted it out last night and just simply, literally couldn’t get out of bed this morning. And so, you know, we we’re without our libero. Second team, All Americans and Liberos are pretty important this this time of year. You got to have the balance and we didn’t have the balance, but it allowed us to show people. I get tired of people talking about how much our program wins because it takes away from what our program’s about. That was on full display tonight, what our program is about in terms of fight and guts and character. So, I’m just really, really proud of our kids.”
On what areas Kentucky got better in…
“Well, I always watched Kentucky throughout the year because Craig and I are friends. You know, we were laughing when I got here. We were at the Lexington Country Club playing golf back in the summer, you know, laughing about a wonder if we’ll see each other again in December. And when Craig and I shook hands before the match, he said, here we go again. We’ve had some pretty memorable ones in the past against them. But again, they’re an example too of a lot of right things in college athletics – they have endured injuries. They have kids that have had to sacrifice. You’ve got kids that are playing at a high level that can’t get on the court for them right now. They all are accepting of roles, and they all do their role at a high level – they’re the real deal. I’ve watched them at different times in the year when they were dealing with injuries and different things like that, and you didn’t know where they would land this year. But seeing them whole again and seeing all those pieces come together, they’re a terrific team. You’re in this business long enough you start to see coaches for who they really are. I know all you people in Lexington know this, but Craig Skinner is one of the real ones. He’s a phenomenal human being. He’s a good father and a good friend and he’s the real deal and I can do nothing but wish him well.”
WKU’s Katie Isenbarger, MH
On reflecting on her college career …
“As I look back and think about my decision to come to [Western Kentucky], God had his hand in all of it. I was meant to come to Western Kentucky and I would not have wanted it any other way.”
On WKU’s fight …
“I think it takes a lot of trust and that is the culture we have built. I’m so proud to be a part of that. ”
On her favorite memory from her collegiate career …
“There’s been so many but going to the Sweet Sixteen was a really special moment. Dogpiling in Omaha was pretty awesome, but there’s not really one that sticks out to me. It’s the everyday [moments] that you remember: the practices, the talks in the locker room, the sleepovers with your teammates.”
WKU’s Lauren Matthews, MH
On playing through injury …
“Yesterday was way worse, not percentage wise, but feel wise. I thought today would be a little better, but I’m looking at the box score, and it’s about the same. It is what it is.”
On what representing WKU means …
“That’s a tough one. For me, I’m just grateful that I was able to come back for my fifth year and be coached by Travis Hudson and be with the team that I’m a part of. I’m super grateful to have the kind of kids that we have on our team. There is such unity that not a lot of teams in college volleyball across the country have. It’s just different; it truly is a sisterhood. We call ourselves a band of sisters and that truly is what it is. I’m just grateful to have the opportunity to be coached by Travis Hudson and our staff.”
On WKU’s growth over the year …
“Our team from last year is completely different from our team this year. We knew, coming in, that it would be a different kind of battle. We just fought through it; it was a rollercoaster throughout the season. I’m proud of our underclassmen and their fight and determination throughout the entire season. I truly can’t wait to see how they do in the future.”
