Aretha Franklin demanded “respect”, she even sang about it. Maybe the UK women’s volleyball team should too.

The Cats (13-2, 4-0) are riding a 10-game winning streak, the longest in head coach Craig Skinner’s four years at UK, yet still find themselves outside the American Volleyball Coaches Association top 25.

“If we take care of what we need to do in practice and play well in matches, that stuff will take care of itself,” Skinner said. “I like to think we play with a chip on our shoulder no matter what. I think we have a certain edge to us with the way we play, but I don’t think it’s motivated by rankings, I think it’s more motivated because we have players that are internally motivated to win.”

The Cats have won 13 of their 15 matches on the season, and 30 of their past 34 sets played. In that span, the Cats have looked to a number of different players to step up. Whether it’s been on setting the ball, killing it or blocking, the Cats have gotten the job done during the streak.

“It’s excellent to have that winning streak, but it doesn’t mean anything,” junior libero BriAnne Sauer said. “You have to keep pushing to the end, the SEC is still always up for grabs, anybody can beat anybody because it’s such a long season.”

The Cats’ most recent win was a sweep on the road against a Louisiana State team picked to finish second in the entire Southeastern Conference by the coaches at the beginning of the year and first in the SEC West. It was the Cats’ first victory against LSU in Baton Rogue since 2002.

Despite the lack of respect in the rankings, Skinner believes performances like these have been in the cards for quite some time now with this team, and as junior setter Sarah Rumely pointed out, it’s not always so bad to play the role of the underdog.

“I think it’s a credit to the work our players put in January, all the way through now,” Skinner said. “We’re in great physical shape, we’re very determined in practice, we follow game plans well, and I think we really enjoy competing.”

“It’s kind of nice being the underdog,” Rumely said. “Of course everyone would love to be ranked, but right now it’s not about that. It’s about playing together as a team and making sure we get the ‘W’ against every opponent that we play against.”

The Cats will try to continue to sway the voters’ minds on Wednesday night in Knoxville, Tenn. They are gunning for their third straight road match victory and their fifth straight win against the Volunteers (8-5, 3-1).

“Tennessee’s done really well recently,” Skinner said. “They had a tough weekend early in the season and lost a couple I don’t think they would lose right now. We’ll have our hands full, and it will be another challenge for our team.”