Kentucky Volleyball still hasn't beat a ranked opponent, sits on 6-5 record

Southeastern Conference play for Kentucky Volleyball begins this Friday, Sept. 27 at 9:00 p.m. EST. The ‘Cats travel to Auburn, AL to take on the first of 16 SEC matches to close out the regular season. Unfortunately, a team that was predicted to be one of the best hasn’t exactly lived up to those expectations. Kentucky has yet to beat a ranked opponent this season (0-5) and sits on a current record of 6-5.

This season, NCAA Volleyball has been top-heavy. The really good teams are exactly what they’re supposed to be: really good. Pittsburgh, Stanford, Louisville, Penn State, Nebraska, Creighton, Wisconsin — the list keeps going. And while Kentucky sits at No. 12 in the week four AVCA Coaches Poll rankings, the ‘Cats haven’t been able to gain any sort of momentum. Craig Skinner’s team has lost — in order — to No. 2 Nebraska, No. 4 Penn State, No. 10 Purdue, No. 5 Louisville, and No. 3 Stanford this season. However, Kentucky is 6-0 against unranked opponents with only one dropped set.

The silver lining though, is that the ‘Cats might still be able to clinch the SEC when it’s all said and done. Out of the 11 teams above Kentucky in the rankings, only one of them is an SEC team: No. 6 Texas. In fact, the Big Ten practically runs the top 10… go figure. Texas, home to former Wildcats Madisen Skinner and Reagan Rutherford, fell to No. 2 Stanford over the weekend. Similarly to Kentucky, Stanford swept the Longhorns in a quick 3-0 match.

The main difference between Kentucky and Texas though, is that Texas has actually beaten a ranked opponent. On Sept. 1, the Longhorns beat No. 3 Wisconsin 3-1. Since then, the Badgers fell to No. 7 in the rankings. Kentucky and Texas face off at Memorial Coliseum on Sunday, Oct. 13, at 1:00 p.m. EST.

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So, what’s happening with Kentucky Volleyball?

Over 11 games, Kentucky has won 24 total sets. Five out of Kentucky’s six wins have been 3-0 sweeps, the only exception being a 3-1 victory over Western Kentucky. That means that Kentucky has only won six total sets across the five matches it’s lost. That’s not to say that the ‘Cats are playing badly though. In the 15 sets Kentucky has dropped, there’s been an average scoring margin of 6.1 points per set.

In volleyball, six points isn’t a lot. A team can very quickly add six points to their score through a serving streak, or drop six points because of bad communication. It can happen very fast but isn’t usually detrimental to a team’s success.

Luckily, Kentucky has the potential to be one of the best teams in the SEC. The only thing really holding the team back is defense. Over 11 games, the ‘Cats have accrued 39 serve reception errors, 16 blocking errors, and countless dig errors. Even when Kentucky manages to return a free ball over the net, it allows the opposing team to send a kill right back to the ‘Cats. While Kentucky is a good team, the teams they’ve been playing are just simply better right now.

Fortunately, there’s still over half of the regular season to go. Kentucky has 16 more matches to prove it can be a national title contender, just like in 2020. If this season is anything like the past seven, the ‘Cats will clinch the SEC and move on to the NCAA Tournament, where they hopefully can prove the current standings wrong.

Kentucky’s upcoming match at Auburn is the next test. Currently, the Tigers are 10-1, but remain just outside of the Coaches Poll at No. 27 — likely because of the fact that Auburn hasn’t really played any quality teams. It seems like the voters see more success in Kentucky’s losses than in Auburn’s wins. Despite that, the ‘Cats have a challenge on their hands this Friday at 9:00 p.m. EST on the SEC Network.