Kentucky celebrated a seventh straight SEC championship this year and won 18 straight matches before losing to Arkansas Thursday. (Vicky Graff Photo)
There was no way to ease the pain of Thursday’s third-round NCAA Tournament loss for Kentucky volleyball coach Craig Skinner.
“Certainly a tough loss. Loved coaching this team. A special group to work with and see rise up to challenges all year. Unfortunately we did not rise to this one,” Skinner said after a five-set loss to SEC foe Arkansas. “Credit Arkansas. They made plays, executed and terminated balls when they had to but we didn’t do that enough today. A tough match to lose.”
Yes it was.
Kentucky came into the match on an 18-game win streak that included two wins over Arkansas, including a sweep over the host Razorbacks late in the season. Kentucky had gone from a 3-7 start to 21-7 and No. 8 overall seed in the NCAA tourney. If that wasn’t enough to make the loss hurt, UK had also defeated Arkansas 18 straight times.
The Cats got 16 kills from freshman Brooklyn DeLeye, 15 from junior Erin Lamb, 12 from senior Azhani Tealer and 11 from Reagan Rutherford. But UK’s overall hitting percentage was .184.
Setter Emma Grome had 52 assists, 15 digs and two kills. Eleanor Beavin had 25 digs, eight assists and two service aces. Both are juniors.
Freshman Molly Tuozzo had 10 digs and two assists.
“We know how good Arkansas is and they’ve shown it all year and we expected them to play like they did today,” Skinner said after the loss. “We responded and gave ourselves a chance at the end.”
Grome didn’t make excuses, either.
“I feel honestly they made some really good plays and that’s the story of the match. They were digging balls and putting pressure on us. At the end of the day they were just a little bit cleaner than us. They made some really good plays,” Grome said.
Skinner’s team was written off by most when a brutal early season schedule, especially with Kentucky having few home matches as it transitioned from playing in Memorial Coliseum to Rupp Arena, combined with several key injuries dropped UK to 3-7 when Tennessee swept the Cats in Lexington. However, the Cats literally charged back and were playing their best going into NCAA play.
“Sports are a microcosm of life. We were in a really bad storm in September,” Skinner said. “Instead of bailing and feeling sorry for ourselves, we showed resiliency and went to work.
“There’s no one that worked harder. There’s no one that put the effort in. There’s no one that committed to their teammates or the program more so than Kentucky volleyball players and so I’m just super proud of them for not throwing in the towel and fighting,” Skinner said. “Life is going to always throw you challenges so how you respond is more important than how you went down.”
Kentucky went down knowing it finished 17-1 in SEC to claim a seventh straight SEC title and Tealer became the first SEC player ever to play on five straight championship teams.
