No. 11 Kentucky volleyball drops season opener to Marquette in five sets

The 2022 season didn’t get off to an ideal start for veteran head coach Craig Skinner and his Kentucky volleyball team.

On Friday night, the No. 11 Wildcats dropped its first two sets of the opener against unranked Marquette before ultimately falling in five sets. Kentucky mounted an impressive comeback just to reach the fifth set, but it’ll be an 0-1 start to the year for the ‘Cats. Marquette has tied the all-time series against UK at 3-3 with the victory.

The next match for Kentucky will be this Sunday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. EST against Ohio inside of Memorial Coliseum.

Marquette wins in five. pic.twitter.com/t1LUNVs27j

— Kentucky Volleyball (@KentuckyVB) August 27, 2022

Kentucky narrowly dropped the first two sets of action, falling 25-21 in set one before losing 25-22 in the second set. From there, the ‘Cats rebounded in ways that were reminiscent of last season’s squad. UK trounced Marquette 25-18 in the third set and then 25-16 in the fourth set.

However, the momentum finally wore out in a decisive 15-point, fifth set. Kentucky did all it could to keep the Golden Eagles from building a sizable lead, but couldn’t complete the comeback, dropping the final set 15-12. The overall statistics on the night were fairly even, but a 2-0 hole to open the first match of the season proved too much to overcome.

Senior Penn State transfer Adanna Rollins was impressive in her Kentucky debut, registering a team-high 28 kills to go along with 11 digs. She also led the team in hit percentage at .473. Sophomore setter Emma Grome clocked a game-high 54 assists while sophomore outside hitter Erin Lamb contributed 18 kills.