The No. 20 Kentucky Wildcats (10-7) overcame No. 10 Arkansas (18-3) 3-2 inside Rupp Arena on Sunday to extend their win streak to seven games.
Arkansas entered the match on a massive 16-game win streak of its own, standing undefeated in SEC play up to that point.
Brooklyn DeLeye led the Cats with 17 kills while Eleanor Beavin added 30 digs, but it was Erin Lamb’s four kills down the stretch of the last set that put UK over the edge against Arkansas.
Kentucky head coach Craig Skinner spoke after the game about what helped make his team successful after struggling outside conference play.
“I mean just the resilience of our team, they’re not gonna give up or feel sorry for ourselves because of where we were,” Skinner said. “A lot of things in life don’t go the way you want, so do you get after it and respond and work hard? Or do you blame others for your lack of success? Our team has not blamed anyone.”
The Razorbacks quickly took the lead in the first set before UK battled back.
After being tied at 11 Arkansas would go on a devastating 7-0 run, forcing UK to burn a timeout. The Cats would end the run but find little success after that, losing the set 25-16.
The second set would start more evenly with things tied 8-8 early before a service ace by Beavin would kickstart a 4-0 UK Wildcat run.
After being the first to hit 15 in the set, UK would go on another run, this one being 5-1, and eventually forced Arkansas to call timeout with the score at 21-15. The Cats didn’t relent, finishing with a 4-0 run to win 25-16.
The Wildcats would build on their momentum and go on one of their best runs of the whole season, rocketing out to an early 11-5 lead off an 8-2 run that was capped off by a Reagan Rutherford kill.
An Arkansas timeout was unable to stop the Cats’ fury with the score getting as lopsided as 19-8 before things went south for Kentucky when the 11-point lead dwindled to just five, forcing a UK timeout with the score at 22-17.
UK would continue to look shaky, but survived the set 25-22, winning its second set off a Rutherford kill.
Set four would be neck-and-neck until consecutive service aces from Arkansas propelled it to a 4-0 run and an 8-5 lead.
The Cats would cut into the lead before Arkansas would go on a 6-1 run, taking its lead up to seven with the score at 16-9.
Kentucky continued fighting but never managed to get back into it, losing the set 25-19.
Despite being dominant for parts of the match, all hope seemed lost for UK going into the fifth and final set and a quick 2-0 start from Arkansas could’ve been the final nail in the coffin.
Instead, UK, as it has all season, responded strongly, going on a 7-0 run that was started by consecutive kills by Elise Goetzinger.
A strong run from Arkansas would cut the lead back to one and force a UK timeout, but the Cats would once again spring ahead to an 11-7 lead after the first of four kills from Lamb during the set.
Lamb then took over the match, scoring three more kills, including the final kill of the game, to win the set 15-9 and the match 3-2 for Kentucky.
“At that point we’re down big, but now we’ve got to try and be the best we can at that point and prepare ourselves for this,” Skinner said about Kentucky’s adjustments going into the fifth set.
The win saw the Cats improve to 10-7 overall and 8-1 in conference play, marking the seventh in a row.
Up next the Wildcats will go back on the road, traveling to Baton Rouge to take on the LSU Tigers on Friday at 9 p.m. ET.
