[SLIDESHOW] Volleyball advances to NCAA secound round

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No. 13 UK (28-4) swept Michigan State (25-23, 25-23, 25-20) Friday in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Memorial Coliseum. UK has had problems closing sets recently and lost its last two regular season games, but the Cats closed out the Spartans (17-16) season.

UK used a .214 hitting percentage and took advantage of being able to host the NCAA first and second round, feeding off the mostly 1,475 UK fans.

“There was disappointment in those (last two) matches and not reaching our goals but this team is so competitive and veteran leadership really helps us get refocused and our practices this week really showed that,” UK head coach Craig Skinner said. “I was very proud how we responded and beat a good Michigan State team 3-0.”

After losing two games proved that although they might have been down after the season, they are certainly aren’t out.

“Of course no one was happy about the losses but it’s kind of like in volleyball wins and losses you have to forget about them because they don’t matter in the next match,” junior outside hitter Sarah Mendoza said. ”Basically we just have to get ready for whoever we play next.”

The Spartans gave the Cats all they could handle going back and forth for most of the first and second sets with UK using timely kills to put itself in position to win the set. In past games the Cats would let the opposing team fight back. Tonight, while UK might have budged, they never broke.

“When you get 3-4 point leads and a team ties it you wonder how you are going to respond,” Skinner said. ”I don’t think our team really focused on what just happened they were very driven to make each point successful. When you’re single-minded and focused like that what happened tonight is a result.”

Junior middle blocker Lauren Rapp led UK. Rapp led the game with 14 kills and only one hitting error. However, the balanced hitting attack of UK might have secured its second round against Oregon on Saturday night.

“Mendoza and Rapp had a lot of kills tonight and everyone can do that depending on the match,” Skinner said.

The Cats won’t have much time to celebrate their first win since Nov. 20. No. 17 Oregon also enjoyed a sweep Friday night and Skinner expects it to be a hard fought game. The second round game is at 7 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Coliseum.

“Oregon is a very good team a lot of good wins this year, they’re good offensively,” Skinner said. “It’s a battle of wills at this point they have been ranked most of the year so have we so I think it will be an exciting match. The crowd that came out tonight was awesome, their knowledge and enthusiasm and were going to need it.”