Volleyball Falls to Kentucky

Thursday, September 15

LOUISVILLE, KY

7:00 PM

University of Louisville

4-5

KENTUCKY

6-4

KENTUCKY

Louisville

September 15, 2016 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score PHOTO GALLERY

Cards fall 3-0; Face Lipscomb on Friday in Cardinal Arena

By: Nancy Worley

Leah Edmond's 13 kills and 8 digs helped to lead the Kentucky Wildcats to a 25-15, 25-18, 25-9 sweep over the University of Louisville volleyball team on Thursday night at the KFC Yum! Center.

"There's a lot of growing pains in this group – how painful it is depends on how fast we grow, and that's the bottom line," UofL head coach Anne Kordes said after the loss. "You know we talked about how we were dealt a tough hand with some injuries, but so what? You have to go out and compete and that's the hardest part. However, that's in the past and out of this moment, and now we have to figure out a way to come back and play with them. There is nothing about us. You talk about competing and defining our season and defining our team. This is going to leave an ugly taste in our mouth but then we've got to be able to come back strong tomorrow. We've got to be able to settle in on some kids. We've got to be able to take care of the ball. That's one of our biggest emphasis we have right now is all of our errors."

UofL (4-5) hit .062 for the match with eight blocks and were led by Melanie McHenry's nine kills. Kentucky (6-4) blocked the Cardinals 9 times and hit .358 with 37 assists from Olivia Dailey.

The Cardinals started the scoring in the first set with a kill by Melanie McHenry, but Kentucky would come back with a 5-0 run to take the lead before a big block from Tess Clark halted the run by the Cats and bring the score to 5-2. Louisville would tighten the set at 10-6 when Tess Clark bounced a ball for the kill. Kentucky would then take a 14-6 lead off three errors and a kill and force Louisville to call a timeout.The deficit proved too much as the Cards fell 25-15.

Kentucky took an early 5-0 lead in the second set until a kill by McHenry would give the Cardinals their first point of the second set at 5-1. The Cardinals cut Kentucky's lead to 12-9 and made a run powered by McHenry who helped the Cards to come within three at 20-17. Kentucky used a timeout to regroup, went on a 5-1 run and the eventual 25-18 win to take a 2-0 set lead into the break.
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Louisville kept it close after the break and kept it close coming to within one at 5-4 early on. The Wildcats turned it up a notch overpower the Cardinals in the third set, hitting .524 to Louisville's -.040. Kentucky went on a 20-5 run, including the last eight straight points, to take the third set, and the match, 25-9.

The Cardinals will look to bounce back tomorrow when they host the Lipscomb Bison Friday night at 7 p.m. at Cardinal Arena.

QUOTES from KORDES

(Talk about tonight's game) "There's a lot of growing pains in this group. How painful it is depends on how fast we grow, and that's the bottom line. You know we talked about we were dealt a tough hand with some injuries, but so what? You have to go out and compete and that's the hardest part. You know, however, that's in the past and out of this moment and now we have to figure out a way to come back and play with them. There is nothing about us… you talk about competing and defining our season and defining our team. This is going to leave an ugly taste in our mouth but then we've got to be able to come back strong tomorrow. We've got to be able to settle in on some kids. We've got to be able to take care of the ball. That's one of our biggest emphasis we have right now is all of our errors."

(With three starters out, coach, it had to be kind of difficult from the start) "It's just hard for me to say, 'oh yeah', and give an excuse for a performance like that. You know, again, I'll say yeah. we are young and come into a big environment… again, it comes down to competing and playing hard. I'll tell you now, I couldn't be more proud. The way they practice, they get after it! You know, and this is the time to go have fun. And right now I think it's just stress bottled up and nervousness or whatever it is. Maybe everyone's got something different from that stand point. I just want them to come out here and let loose and compete. I think that's what we've got to work on to be able to do tomorrow as we get into ACC season, regardless who is on the floor."

(Megan Sloan comes in and gets 5 kills, not a bad performance right?) "No that's not. I give her credit. She found out she was playing about 20 to 30 minutes before the match so good for her, you know, to go in and just go for it. Like I said, she's played at a high level in high school so we expect that from her."

(Anything you can take out of tonight's game that you can bring to tomorrow's game?) "Absolutely, from a stand point of understanding. What we have to focus on is just a few things. We don't have to change a bunch of things. For us to able to be competitive in that match or even push set 2, we've got passing and we've got to serve. We do so well in practice and we come back here and we're a little bit tight. I know we've got to play much more enthusiastic defense, our defensive range has to improve, like I said it can and it does. I've seen it in practice. Just not seeing it right now in the match. It'll get there"