The Cats are back: Driven by early exit last year, UK volleyball punches Sweet 16 ticket

After crashing out at the NCAA Tournament second-round stage last season, Kentucky volleyball players kept that feeling of disappointment in the back of their minds this season.

The Wildcats were the defending NCAA Tournament champions in 2021, but failed to make it out of their own sub-regional after a shocking round-of-32 defeat at home to Illinois.

On Friday night, the Cats returned to normal postseason operation by securing their spot in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 following an emphatic 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-21) victory over in-state opponent Western Kentucky in front of a spirited crowd clad in blue and red inside Memorial Coliseum.

“The leadership and the upperclassmen got us locked in and ready to go,” UK head coach Craig Skinner said.

The triumph advances Kentucky to the NCAA regional stage for the eighth time under Skinner.

After Western Kentucky (which finishes the season with a 29-4 overall record after winning the Conference USA regular-season championship for the fourth year in a row) won its first-round match Thursday night over Bowling Green State, WKU head coach Travis Hudson praised Skinner for the coaching job he’s done this season.

“Kentucky is playing at an extremely high level right now,” Hudson added after Friday night’s second-round match. “They’re playing well at the right time and I think they’re a team that can go deep in this thing. They have every piece that it takes.”

In fact, Hudson said Skinner’s coaching job this season — in which Skinner piloted Kentucky to at least a share of the SEC championship for a sixth straight season — was better than when the Wildcats won the national championship in April 2021.

Given UK’s injury woes and forced lineup adjustments this season, it’s hard to argue with that assertion.

UK has dealt with the following injury issues in 2022: Junior opposite Reagan Rutherford (concussion), junior middle blocker Elise Goetzinger (ankle), freshman libero Audrey Whitworth (ankle), sophomore outside hitter Erin Lamb (ankle), senior middle blocker Azhani Tealer (right shoulder) and senior outside hitter Adanna Rollins (concussion).

“They’re the real deal... Seeing them whole again, and seeing all those pieces come together, they’re a terrific team,” Hudson said of UK.

Both Tealer and Rollins — two players pivotal to UK’s offensive attack — missed four matches each with their injuries.

Rollins — who led UK in kills with 15 during Thursday night’s first-round win over Loyola (Chicago) — had nine kills in Friday’s win over WKU.

Tealer — who announced last month she would return to Kentucky next year for a fifth season — has been an emotional and spirited presence for the Cats this season.

When the team has needed a lift, or a player to rise to the big moment, Tealer has almost always answered the call.

She did that again Friday night, to the tune of a game-best 13 kills.

“It’s not really hard to find motivation for a match like that, especially this time of year,” Tealer said. “Everyone knows, I’ll address it now, we had an early exit last year, and so it’s really exciting to get back and compete in front of BBN.”

Other standout performers for Kentucky in the WKU win included sophomore libero Eleanor Beavin with a game-best 13 digs and sophomore setter Emma Grome, the newly-minted SEC Player of the Year, who recorded 40 assists.

Kentucky also had a 10-0 advantage in service aces compared to WKU.

Not only has Kentucky survived ever-shifting lineup combinations and availability questions, but the Wildcats have hardly skipped a beat this season.

Aside from a tough stretch in non-conference play when Kentucky lost three of four matches — all against Final Four teams from a season ago — the Wildcats have won 17 of 20 matches, dating back to late September.

Kentucky has also won 15 consecutive sets.

Back in August, Skinner discussed the importance of being a volleyball team with versatility, and with the ability to force opponents to watch hours of game tape to prepare for the Wildcats.

How does he assess that now, with Kentucky in the Sweet 16?

“Having the options and having plenty of options to go to I would hope would make coaching staffs spend some time in the video room,” Skinner said.

Kentucky’s NCAA regional will be played in Palo Alto, California, at Stanford’s Maples Pavilion. Sweet 16 and Elite Eight matches in the regional will be played Dec. 8 and Dec. 10.

The Cats were 8-2 in road matches this season, along with a pair of neutral site wins.

In the Sweet 16, Kentucky will face No. 2 overall seed San Diego

Western Kentucky’s season comes to an end

It was an emotional post-match press conference for Hudson, WKU’s head coach, along with two star players who will be departing the program: Fifth-year middle hitters Lauren Matthews and Katie Isenbarger.

Matthews, Western Kentucky’s leader in total kills this season and a multiple-time All-American during her WKU career, hurt her hand in practice Monday and didn’t practice all week before playing in the first and second-round NCAA Tournament matches.

“There’s such a unity that a lot of teams across the country in college volleyball do not have,” Matthews said of this year’s WKU team. “It’s just different. It’s truly a sisterhood and we always call ourselves a band of sisters and that’s truly what it is.”

All 15 of WKU’s NCAA Tournament appearances have come with Hudson as head coach.

“I get tired of people talking about how much our program wins because it takes away from what our program’s about,” a passionate and tearful Hudson said, while pointing out Matthews and Isenbarger as examples of what’s right in modern-day college athletics.

“That was on full display tonight: What our program is about, in terms of fight and guts and character.”

Recent NCAA Tournament history between the Hilltoppers and Wildcats has gone the way of Kentucky.

In spring 2021, Kentucky defeated Western Kentucky in the Sweet 16 on its way to the national championship.

UK’s task on Friday night was made easier by a rash of recent injuries for WKU. The Hilltoppers were without freshman libero Abby Schaefer (WKU’s leader in digs) for Friday’s match due to a lower back injury.

UK now leads the all-time series against Western Kentucky, 16-4.

NCAA Tournament Sweet 16

Kentucky (22-7) vs. San Diego (29-1)

Date: Dec. 8

Location: Maples Pavilion (Palo Alto, California)

Sweet 16 matches in the regional are Kentucky against San Diego and Stanford against Houston.