Kentucky defeated Loyola Chicago tonight 3-0 (25-17, 25-14, 25-20). Kentucky was led by Adanna Rollins with 15 kills, followed by Reagan Rutherford with 11, Bella Bell and Azhani Tealer with 9 each, and Aaron Lamb with 8. Emma Grome had 44 assists.
Photo: UK Athletics
Kentucky will face Western Kentucky tomorrow night at 7 PM EST in Memorial Coliseum with the winner to advance to the NCAA Sweet 16.
I did not see the game tonight, and frankly, was busy and did not even keep up until the game was over. But reading through Twitter and certainly looking at the box score, it appears that Kentucky was clicking on all cylinders tonight.
Western Kentucky's competition, Bowling Green, should have been tougher than Kentucky's competition. The scores were certainly closer overall, although Western Kentucky put them away, 3-0 as well. Western Kentucky hit .294 for the match, limiting Bowling at Green to .221. Kentucky, meanwhile, hit a blistering .389 on the evening.
Again, different competition so you can equate the two exactly, but hopefully it does give us some indication.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 12 seeded Kentucky Volleyball team got 15 kills from Adanna Rollins and 44 assists from sophomore setter Emma Grome to advance into the second round of the 2022 NCAA Volleyball Championship with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-14, 25-20) sweep of the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers.
Kentucky will play Western Kentucky on Friday night at 7 p.m. ET inside Memorial Coliseum for a spot in the NCAA Sweet 16’s Palo Alto Regional. The match will be broadcasted on ESPN+ with Jeff Greer and Leah Edmond on the call from Lexington. Tickets are available by visiting UKathletics.com/tickets or by contacting the UK Athletics Ticket Office.
Rollins led all players in the match Thursday night with 15 kills on 31 swings as she hit .778 in the first set alone and .355 for the match along with five digs and a block. Also reaching double-figures in scoring was Reagan Rutherford who had 11 kills Thursday on .391 hitting with three blocks and a pair of digs.
Kentucky as a team hit .398, its highest output in a month, as Grome dished out 44 assists, her highest total this season in any three-set match. Grome, the SEC Player of the Year this season, also had five digs and a trio of blocks in Thursday night’s affair.
UK held Loyola-Chicago to .159 hitting for the match as only one Rambler hit double-digit kills for the night with Karlie McNabb logging 13 terminations in the contest. Eleanor Beavin had 16 digs Thursday evening to lead all Wildcats, as Rollins, Grome, Riah Walker and Audrey Whitworth all had five or more in the match defensively.
Set One
Kentucky raced out to a 15-10 lead at the first media timeout of the frame, as Adanna Rollins and Bella Bell both had four kills each inside the first 25 points of the match. Bell was hitting 1.000 for the match to that point and that was Kentucky’s largest lead of the set to that point. Out of the timeout, Kentucky logged back-to-back blocks by Reagan Rutherford and Bell on the right pin to take a 17-10 lead and Loyola-Chicago called its first timeout of the set with UK on a 4-0 run. After Kentucky’s fourth service ace, this time from Eleanor Beavin, Loyola-Chicago called its final timeout as Kentucky took a 20-12 lead. Adanna Rollins’ seventh kill ended the first set, as UK took the frame, 25-17. Rollins hit .778 in the set with seven kills on nine swings and a service ace, as well. UK hit .433 as a team with 13 assists dished out by Emma Grome and two blocks each from Bell and Rutherford in the opener.
Set Two
Adanna Rollins stayed hot and Rutherford caught fire to start the second set as a kill from the right pin from Rutherford, her fourth of the match, forced Loyola-Chicago into an early timeout to try and stop a 4-0 UK scoring run and the Wildcats led 9-3. Erin Lamb recorded back-to-back kills, both out of system to put Kentucky up 13-5 and the Ramblers burned their final timeout of the set, trailing by eight in the frame. UK to this point in the set was hitting .408 and holding Loyola to -.038. The run extended to 8-0 on a block by Azhani Tealer and UK took an 18-5 lead, its largest of any set in the evening before Loyola sided out to make it 18-6. Kentucky hit .385 in the set and took the frame, 25-14 with seven kills in the set from Rutherford.
Set Three
Kentucky took an 8-5 lead on a Tealer block out of the middle to give the Wildcats a three-point cushion, its largest edge of the set to that point. After back-to-back hitting errors sandwiched by Adanna Rollins kills midway through the set, Kentucky’s lead grew to 16-10 and the Ramblers were forced into their final timeout with UK ahead by half a dozen and nine points from the finish line. The match ended appropriately on an Adanna Rollins swing, her 15th kill of the match, to clinch the sweep of the Ramblers.
This isn't really relevant to Kentucky at this point, if at all but I am taking a close look at the other SEC volleyball teams in the NCAA Tournament. I read an article (and listened to a streaming show) on NCAA.com that talked about it being a surprise that the SEC led all conferences in number of teams in the NCAA Tournament with 7, and that perhaps at least a couple of teams did not deserve to be invited. On the other hand, there is another article about the top 7 dark course teams to watch the tournament, and it included Georgia (which pulled an upset tonight over Towson for their first NCAA Tournament win since 1995) and LSU, and then a list of eight top teams to watch that will not be hosting (i.e., not seeded in the top 16) also included Arkansas. I also read an article that included Auburn as a team to watch in the tournament, but I can't find where I saw that one.
Unless proven otherwise, I'm still very skeptical of the power of the SEC and believe we are going to be very disappointed in the conference as a whole with the results. Hopefully Kentucky will advance at least to the Elite 8, and Florida has a good chance to do that as well, but after those two teams, I lack confidence in any of them getting to the Sweet 16.
Just for fun, here is what the "experts" on the NCAA.com website predicted for each SEC team:
Kentucky to win their first two rounds, advance to the Sweet 16, and then lose to San Diego. San Diego is the #2 seed and Kentucky is the #3 seed in that bracket, so that would be according to chalk.
LSU to win their opening-round to Hawaii and then lose in the second round to #1 seed Stanford.
#3 seed Florida to advance to the Elite 8, with a win over #2 seed Pittsburgh before succumbing to #1 seed Wisconsin.
Arkansas to win the opening-round and lose to #3 seed Oregon in the second round.
Tennessee to lose their opening-round match to #8 seed Purdue.
Auburn to lose to #4 seed Creighton in the opening-round.
Georgia to upset #8 seed Towson in the opening-round before losing to #1 seed Texas in the second round.
As you can see, a lot of the second round games are going to be tough for the SEC. EDIT--Here are the games tomorrow:
Friday, December 2
Utah State vs. Arkansas ESPN+ 6:30 PM CT
Auburn vs. Creighton ESPN+ 6:30 PM CT
Florida A&M at Florida ESPN+ 7 PM ET
Georgia at Texas ESPN+ 9 PM ET
Western Kentucky at Kentucky ESPN+ 7 PM ET
LSU vs. Hawaii ESPN+ 6:30 PM CT
Tennessee vs. Purdue ESPN+ 4 PM ET
Funny looking at the Georgia versus #8 Towson team stat sheet after the game today. Although Towson came in 29-1 on the season, it looks like Georgia overwhelmed them at the beginning, smashing them in the first Set, 25-10. After that, it was a very competitive match, but Georgia also took set #2, 25-23 before Towson rebounded to win Set #3, 25-21. Georgia finished them off in Set #4, and 25-20.
Former Kentucky volleyball player/transfer to Georgia, Sophie Fischer has shined all season for the Bulldogs, and tonight was no exception. She had a massive 8 blocks on the night, with 12 kills, hitting .455 for the match. Good for her. Rooting for her, and really wish we had her on the left side this season. I think our team would've been improved.
I guess tonight is just my night for some random NCAA Volleyball talk. Will start another thread if anybody is watching the game tomorrow night, which I hope to be able to do.
Five stories for me to watch in this year's NCAA Tournament are:
1. Will Kentucky realize their potential in this year's tournament, and possibly outplay their seed?
2. How will the SEC do overall in the tournament? Off to a good start already with the Georgia upset and Kentucky win today.
3. Keeping a close eye on former Kentucky player Madi Skinner, who 11 NCAA Championship already for Kentucky in 2020. Can she do it again with the overall #1 seed Texas this year? I really like their chances--duh, not that I'm out on a limb much here, although Minnesota and Ohio State are a tough # 2 and # 3.
4. Maybe not watching as closely, but following former Kentucky player Sophie Fischer for Georgia. They are off to a rousing start, and if they can pull a big upset in tomorrow night's game, it would be the story of the tournament.
5. I really hate to mention this one, but despite losing a number of pieces from last year's stellar team, Louisville did not seem to miss a step this year in replacing those pieces, had a key injury to one of their starters who has recovered and is now playing again, and is every bit worthy of their #1 seed. Watching them in their effort to win a national championship is a little bit tough. Their path to the Final Four could include playing # 2 seed Nebraska--the alma mater of Dani Kelly, UofL's coach. Kelly won the national championship as a star player there in 2006. Side note - no female volleyball coach has ever won the NCAA championship, and history would be made if she did so.
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