Three things to know before Kentucky volleyball plays at undefeated Louisville
Kentucky volleyball continues its run of high-profile non-conference matches on Wednesday night, when the eighth-ranked Wildcats travel to No. 5 Louisville to play the undefeated Cardinals. The match will begin at 7 p.m. at L&N Federal Credit Union Arena on the U of L campus, and the match will be broadcast on ESPNU.
Here are three things to know before the 2021 edition of the UK-U of L volleyball rivalry.
1. By last season’s standards, Kentucky has struggled in 2021. Kentucky volleyball has already lost more matches this season than it did all of last season.
The Wildcats dropped just one match during last season’s COVID-19 impacted schedule, which caused the season to run from October 2020 to April 2021. That lone defeat — in five sets at Southeastern Conference powerhouse Florida — was the only blemish in a season which ended with Kentucky being crowned national champions.
The sailing hasn’t been as smooth to start the 2021 campaign, though.
Kentucky, No. 8 in Monday’s latest American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, is 6-2 on the young season with a straight-sets home loss to Creighton and a road loss last Friday night at No. 2 Wisconsin.
“We were not good in the first couple sets against Wisconsin and they were very good. Bad combination on the road,” Kentucky head coach Craig Skinner said. “We learned about ourselves and made some changes, saw some fight and resiliency that we just haven’t had to see to this point.”
The Wildcats have lost six sets in eight matches this season. Last season, it took UK 17 matches to lose six sets while playing only SEC teams in the regular season.
Part of these early-season struggles have come from a new-look UK roster. Kentucky has replaced three starters from last season’s title-winning team, and while players like freshmen setter Emma Grome and libero Eleanor Beavin have impressed at the start of their college careers, it’s still been a feeling-out process as a group for Skinner’s team.
Last weekend’s trip to Wisconsin — where Kentucky lost to Wisconsin in four sets before winning at Marquette in straight sets the next night — was UK’s first non-tournament road trip of the season.
In particular, the atmosphere for the Wisconsin match, which featured a sellout crowd of more than 7,500 fans and a lively student section, served as an introduction to playing elite college volleyball on the road for Skinner’s team ahead of the rivalry matchup at Louisville.
“We’re starting five (combined) freshmen and sophomores right now, and none of them have ever played in a road match like that in the last two years,” Skinner said referencing the Wisconsin match. “For them to experience and know what that feels like is huge going into Louisville because it’s going to be the same.”
2. Louisville is off to its best start since 2005. The Cardinals have started 8-0 for the first time since 2005, when Louisville rattled off 20 straight wins to begin the season.
Louisville’s hot start to the 2021 season includes seven straight-sets victories and one five-set win. The Cardinals haven’t dropped a set since Aug. 28, a stretch that includes a dominant sweep of then-No. 6 Purdue on Friday night.
Five Cardinals average more than two kills per set on offense, with graduate middle blocker Anna Stevenson leading the team overall with 65 kills in 24 sets played.
“They’re very balanced, they’re very athletic. Middle (blockers) are both very talented, they have one of the best setters in the country, their right side is one of the best blockers that our players will see,” Skinner said of the Cardinals. “They just have athleticism experience, talent. They’ve been in big matches, they’ve made runs in the NCAA Tournament. It’s just a more equipped team this year than maybe in years’ past.”
3. Across all sports, UK is looking for another win over U of L. Within every athletic season, rivalry matchups between Kentucky and Louisville carry extra weight.
So far in the 2021-22 season, the Wildcats have gotten the better of the Cardinals. The lone athletic meeting this season between the two schools came last week, when the Kentucky men’s soccer team won, 3-1, at Louisville.
In volleyball, UK and U of L haven’t played since September 2019, which was a straight sets home win for the Wildcats.
Kentucky has won seven straight volleyball matches against Louisville, a streak that dates back to 2013.
The two schools didn’t play a volleyball match against each other last season, as UK only played SEC matches in the regular season.
“It’s always an emotional match. It’s always intensity, the rivalry and all that stuff,” Skinner said. “There will be a ton of Louisville fans who’d love nothing more than to see Kentucky lose and Kentucky fans who’d love nothing more than to see Louisville lose. It’s what you want in a situation like that.”
Wednesday
No. 8 Kentucky at No. 5 Louisville
When: 7 p.m.
TV: ESPNU
Records: Kentucky 6-2, Louisville 8-0
Series: Kentucky leads 31-25.
Last meeting: Kentucky won 3-0 on Sept. 20, 2019, in Lexington.
