‘We’re here to win it all.’ UK volleyball sweeps Purdue to reach first Final Four.

John Clay
·4 min read

Finally, the Final Four.

On its 16th consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament, the Kentucky women’s volleyball team finally broke through Monday night, sweeping Purdue 3-0 in a regional finals at the CHI Health Arena in Omaha, Neb., to earn the program’s first trip to the national semifinals, i.e. the Final Four.

“It’s certainly been a dream,” said UK Coach Craig Skinner, who took over the program in 2005. “To be able to compete in the Final Four (at Ball State) and coach in the Final Four (as a Nebraska assistant) in the past, I just wanted our players to feel what that’s like and understand the reward of the effort you put in to get to this point. And the amount of effort this team has put in this season is unbelievable.”

[NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament bracket]

And the season isn’t over. As the tournament’s No. 2 seed, UK will face No. 6 seed Washington at 7 p.m. EDT Thursday night on ESPN in one national semifinal. No. 1 seed Wisconsin will play No. 4 seed Texas in the other semifinal with the winners meeting in Saturday’s national championship match.

To finally crack the Final Four barrier, Kentucky junior Alli Stumler led the way with 16 kills and Avery Skinner added 12 as Madison Lilley contributed 38 assists. Libero Gabby Curry recorded 16 digs while Lilley added 10. UK’s hit percentage was .256, but maybe more impressively the Cats held Purdue to a hit percentage of .130.

“We were talking coming over here (to the press conference), I don’t think our defense has ever played like that before,” Stumler said. “We knew this was potentially our last match and it was how do we want to go out.”

The Cats did have to deal with another late start time. After Sunday’s three-set sweep of Western Kentucky began just before midnight, Monday’s match started at 10:03 p.m. And Kentucky started slowly — “We weren’t quite as loose or as talkative as we were the night before,” Skinner said — falling behind the Boilermakers 11-6 and then 17-12.

“I thought it was important for us the first 10 points to feel what the environment of the match was going to be,” said Skinner when asked what he told his team after calling an early timeout. “We knew regardless if we were up or down after the first 10 points, it wasn’t going to be smooth. The score is what the score is and you have to be prepared for the next point. For us to be able to respond was significant.”

They did respond, rallying to take the first set 25-23 and then grew stronger as the night continued, winning the second set 25-16 before dominating the final set 25-16 to improve their record to 22-1 on the season. And, oh yeah, realize a dream.

“It seems like a long time coming,” said Lilley, a senior and the SEC’s Player of the Year. “I remember saying when I was being recruited that I wanted to win, that I wanted to compete for a national championship and go to the Final Four. . . Finally being here is surreal. We’re going to enjoy it tonight but we’re hungry for Thursday.”

“We know we’re here to win it all,” Stumler said. “We’re focused on one game at a time and we have a big goal in mind.”

Still, after losing five times in the Sweet 16 and once in the Elite Eight (2017), it had to feel satisfying to accomplish the first big goal, to push through and be among the final four teams still standing.

“I’m just super proud of our team,” Skinner said .”Getting to the Final Four for the first time ever for Kentucky is an amazing accomplishment for our program and for all our former players and all the Kentucky Wildcats that have been behind us over the years.”

NCAA Final Four

Thursday

7 p.m.: No. 2 seed Kentucky vs. No. 6 Washington (ESPN)

10 p.m.: No. 1 seed Wisconsin vs. No. 4 Texas (ESPN)

Saturday

9 p.m.: National championship match (ESPN2)

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