Volleyball Falls to No. 12 Kentucky

Friday, September 15

Lexington, KY

7:00 p.m.

University of Louisville

5-4

Kentucky

8-2

Louisville

Kentucky

September 15, 2017 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Rivera has double-double, Tess Clark has 8 kills.

By: Nancy Worley

University of Louisville sophomore Melanie McHenry had seven kills and an ace but the No. 12-ranked Kentucky Wildcats powered to a 25-20, 26-24, 25-11 win in college volleyball Friday night in Lexington, Ky.

Kentucky (8-2) hit .258 for the match with nine blocks and 46 digs. The Cats were paced by Avery Skinner's 15 kills. UofL (5-4) hit .092 and was hampered by 12 service errors. Tess Clark had eight kills and two blocks. Wilma Rivera had a double-double with 18 assists and 11 digs.

"Kentucky is a great team and they passed really well tonight," said UofL coach Dani Busboom Kelly. "They are hard to stop when they pass that well. We did a nice job of fighting in the first two sets. It is always disappointing when you end the match like we did. The first two games we fought hard and made some nice plays."

In the first set, UofL stayed close despite .026 hitting. With the scored tied at 13, UK put together a 4-0 run to to up 17-13. The Cards came within one at 19-18 on a kill by Melanie McHenry. UK took a 21-18 lead on a kill by Franklin and Louisville called timeout. Tess Clark scored to make come within two at 21-19 but the Cats pushed to a 25-20 win.

There were nine ties and three lead changes in a hard-fought second set. Louisville was down 13-9 early but came back to tie at 20. The teams traded points with kills by Jasmine Bennett and Tess Clark staving off two UK set points and tie at 24. The Cards had a service error and UK was able to score for the 26-24 win in the second to take a two-set lead into the break.

"At the break, we just told them to keep pushing and the players wanted to do great but were unable to execute in game three," said Busboom Kelly.

The Cards fell behind early in the third set and was plagued by -.094 hitting percentage. After making a short run with two straight kills by Tess Clark to come within five at 13-8 the Cats ran the table with a 25-11 win.

"We have Kennesaw State on Sunday and they are a good team. We have to have short memories and move on. I thought our offense looked really good at times and that was really good to see and we will build on that," said Busboom Kelly.

UofL faces Kennesaw State on Sunday at 3 p.m. in Cardinal Arena.