Head coach Craig Skinner will be keeping his Kentucky team on their toes all season long as they have a schedule loaded with strong RPI teams.
Awaiting the Wildcats are 23 teams that finished the 2016 season with RPIs better than 190, with 10 of those in the top 50 and another four in the top 100.
Teams featured in the non-conference are Cincinnati, Creighton, Kansas, Marquette, Northern Iowa, Utah, and USC; all are teams who made it to the 2016 NCAA tournament.
Opening the season, Kentucky will host the Bluegrass Battle which begins with Pac-12 opponent Utah. A day later, they will face Arkansas State and Cincinnati.
For the fourth consecutive season, the Wildcats will play a tournament with Creighton, Northern Iowa, and USC. As part of a four-year rotation, this year’s tournament will take place in Omaha, Nebraska with Creighton being the host this year.
The Wildcats will travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where they will take on Kansas, a team that made it to the second round. The next day, they will face Loyola-Chicago and host Marquette, a team that finished second in the Big East. Kentucky and Marquette faced off last season in Lexington with Marquette taking the match in four sets.
Rounding out the non-conference are matches against Louisville and Kennesaw State. Kentucky took the against Louisville last year in a sweep at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville.
They will face all 12 SEC opponents, but in unbalanced schedule the Wildcats will only face Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, and Tennessee once. This means that they will play Florida, Texas A&M, Alabama, and Auburn twice, among others. Of the top 6 teams in the SEC standings last season, the Wildcats only miss the double round robin on one: #2 Missouri.
Kentucky was recently voted to place second in the SEC according to the preseason poll where they were one vote shy of tying for first place with Florida. They had three players voted to the preseason all-SEC team in middle Kaz Brown, libero Ashley Dusek, and outside Leah Edmond.
Along with those three players, the Wildcats return starters in setter Olivia Dailey, outside Darian Mack, opposite Brooke Morgan, and middle Emily Franklin. They will welcome a top rated recruiting class that includes setter Madison Lilley, libero Gabby Curry, middle Kendyl Paris, and outside Avery Skinner. A fifth player joined in the spring in Morehead State transfer outside Meredith Jewell.
As part of the SEC, Kentucky will have their home matches and conference matches televised on SEC Network or SEC Network+ which can also be accessed on ESPN3 (with cable provider).
08/16/17
vs. Western Kentucky (Scrimmage) – Lexington, Kentucky
Bluegrass Battle
08/24/17
vs. Utah – Lexington, Kentucky
08/24/17
vs Arkansas St. – Lexington, Kentucky
08/26/17
vs Cincinnati – Lexington, Kentucky
Creighton Tournament
09/01/17
at Creighton – Omaha, Nebraska
09/02/17
vs USC – Omaha, Nebraska
09/02/17
vs UNI – Omaha, Nebraska
Marquette Tournament
09/04/17
vs Kansas – Milwaukee, Wisconsin
09/09/17
vs Loyola-Chicago – Milwaukee, Wisconsin
09/10/17
at Marquette – Milwaukee, Wisconsin
09/15/17
vs Louisville – Lexington, Kentucky
09/16/17
vs Kennesaw State – Lexington, Kentucky
09/20/17
at Missouri (SEC) – Columbia, Missouri
09/24/17
vs LSU (SEC) – Lexington, Kentucky
10/01/17
at Mississippi State (SEC) – Starkville, Mississippi
10/06/17
vs Alabama (SEC) – Lexington, Kentucky
10/08/17
vs Auburn (SEC) – Lexington, Kentucky
10/11/17
vs Texas A&M (SEC) – Lexington, Kentucky
10/15/17
at Florida (SEC) – Gainesville, Florida
10/22/17
vs Tennessee (SEC) – Lexington, Kentucky
10/27/17
at LSU (SEC) – Baton Rouge, Louisiana
10/29/17
at Texas A&M (SEC) – College Station, Texas
11/01/17
vs Florida (SEC) – Lexington, Kentucky
11/05/17
vs South Carolina (SEC) – Lexington, Kentucky
11/08/17
at Alabama (SEC) – Tuscaloosa, Alabama
11/12/17
at Auburn (SEC) – Auburn, Alabama
11/17/17
vs Georgia (SEC) – Lexington, Kentucky
11/19/17
vs Ole Miss (SEC) – Lexington, Kentucky
11/22/17
at Arkansas (SEC) – Fayetteville, Arkansas
11/24/17
at Georgia (SEC) – Athens, Georgia
Leave a Reply