Perfect Timing Helped Bring Lizzie Carr to UK

Lizzie Carr, right, didn't pay attention when Kentucky tried to recruit her in high school. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Kentucky volleyball coach Craig Skinner tried to recruit Lizzie Carr before but it didn’t work out.

“In eighth grade I could talk to coaches and then there was a rule change that you could not talk to coaches until June 15th after your sophomore year,” said Carr, who transferred to Kentucky from Purdue in January. “My sophomore year (of high school) was during COVID so that created some issues. Schools used to send recruiting questionnaires in the mail, and Kentucky was the first recruiting questionnaire I got in the mail. But at that time, I was in eighth grade. I had only been playing volleyball for like a year.”

Carr didn’t think there was any chance she would be good enough to play at Kentucky when she finished high school and she also had no interest in going that far away from her home in West Chester, Pa.

“I was the biggest homebody in the world and if you had told me at the time that I was going to end up going to school 10 or more hours from home, I would have told  you that you were crazy. I wanted to go to school in my backyard,” Carr said during an appearance on WLAP Sunday Morning Sports Talk.  “I wanted to stay right here. I want to stay at home. So I was like, Kentucky, no that’s way too far. I’m never going to be good enough to play there, either.

“I literally didn’t even fill out the questionnaire and send it back. It’s kind of funny because I never actually talked to him (Skinner) , but they were the first recruiting questionnaire that I got in the mail.”

Carr, a redshirt sophomore, averaged 1.52 kills per set last year at Purdue and hit .301 with 73 kills. The 6-6 Carr also averaged 0.63 blocks per set for Purdue during its 27-7 season that included a 16-4 mark in Big Ten play and NCAA Tournament berth.

Skinner didn’t waste any time contacting Carr when she went into the transfer portal. She remembers entering the transfer portal on Friday and by Saturday morning Skinner had already reached out.

“It was quick, quick interest and I was very excited,” she said.

Turns out the timing was perfect because she was in Lexington to watch her brother, Andrew Carr, play basketball for UK against Louisville that day when Skinner contacted her.

“My season had just ended, and I hadn’t seen Andrew play yet because I had been in season. I hadn’t gotten to go to any games and  hadn’t been to Kentucky. I was like, no, I’m gonna come and I’m gonna go to the game. It just so happened that he reached out to me then,” Carr said.

She went out for coffee with Skinner and got shown around campus a little bit. Obviously, she liked what she said.

“It  ended up being perfect because the window of time to visit for people in the portal was ending that following Tuesday,” Carr said. “It was just kind of a weird time because it was right before Christmas and it was all kind of condensed, but it just worked out perfectly that I was here for Andrew’s game. It was pretty cool timing.”