Kentucky volleyball fans should love the home schedule that Craig Skinner put together. (UK Athletics Photo)
Maybe Kentucky basketball should let UK volleyball coach Craig Skinner make its schedule.
Skinner has never been shy about playing highly ranked teams to prepare his team for Southeastern Conference and NCAA Tournament play. However, as UK chases a sixth straight SEC regular-season title — the longest streak on campus — Skinner has really loaded up the home schedule this year.
After two home games this weekend, Kentucky will go to Omaha to play No. 18 Creighton and No. 24 Southern California. And that is not nearly the hardest part of the non-conference schedule.
Skinners’ team will host defending national champion Wisconsin — No. 3 going into this season — on Sept. 9 at Memorial Coliseum. On Sept. 14, UK hosts Louisville, another Final Four team last year that is ranked No. 4 going into the season.
Wait. There’s more. Top-rated Nebraska, which lost to Wisconsin in last year’s national title game, comes to Kentucky on Sept. 18. That is three of last year’s Final Four teams in a 10-day period.
“Our schedule kind of speaks for itself. We’ve never shied away from playing tough teams and this is no exception,” Skinner said Tuesday at Media Day. “The goal of the schedule is to always try to put yourself in position to play your best volleyball in November and December. I think this schedule, obviously, will get us to that point.”
The players see the difficult schedule as a welcome challenge.
“It’s insane that we have three Final Four teams coming to our gym. I’m so excited for them to get here. It’s going to prepare us. This is why we play – to play in matches like that. To have those three teams here in a two-week span is going to be incredible,” senior Azhani Tealer said.
Sophomore setter Emma Grome likes the schedule, too.
“I think that will really prepare us. These first two weeks are going to be crucial, getting in the right shape for those games. It will be a great test at the beginning of the year to see what we need to work on to be ready for the tournament.”
