​The UK volleyball team has one thing on their mind: winning the Southeastern Conference Championship.

In 2008, the Cats only had to win their regular season finale at home against Tennessee and they would have accomplished their goal and won their first SEC Championship since 1988. The Cats came up short in the finale though, and the Florida Gators were crowned champions for the 18th straight year.

“We are coming in with a chip on our shoulder; little bit of unfinished business,” senior setter Sarah Rumely said. “All spring and summer we’ve been training really hard. Everyone’s been here working hard at six in the morning every day. Preseason has been at a different level than it ever has been in the past since I’ve been here. There’s definitely a different focus and mentality on the court that hasn’t been here before.”

Under the watch of UK head coach Craig Skinner, the program has advanced steadily since his arrival. After taking over a team with a losing record, Skinner has turned the program around. The Cats have earned NCAA Tournament invites in each of his four years at the helm, a first for the program. In his tenure though, the Cats have never advanced past the second round of the tournament, another goal for the new team.

With heightened expectations come heightened standards to which the team is holding themselves. Junior outside hitter Sarah Mendoza pointed to practice saying the competitive level of this year’s team trumps years past and it’s difficult to get kills against each other. Skinner said the depth was the best he’s had while at UK and that the team is both physically talented and gifted competitively.

“I really think this team is driven,” Skinner said. “Regardless of what happened last year I just think they’re very competitive and I think they don’t ever want to settle for mediocre practice, mediocre performance and mediocre effort to represent the name on the jersey.”

Helping the Cats reach their goal will be another highly regarded recruiting class. New to the team are outside hitter Whitney Billings, middle blocker Alexandra Morgan and defensive specialist and libero Stephanie Klefot.

Normally it takes time for the freshmen to adapt to collegiate volleyball and get up to pace. As Skinner and Mendoza said though, the athleticism of this group will allow some of them to find time on the court quickly.

For Rumely, the reigning SEC Player of the Year, the motivation of winning that elusive SEC Championship remains the same, but the leadership aspect steps up a notch. In Skinner’s opinion, that job won’t be very difficult.

“(She brings) everything from competitiveness, to work ethic, to just being an extremely driven person,” Skinner said. “I think when her teammates are around her – most of them are that same way also – but they don’t want to let each other down and I think Sarah leads by example in that area and her performance on the court usually reflects that.”

The Cats will begin the new season in a spot where they haven’t been since 1993: the top 25. The Cats check in at No. 21 in the preseason AVCA Top 25, but still are flying under the radar in the eyes of Mendoza and Rumely. Rumely said while she believes they are better than No. 21, they haven’t proven that yet but this year the fans will definitely see a new team.

“We haven’t proven anything,” Rumely said. “We came in second in the SEC last year. That doesn’t mean anything. No one remembers who comes in second every year. We’re nothing right now. We have to come out every game and we have to prove ourselves in everything we do.”