Volleyball is Unbelievable in Kentucky but Cards are a Clear No. 1

Kentucky had no real answers for Louisville Wednesday and lost a fourth straight match to the Cards. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Louisville coach Dani Bushboom-Kelly knows that volleyball is “unbelievable” in the state of Kentucky at the collegiate level.

“You have Louisville, Kentucky, Western Kentucky, and Morehead has had good wins this year. We played NKU and they were very scrappy and played hard. It isn’t just us and Kentucky,” the Louisville coach said after a 3-1 win over Kentucky Wednesday. “These matches always feel like they will come down to a few key plays here and there and we have been lucky enough to win those big points in the last few matchups.”

Lucky? Maybe or maybe it is just that No. 4 Louisville has become the state’s best team after UK’s national championship in 2021. The Cardinals now have won four straight over the Wildcats and were clearly the bigger, better team Wednesday night in Memorial Coliseum in front of 3,838 fans and an ESPN audience.

Kentucky is now 6-4 this year but 0-4 against top 10 teams and will face No. 2 Stanford, which lost 3-0 to No. 5 Nebraska Wednesday, on Saturday at 10:30 p.m. EST on ESPN2.

Kentucky coach Craig Skinner said the Cardinals do a good job limiting options and staying in system well which made it difficult for UK to get blocks.

“It comes down to individual plays, reading the situation of the attacker and making those moves and getting those stuffs. And creating chances by transition opportunities to limit their options that way, too,” Skinner said.

Louisville had 17 blocks to UK’s seven — redshirt freshman Brooke Bultema led UK with four blocks.

Skinner also said UK is not closing sets after getting off to good starts.

“When you get those chances to close out sets, you need to. Our team did a good job of sustaining their concentration level, but execution suffered at times,” Skinner said.

Kentucky did continue to serve well as it had nine aces to three for Louisville.

Bushboom-Kelly was not surprised by UK’s serving prowess.

“Tey’re such a great serving team,” Busboom-Kelly said. “We know they’re going to score some points there, and it’s going to be hard to side-out, and that we would have to play great defense and block balls, and that’s what we did. We knew what we’d have to do to combat that advantage, but I think they’re the best serving team in the country and I was very concerned about it coming into this match.”

Kentucky’s Brooklyn DeLeye, the 2023 SEC Freshman of the Year, said playing against top 10 teams decreases the margin of error for UK.

“We have to make sure we do all we can getting easy free balls. It’s a momentum game and we have to use that to our advantage,” DeLeye said.

Skinner said his team has to continue to find ways to score more consistently and build on the good things it did against Louisville and others. He said injuries have forced him to play different lineups and that has not helped.

“But basically you get exposed against good teams and that’s how you learn and get better,” the UK coach said.