Tough times have produced a tougher Kentucky volleyball team that isn’t done yet

Back on Sept. 27, the idea of this Kentucky volleyball team reaching the NCAA Tournament, much less advancing to the Sweet 16, might have appeared farfetched.

The Wildcats had just lost 3-2 at Auburn to drop to 6-6 on the season. There was turmoil and injuries and the fact that while Craig Skinner’s team had played a brutal nonconference schedule, the Cats had enjoyed little success against that schedule.

“It took us a little bit to get our groove,” said senior Emma Grome on Friday.

Finally, this team found that groove, and they’ve been grooving ever since, reeling off their 13th consecutive win on Friday night with a 3-1 victory over 15th-ranked Minnesota to propel the 11th-ranked Wildcats to their seventh NCAA Tournament regional semifinal in the past eight years.

Seeded No. 3 in the region headed by No. 1 seed Pittsburgh, the Cats blitzed No. 6 seed Minnesota 25-11 in the first set, dropped the second 25-23, then rebounded to close out the match 25-22, 26-24.

The Cats will play No. 7 seed Missouri, a 3-1 winner over No. 2 seed SMU on Friday. UK has beaten Missouri twice this season, 3-0 on Oct. 6 in Lexington and 3-1 on Nov. 27 in Columbia to clinch the program’s eighth straight SEC title.

“We took some losses early and I don’t know how many lineups we had to go with because of injuries,” Skinner said Friday. “The cool thing about this group is the mutual respect. They grew and grew and grew over the course of three or four months. . . . And when you have that type of power from within, you know anything can happen.”

“We just knew it was going to take some time to get to this level, but now that we’re here, I mean, it’s incredible,” said Grome, the senior from Loveland, Ohio, who on Friday passed UK national champion Madison Lilly to set the program’s all-time assist record. “The growth we’ve had. Every single player has made huge strides, and as you’ve seen as a team, we’re just so gritty now, we’re so intense.”

That grit showed up Friday night against a Minnesota team who entered Memorial Coliseum with some huge wins on its resume, including a victory over two-time defending national champion Texas. That’s the same Texas team that handed UK its last loss, 3-0 on Oct. 13.

When the Golden Gophers rebounded from their abysmal first set to win the second, Minnesota appeared to have the momentum. And after Kentucky was able to squeeze out a victory in the third set, Minnesota had a 20-18 lead in the fourth before, after a Craig Skinner timeout, UK came up with some huge points to take the match.

“Kentucky did what they do best, run a very diverse, high-powered offense,” said Minnesota coach Keegan Cook, who guided Washington to the 2021 Final Four. “I would have liked to have seen what we could have done in that fifth set.”

Meanwhile, this is a familiar spot for Skinner’s Cats. After winning the national championship in 2020, UK has failed to get back to the Final Four. They were bounced in the NCAA’s second round in 2021, then lost in the regional semifinals each of the last two years.

As a No. 3 regional seed in 2022, Kentucky lost to No. 2 seed San Diego 3-0 in the Sweet 16. As a No. 2 regional seed last year, Kentucky was upset by No. 3 seed Arkansas 3-2 in the Sweet 16.

Given everything they’ve gone through, they think this year could be different.

“I think we’re just not expecting the next day to happen, we’ve just got to play one day a time,” said SEC Player of the Year Brooklyn DeLeye, who led the Cats with 22 kills on Friday. “We have such a huge senior class, I think we’re playing for them, as well, because any game could be their last.”

“They believe,” Skinner said. “They believe in themselves, they believe in each other, and they believe in what they’re doing as a team. Sure, we’re gonna play great teams and there’s gonna be pressure and all that type of stuff. But the cool part about this time of year is it’s equal pressure on both sides.”

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