Volleyball stomps Mississippi State

By T.J. Walker

Thanks to a high hitting percentage, solid defensive performance, and 1,524 rowdy fans, No. 11 UK (24-2, 14-1 Southeastern Conference) swept visiting Mississippi State (25-11, 25-19, 25-19).

UK had 52 kills and still controls its own destiny in the SEC, avoiding an upset minded Mississippi State team. A pair of juniors, Sarah Mendoza and Lauren Rapp, led the hitting attack with 13 kills apiece.

“It’s a mindset you have to have and knowing that every SEC team can beat you because it’s a great conference one loss can take you out of a conference championship so you just have to come out strong every time,” Rapp said.

UK started the game on a defensive tear, getting five blocks in the first set, and forced the Bulldogs (6-21, 2-14 SEC) to a negative hitting percentage. The Bulldogs could never establish themselves in the hitting department but the second and third sets were much more competitive. Still, the Cats’ defense never faltered and never allowed the Bulldogs to get over 20 points in the match.

“To hold an SEC team under 20 points in three sets and hit for over .360 and kill the ball the number of times we did, than it’s a great day,” UK head coach Craig Skinner said.

Helping dish out the 52 kills was senior setter Sarah Rumely who had a game high 46 assists. Her teammates were quick to praise her not only because of her sets, but also because of her leadership.

“Sarah is a great leader on and off the court, she gets us going,” Rapp said. “If we let down she lets us know we need to pick it up and she’s a great teammate.”

UK served well in its match Friday night, and continued to serve aces against. Mississippi State. UK had seven aces, but committed 11 service errors. But Skinner wasn’t overly disappointed by that stat.

“We have been emphasizing serving tough and we need to keep serving tough in the last 5 matches in the conference and we have to serve tough so it sets up our defense,” Skinner said. “If our ace to error ratio is where it is the last couple matches we’ll live with that and sure we would like decrease some errors but I like the increased number in aces.”

UK realizes that it eased up a bit after the first set, and the team knows in order to close in on the SEC championship they will have to fix that.

“We get too comfortable sometimes, we have to continue to work on keeping focus in practice, and we have to try to not let ourselves do that,” Rapp said.

The focus seemed to go missing after the first set, in the second set UK went back and forth with the Bulldogs until Mississippi State used a timeout to discuss a controversial call with the ref. However, UK capitalized during that break and outscored Mississippi State 10-4 to close out the set.

With only five games remaining, winning out will give the Cats an SEC championship. But Skinner is quick to point out UK isn’t the only team in that situation.

“Well there are three teams in that situation: us, Florida and LSU at this time and we just have to continue take it one match at a time,” Skinner said.