Kentucky has chance to paint its own picture in NCAA Tournament play again

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Kentucky opens NCAA tourney play Friday by hosting Southeast Missouri State. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Kentucky closed the regular season with two sweeps of Florida last weekend at Memorial Coliseum with big crowds both matches. That hopefully will be the same scenario this weekend when Kentucky opens NCAA Tournament play. The Wildcats won the 2020 national championship in April and go into play as the No. 7 overall speed.

Kentucky will play Southeast Missouri State on Friday night and if it wins will play the Illinois-West Virginia winner on Saturday for a berth in the Sweet Sixteen which likely will be at No. 2 overall seed Texas, the same team UK beat in the national championship match last season.

“We talk all the time about, ‘How do we want Kentucky volleyball to be represented?’ Because to the little girls in the stands, they’re watching us and they’re watching our program and we want them to want to be on our team one day,” senior All-American outside hitter Alli Stumler said after close to 7,000 fans saw the final two matches.

“We want them to say, ‘Oh, I want to play for Kentucky volleyball.’ I think that’s slowly becoming a thing.”

Well, maybe not slowly anymore because Kentucky has won five straight Southeastern Conference titles. This year the Cats were 24-4 — 17-1 in SEC play — and have lost just once since Sept. 15. That came at South Carolina and since then UK has won eight straight matches — all by sweeps.

Kentucky lost 3-2 at No. 1 Louisville and 3-1 at No. 4 Wisconsin. The Cats also lost 3-0 to Creighton, 30-3, and an NCAA tourney host this weekend also. South Carolina is also in the NCAA field meaning UK went 9-4 against teams in the tournament with wins over Dayton, Marquette, Stanford, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida (twice).

Stumler says the Cats showed mental toughness with the sweeps of Florida.

“I think that builds confidence for the tourney when you play back-to-back days,” Stumler said. “You have to be locked in every single point and every single day to succeed in the NCAA.”

Stumler believes a deeper, more competitive SEC also has helped with UK’s NCAA preparation.

“When I came in a couple of teams were always at the top. This year almost every single program was neck and neck. It makes you better playing tough competition like we did in the SEC,” Stumler said.

Coach Craig Skinner says this team is pursuing a championship just like last year’s team did.

“Every team is different, we get to paint our own picture,” Skinner said. “It was blank at the beginning, now we’re painting whatever picture Kentucky volleyball is, but physically on the court we just don’t make very many mistakes right now.”

One Response

  1. They are fun to watch. UK VB has a good chance to do something special again in the NCAA Tournament. They go in as the defending national champion too. So, no sneaking up on anybody. They will have to bring it, and I believe they will.

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