No. 21 UK Volleyball Prepares for Bluegrass Battle Against No. 2 Louisville

It’s rivalry day in the Bluegrass, as the No. 21 Kentucky volleyball team prepares to take on No. 2 Louisville inside the KFC Yum! Center late Wednesday night in the annual Bluegrass Battle. And after suffering a heartbreaking loss to No. 21 Purdue in five sets on Saturday, the Cats are looking to get back on track in their highest-ranked match of the young season. 

If Kentucky wants to knock off the Cardinals, however, it’s going to take a team effort across the board. Heading into the match, here are three areas of emphasis that Kentucky needs to excel at in order to come away with the win. 

The Battle Behind the Service Line

Winning the serve and pass battle is a critical part of any volleyball match. But especially against a team as talented as Louisville, that point is as true as ever. The Cardinals currently have four hitters averaging at least 2.0 kills per set, led by senior outside hitter Anna DeBeer. DeBeer has recorded at least 17 kills in three matches already this season, highlighted by a season-high 24 kills coming in a five-set win over Dayton. 

DeBeer isn’t the only productive hitter for the Cardinals, however, as Charitie Luper, Cara Cresse and graduate senior Aiko Jones all make up a potent offensive attack across every area of the net. In order to slow Louisville down, Kentucky must not only limit service errors, but serve tough and intentionally to keep the Cardinals’ offense out of system and off balance. 

UK head coach Craig Skinner stressed his team’s improvement from behind the service line on Tuesday when preparing for the match against the Cardinals, citing that as a big reason the Cats have seen some improvement of late. 

“Our serving has gotten a lot better the last couple of weeks,” Skinner said. “We’re creating easier chances for us to score and against the better teams you have to be able to do that because if you give them two, three options offensively it’s going to be really hard to score that point.”  

Against No. 21 Houston last Friday, Kentucky racked up eight aces and 13 service errors, and against No. 20 Purdue on Saturday they totaled eight more aces with 14 service errors. They still have work to do to cut down on some errors, but the Cats are causing much more chaos with the serve than they did to begin the season. And against a team as talented as Louisville, that trend will need to continue.

But winning the service battle doesn’t just mean serving the ball accurately. Kentucky will also need to receive serve much more efficiently than they did in early losses against Colorado State and Pittsburgh. 

Despite losing the match to Purdue last weekend, Kentucky’s ability to pass the ball in system and give setter Emma Grome plenty of options offensively is a large reason the Cats saw five players eclipse double figures in the match. Kentucky sided out 66% of the time against the Boilermakers, a solid number against a team as talented as Purdue. Louisville…