American Campus Classic
#6 TEXAS DEF. #16 KENTUCKY 3-1
- #6 Texas def. #16 Kentucky 3-1 (25-27, 25-21, 25-18, 25-16)
- #6 Texas improves to 5-1; #16 Kentucky falls to 3-4
- Austin, Texas | Gregory Gymnasium
- Attendance: 3,702
- Box Score
- Texas Release | Kentucky Release
It wasn’t the best start, but Texas progressively got better as the match went on and took down #16 Kentucky in four sets. It gives the Longhorns their third top 25 victory, while Kentucky moves to 0-4 against VolleyMob Top 25 ranked opponents.
The biggest issue for Kentucky – as it has been at times throughout some of their early struggles – was defense; the Wildcats lost both middles and libero from 2017, and all three earned conference or national recognition.
Combine those still developing positions with an elite offense like Texas, and it resulted in the Longhorns hitting .400 for the match. That was almost double Kentucky (.217) as Texas had more kills (65-49), assists (57-44), digs (54-49) and blocks (13-7). The Wildcats had more aces (4-2).
That hitting number for Texas was reached with balance, as the Horns had four players reach double-digit kills AND hit .344 or better. Micaya White (18 kills, .421, 11 digs) led everyone in scoring on a season-high in kills, while Morgan Johnson (12 kills, .550, 7 blocks) and freshmen Logan Eggleston (15 kills, .344, 5 digs), Katarina Luketic (10 kills, .318, 8 blocks), Sydney Petersen (15 digs) and Brionne Butler (8 kills, .583, 5 blocks) all shined bright. Ashley Shook (51 assists) facilitated the attack.
Doing that for Kentucky was Madison Lilley (39 assists, 7 digs), who found Leah Edmond (15 kills, .194, 7 digs, 3 blocks), Ali Stumler (13 kills, .184, 8 digs) and Brooke Morgan (9 kills, .571, 4 blocks) a good amount. Unfortunately though for them, Texas defensively was putting emphasis on defending the pins, and forced Edmond and Stumler into 14 attack errors in reaching their totals, plus 6 more from Avery Skinner (7 kills, .034). Those combined for 20 of the team’s 21 attack errors. Gabby Curry also tacked on 16 digs.
The result pushes Texas to 14-3 all-time in the series with Kentucky, who lost won among the two back in 1993.
To round out the weekend, Kentucky will face Texas State tomorrow as they look to get back to .500. Texas meanwhile gets the weekend off after taking down both teams to win the American Campus Classic, but will work toward their next match against #2 Stanford on Tuesday and Friday.
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