Balanced Creighton Will Test Kentucky Volleyball

Kentucky players hope to be celebrating going to the Final Four after playing Creighton. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Kentucky coach Craig Skinner has been “thankful” for the fan support his team has received and is hoping to have a “sellout” in Memorial Coliseum for this afternoon’s NCAA Tournament Elite Eight matchup with Creighton.

A win would send Kentucky to the Final Four for only the second time — the first was during UK’s 2020 national championship.

“Looking forward to playing Creighton, obviously a team that has had success this year and presents lots of challenges with their offense and how they play. Should be an exciting volleyball match tomorrow,” Skinner said Friday.

Skinner was not ready to say this is his best team since 2020 — even if many others believe that.

“It’s hard to argue with the results. I mean, we’ve won a lot of championships in a row and this team is hosting the regional. On paper and in wins and losses and things like that it would be hard to say it isn’t. They are just a complete team in a lot of different ways both on and off the court,” Skinner said.

“They are a very selfless team in terms of being excited when others do well. I think they bring the whole package and are a team that gives us a great chance to be successful even if one part of their identity isn’t working on a particular day.”

While Creighton might not be considered a national volleyball power, this is the team’s second straight Elite Eight appearance and Creighton has won 23 straight matches. Skinner knows how good Creighton is.


“They are very balanced. Everyone talks about Ava Martin and (Kiara) Reinhardt, but with (Jaya) Johnson behind the setter and (Eloise) Brandewie who played at Ohio State before she got to Marquette. Their libero is experienced from Cincinnati, which is a volleyball hot bed. Then (Abbey) Hayes from Iowa. They just have a group of people that are very experienced and like Molly (Berezowitz) said, they are very mature in how they compete,” Skinner said.

“They are not going to give us a whole lot of points, we are going to have to earn them. You score points by earning them with your block and attack and serve or the opponent’s errors. Most of our points against them are going to have to come from how you earn it because they are not going to give them to us.”

Berezowitz, a junior defensive specialist who transferred from Marquette, knows serving will be important against Creighton just like it was in Thursday’s win over Cal Poly.

“With the diversity that Creighton throws at you with their offense, it (serving) will be important again. Maybe not necessarily the velocity, which will be important, but more about what spots on the court may hinder some offensive options,” Berezowitz said. “If they have all options in the front row and then Martin in the back row, then our block is going to be spread thin. We are going to have to find the right spots to hit it in the right rotations.”

Kentucky sophomore middle blocker Kennedy Washington, who had seven kills and three blocks against Cal Poly, knows U K must spread its offense again and also defend at a high level against Creighton.

“We did a good job of blocking and holding their hitters and star players to a lower hitting percentage,” Washington said about the win over Cal Poly. “I think our back row did a good job of defending them as well, so just doing that tomorrow will be good.”

Berezowitz said Kentucky just needs to keep doing what it did to go through SEC play unbeaten and knock off top 10 teams during the season.

“I think, and we talk about this a lot, but just using all 14 players and we are going to need everyone tomorrow. I think it is important to treat it like every other game we have played the last 30 games,” Berezowitz said Friday.