The road to winning the Southeastern Conference in volleyball still runs through Gainesville, Fla.

The Cats, fell 3-2 to Florida in Gainesville in their 38th straight loss to the Gators. Florida has typically been seen as a major roadblock for UK’s hopes of winning an SEC title. The Gators have won 17 straight SEC championships.

This past weekend was about the psychology of the Cats in 2008. Head coach Craig Skinner has repeatedly pointed out how different this squad is from past teams. He said that the Florida result would have been looked upon as a “moral victory” a couple years ago, but that’s not the case anymore.

“Whenever we step on the court there’s no doubt in my mind that our players believe we have a chance to win,” Skinner said. “So we’ll continue with that theme.”

The Cats (16-3, 7-1) proved their coach right two days later when they defeated South Carolina in straight sets in a match where Skinner said the team closed out each set as well as they have all season.

“They’re very focused,” Skinner said. “Nothing seems to phase them in different situations, and they seem to be focused on each particular point.”

Sophomore outside hitter Sarah Mendoza earned SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors despite the split the Cats endured this weekend. Mendoza said that while the team isn’t getting nervous, they need to know that it’s “not okay to lose any more games in the SEC.”

“Our team never gets really anxious,” Mendoza said. “We just need to be more focused. We’re practicing hard, but everybody knows they can practice harder, so practices are going to be more intense and I’m sure everyone is a little angry about the loss (to Florida).”

The loss to Florida was a match the Cats had circled on their calendar and was a game that for many would be seen as a potential program-changer to announce the Cats were to be taken seriously as a national contender.  While the Cats still believe they should be considered as such, they’re not going to change what has worked so far.

“We’re still really excited with what we’re doing,” junior setter Sarah Rumely said. “I think the mindset is to just keep going and practice working hard every day and keep pushing toward that SEC championship at the end of the road.”

While the effect of the loss to Florida isn’t clear, Rumely is certain that her team responded correctly against South Carolina.

“I think (the South Carolina game) definitely was a response from us,” Rumely said. “Going down to Florida, losing in five, it was a heartbreaking loss. But we battled (even though) we didn’t play our best on Friday, then to come in and play a team (two days later) that was 6-1 in the conference at the time, and beat them in three. I just think that really shows the mentality of this team.”