The UK volleyball team looked to grab its fourth straight victory against the Louisville Cardinals Thursday night, and delivered in dominant fashion on the road in the KFC Yum! Center sweeping the Cards in straight sets 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-9).

The Cats got off to a blistering start, opening the match on a 5-1 run, and taking nine of the match’s first 13 points. After the Cards closed the gap between the two teams to just four points, UK scored the next six, in large part due to several miscues from the Louisville offense. Freshman Leah Edmond notched six total kills in the set, ultimately leading the Cats to a 25-15 victory.

UK started out the second set much like the first, jumping out to a quick 5-0 lead behind two quick kills and a block from sophomore Brooke Morgan.

However, Louisville quickly turned things around and cut the Cats’ lead to just three with a score of 12-9. The two teams battled back and forth from then on, until a quick kill by Melanie McHenry of Louisville caused UK head coach Craig Skinner to burn a quick timeout with the score at 20-17.

After talking things over, UK went on a dominant 6-1 run to close out the set, 25-18.

The third set began much more competitive than the two prior, with the two teams almost drawing even through the first seven points. UK then pulled out to a 6-4 lead and never looked back.

The Cards would only score five more points throughout the rest of the set, allowing the Cats to go on a 19-5 run to seal the match behind some tough serving and impressive kills from Leah Edmond and junior outside hitter Darian Mack.

Skinner was happy with the team’s consistency throughout the match after the slow start to the season in which the Cats’ fell to a 3-3 record overall.

“We’ve been working really hard on being consistent and I thought we did a great job of that offensively and defensively,” Skinner said.

Edmond led the Cats offensively tonight, racking up 13 kills on 26 attempts with only four errors.

“We mixed it up and we really used what they gave us which was the slide. They had one on one so spreading out the block really helped,” Edmond said.

The Cats sweep over Louisville marked the fourth consecutive win over the Cards in as many seasons. UK will face Lipscomb Saturday at 7:30.