By T.J. Walker

UK rocked Arkansas on Sunday as it continued to roll through Southeastern Conference play.

The Cats (13-1, 3-0) swept SEC West foe Arkansas (25-18, 25-23, 25-21) for their third straight win and the team’s third straight sweep. UK hasn’t lost a set in conference play.

“It’s exciting. I think more importantly it’s getting the win in the matches and we’re trying to have a consistent focus and a consistent demeanor when we step on the court,” UK head coach Craig Skinner said. “For the most part we have done that, I thought it faded a little bit today but I thought we recovered and our floor defense was exceptional to keep us in the match and pull out the win.”

The Cats had a balanced attack and relied on a team effort to beat the Hogs.

“It’s very important when you play good teams,” Skinner said. “You want a balanced attack and a lot of people get different looks and swings and (senior setter Sarah) Rumely was able to find the people to terminate the ball for us during this match. We hit for an OK percentage but we got a lot of kills which is the most important thing because that’s were your points come from.”

The kills were spread evenly between a handful of hitters thanks to Rumely. She led the Cats with 38 assists.

UK rarely trailed in the match. Many on the team credited the team’s dominating performance to the crowd.  1,606 fans filled Memorial Coliseum and the players took note.

“The crowd has been awesome, getting us into it and that gets us excited and fans come up to us and tell us their excited to come to our games and it helps us play better,” senior libero BriAnne Sauer said.

Since the Cats loss at Louisville on Sept. 16, UK has been virtually perfect. Skinner said earlier in the week the loss helped refocus the Cats. UK will likely need that focus on an upcoming road trip against two highly ranked SEC teams. The Cats will face South Carolina and No. 5 Florida next weekend.

“It’s a tough road trip in our conference, both those teams are great at home and their opponents that stand in the way of what we want,” Skinner said. “We want to win a conference championship and taking each match at time is what we have to do. And our next match is Florida so we have to start getting ready this week.”