No. 2 UL Volleyball Uses Red-Hot Offense to Race Past No. 21 Kentucky

Senior right side hitter Reagan Rutherford recorded a match-high 16 kills on a blistering .583 clip, but it wasn’t enough for the Cats to get the win as No. 2 Louisville took down No. 21 Kentucky in straight sets (19-25, 23-25, 18-25) in front of a Louisville record 12,780 fans inside the KFC Yum! Center in the annual Battle of the Bluegrass.

Rutherford proved to be a thorn in the side of the Cardinals all night long, as she torched Louisville both offensively and defensively. The senior totaled her 16 kills with only two errors and also added a pair of aces, 9 digs, and a team-high 4.0 blocks. Outside of her, however, Kentucky struggled to find offense. Freshman outside hitter Brooklyn DeLeye added seven kills of her own, but aside from her and Rutherford Kentucky managed just 11 more kills as a team.

The story of the match proved to be Louisville’s ability to score and Kentucky’s inability to stop them from doing so. The Cardinals racked up a whopping 44 team kills through three sets of play and hit on a .344 clip for the match. Louisville totaled just 12 total hitting errors and saw four players tally seven or more kills. In the first frame alone, the Cardinals hit .412 and recorded 18 team kills.

The Kentucky defense struggled mightily to slow Louisville down, despite the fact that the Cats actually totaled 3.0 blocks through their first 5 points of the match. But after that point, Kentucky recorded only 2.0 more blocks throughout the rest of the game, a large reason the Cardinals saw so much success offensively. 

Libero Eleanor Beavin continued to be the anchor for Kentucky on the back line, as she recorded a team-high 11 digs. Rutherford added nine, freshman Molly Tuozzo had five, and Emma Grome had four. 

Perhaps most frustratingly of all for Kentucky was the fact that the Wildcats actually held leads in all three sets. But each time the Cats raced out to a lead, Louisville responded with a run. In the first set alone, the Cards turned a 6-9 deficit into a 16-9 lead to take control of the frame and set the tone for the remainder of the match.

With the loss, Kentucky falls to 2-5 on the season with one more non-conference game on its schedule before SEC play begins. Things won’t get any easier for the Cats, though, as their non-conference finale comes in a road game at No. 4 Nebraska Sunday night. First serve against the Cornhuskers is set for 7:30 pm and will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network.