No. 16 Kentucky Volleyball cruises in Omaha against Northern Iowa

One win down, two more to go.

On Friday night in Omaha, NE, the No. 16 Kentucky volleyball team swept the Northern Iowa Panthers in three sets. It was the first of three games across Friday and Saturday for the Wildcats, which are set to face a double-header against a pair of ranked opponents on Saturday as part of the 2022 Bluejay Invitational.

Kentucky will take on No. 17 Creighton tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. EST before going up against No. 25 Southern California later in the day at 6:00 p.m. EST.

🧹️🧹️🧹️🧹️🧹️@KYBloodCenter | #WeAreUK pic.twitter.com/NAjmODmXWu

— Kentucky Volleyball (@KentuckyVB) September 2, 2022

Kentucky is now 2-1 on the season. The Wildcats dropped the season opener to unranked Marquette before recovering with back-to-back sweeps against Ohio and now Northern Iowa.

UK was paced on Friday by junior Reagan Rutherford and graduate student Adanna Rollins, who recorded 16 and 11 kills, respectively. Sophomore setter Emma Grome posted 36 assists along with three aces. The Wildcats hit .370 for the match while holding the Panthers to just .160.

Below is more information on how Kentucky beat Northern Iowa, courtesy of UK Athletics.

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Set One

Kentucky gained its first bit of separation midway through the set as a 5-0 run powered by the serving of Adanna Rollins, including her second ace of the match took a 10-9 Panther lead and turned it into a 15-10 Kentucky lead. After Elise Goetzinger’s second kill of the match and a stuff block with her and Rutherford on the right side, UNI took its first timeout of the set. After UNI cut the lead to three at 15-12, Eleanor Beavin registered two service aces within four points and stretched the Kentucky lead to 20-12 as the Panthers called their second timeout after UK’s second 5-0 run of the set. UK closed out the set with a 25-16 win thanks to Adanna Rollins’ third kill of the set as UK hit .452 on the way to an opening-set win.

Set Two

Kentucky took an early 5-1 lead in the second set and pushed the Panthers into an early timeout with UK leading by four thanks to a pair of Adanna Rollins kills to put her match total at four. A 4-0 scoring run for Northern Iowa made it a one-point advantage for Kentucky at 8-7 before the Wildcats were forced into calling their first timeout of the match leading by a point. Emma Grome’s second service ace of the night brought Kentucky’s lead to 14-10 and UNI elected to use its first timeout, trailing by four. Reagan Rutherford thundered home her seventh kill of the match on the succeeding point to max out UK’s lead in the set to that point at 15-10 out of the timeout. Freshman Haley Melby put the second set away with a kill from the left side, her fifth of the night, setting a new career high as UK took the second, 25-22. Kentucky hit .286 in the set, but more importantly, held UNI to just .195 to take a stranglehold of the match. Rollins and Rutherford co-led UK through two sets with nine kills each. Eleanor Beavin had 13 digs.

Set Three

Terrific defense thwarted Kentucky to a 5-1 lead to start the third set as the Wildcats forced Northern Iowa into an early timeout with UK leading by four. Azhani Tealer took control of the middle of the court midway through the set with two kills within a three-point stretch and the Wildcats lead ballooned to 19-8 as they doubled the Panthers to force UNI into its final timeout. Kentucky closed out the third set with a 25-14 win.