PHOTO - Vicky Graff
After a fairly easy three-set win over Tennessee Friday night, No. 3 Kentucky had a much more difficult time winning 24-26, 25-23, 25-22, 25-12 over the Vols Saturday night. Kentucky coach Craig Skinner said it was good for his talented team to feel the pressure of playing back to back nights against teams that would have a better game plan for the second night than they had the first one.
“We had gritty plays at the end of sets two and three. I am happy to get out with a couple of wins,” Skinner said.
Avery Skinner had 21 kills and hit .457 for UK while Alli Stumler had 15 kills and 13 digs. All-American Madison Lilley had 48 assists, 15 digs and four kills.
Skinner thought the difficult match was really good for UK’s talented freshmen players.
“I think it was a little too easy last night,” Skinner said after Saturday’s win. “It’s not going to be that way regardless of talent and what we have done before. It does not mean you can just show up and put the ball away to help us win. Tennessee put it on us.”
Kentucky also had 12 service errors and just two aces. Skinner said the team stressed serves in practice and he liked the pace of the serves but they were too low over the net.
“You will have matches like that. We need to spend some more time serving on the game court,” Skinner said.
Lilley, a senior, said Saturday’s win was a good long term lesson for the Cats.
“No team is going to roll over,” Lilley said. “We got a little bit sloppy. We have been doing this for five months. There’s no need to panic.
“Obviously we have a great class (of freshmen). Not only talented but they work hard. You can’t coach energy and love for the game and our freshmen have that.”
This was the first of four weekends where UK will play back to back nights this fall against SEC opponents. Skinner says physical conditioning is not an issue because the team practices daily.
“It’s more of the mental challenge of getting prepared to play a match and then in 24 hours doing it over again,” the UK coach said. “I told our team you can never expect the second night to go like the first night. You have to be in those experiences to know what it feels like. This was a good learning experience for us.”
