Erin Lamb and her UK teammates got to celebrate a 13th straight win Thursday. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Balance is what any coach in any sport wants and right now Kentucky volleyball coach Craig Skinner loves the balance his team has.
The Wildcats beat Texas A&M 3-1 (25-17, 25-20, 24-26, 25-12) Thursday night for their 13th straight win and remain on top of the Southeastern Conference standings with a 14-1 league mark with three matches remaining. If UK wins two of the three, it will be assured of at least a tie for its seventh straight SEC championship under Skinner.
Kentucky had four players with double-digit kills —Brooklyn DeLeye 18, Elise Goetzinger 13, Erin Lamb 12 and Azhani Tealer 12. Tealer hit .688 and also added three blocks.
“I think this team has a really good balance of experience and freshmen or newbies coming in here,” Goetzinger said.
The Cats reached the 60-dig mark for just the fifth time this season led by 20 digs by 2022 SEC Libero of the Year Eleanor Bevin, her third time to dig 20 or more in a match. But Audrey Whitworth had 12, Molly Tuozzo 9 , DeLeye 8 and Emma Grome 6.
“They are going to force you to make some plays because they want their block to get involved so if they don’t kill the ball, they’re going to force you to dig in transition and for the most part, we did that. The backcourt did a nice job,” Skinner said.
Grome —who else — led Kentucky with 55 assists on UK’s 63 kills and continues to show why she was the 2022 SEC Player of the Year.
The Wildcats hit .360 clip compared to .211 for Texas A&M.
The only downside for Kentucky was senior Reagan Rutherford hurt her left ankle in the third set and did not return. Skinner listed her as “day to day” after the match and said he had no reason yet to believe it was any kind of serious injury.
Kentucky now has the nation’s second longest current win streak and the fifth longest streak in the Skinner era going into Sunday’s home match in Rupp Arena at 1:30 p.m. against Missouri.
