Kentucky hopes to keep the dancing going tonight when it plays Wisconsin in the Final Four. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Coaches Kelly Sheffield of Wisconsin and Craig Skinner of Kentucky have known each other since they were young coaches.
Tonight their teams meet in the national semifinals in Kansas City for a berth in Sunday’s national championship game — and both coaches have won the national title before.
“This wasn’t a goal for either of us when we were younger. I think our 20-year-old selves sitting there thinking that both of us have won national championships, multiple trips to the Final Four, that would blow our minds. That was never the goal,” Sheffield said Wednesday. “We loved the sport. We were around really, really good people. Extremely fortunate of the people we were around when we were getting started.
“Both of us had people that came in front and said, ‘What do you think about getting into college coaching?’ Gave us an opportunity. I think both of us were curious enough and asked a lot of questions, humble enough with really good work ethic, I think most of the people where we’re from have.”
Sheffield can still remember over 20 years ago when Skinner was debating leaving Nebraska where he was an assistant coach to take the UK job.
“The thing is, you can’t do it alone. You’ve got to be able to paint your vision to everybody, to your administration, convince them to invest more. To your fan base, you’ve got to get out there and wave the banner, stand on top of buildings, get in fighter jets, whatever you have to do to get people to want to come and check out this thing,” the Wisconsin coach said.
“There were only a couple hundred people going to their matches when we were first there. He’s built a behemoth, but he’s done it the right way. They are consistently good, which is the programs that I respect the most, the ones that can do it year in, year out, not be flashes in the pan. That is certainly not them.”
Wisconsin beat Texas, one of the No. 1 seeds, in the regional final to advance to the national semifinals for the fifth time in the last seven years matching Pitt for the most of any team in that span. This is Wisconsin’s sixth national semifinal appearance under Sheffield.
Outside hitter Mimi Colyer, middle blocker Carter Booth and libero Kristen Simon were all named to the NCAA Texas Regional All-Tournament team and Colyer was named the MVP of the Regional when she had 23 kills, the 13th time this season she has had 20 or more kills. She has double digit kills in 19 straight matches.
Booth hit .700 in a regional semifinal win over Stanford and had 14 kills. She had 11 kills in the regional final against Texas and hit .389.
Against Stanford, outside hitter Vajagic recorded her 10th double-double of the year with a 13-kill, 11-dig performance. The redshirt sophomore had 15 kills versus Texas and hit .451.
Sophomore setter Charlie Fuerbringer had a career-best 61 assists against Stanford and freshman libero Kristen Simon had 15 digs versus Texas.
Wisconsin is on a 13- match winning streak and since Fuerbringer’s return the Badgers are 11-0 and hitting .362 and averaging 16.8 kills, 15.9 assists, 14.6 digs and 1.5 service aces per set. In NCAA play Wisconsin is hitting .371 and holding opponents to .235.
Sheffield knows Kentucky’s offense led by the dynamic duo of Eva Hudson and Brooklyn DeLeye presents big problems for his team.
They’ve got two big-time players. When you have a player that can carry a team in non-perfect situations, it just relieves so much. They have two of them. It relieves the pressure on your serve/receive. It relieves the pressure on what the setter is feeling. You don’t have to feel like you have to be perfect,” the Wisconsin coach said. “When you’re going through some of those times, you have people that are courageous and are abl to take big-time swings. They certainly have that on the left really well.
“Hudson has gotten a lot better than what she was last year. She was a big-time player last year (at Purdue). She’s elevated her game at a totally different level.”
The Wisconsin coach has also been impressed by UK middle Lizzie Carr, another Purdue transfer.
“Lizzie Carr has taken her game to a totally different game the past month. They’ve continued to get better as they’ve worked through the season. That’s hard to do. They haven’t lost since the first week of September,” Sheffield said.
Kentucky swept Cal Poly and Creighton in the regional. It was so stress free that Skinner never had to call a timeout.
The Wildcats hit .328 and held opponents to .086 hitting in the two matches. Kentucky averaged 15 kills per set . DeLeye averaged 4.33 kills per set and Hudson 3.67. All-American setter Kassie O’Brien, the national freshman of the year, led UK with 11.83 assists per set in the regional and Molly Tuozzo had 4.33 digs per set. The blocking leader for the Wildcats was Carr, who registered 1.83 blocks per set.
Kentucky has won 26 straight matches going into tonight’s national semifinals.
“Sometimes you get teams that when they’re just having success over and over and over again, what drives you, not just the results, but are you getting better,” Sheffield said. “Their players are getting better as they’re moving through the season, even with that success.
“Sometimes you hear people say, ‘Well, a loss is good to experience to be able to go.’ They haven’t lost forever. They continue to get better, which means there’s a motivating thing that’s happening right there. They don’t need that loss. They’re tapping into something else. That’s coaching and that’s leadership out on the court.”
