| friday volleyball RESULTS |
Kentucky 3, South Carolina 0
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Arkansas 3, Mississippi State 0
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Alabama 3, Georgia 0
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Ole Miss 3, Auburn 1
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Tennessee 3, Florida 1
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Kentucky Sweeps South Carolina
LEXINGTON, Ky. – For the fourth time in seven seasons the 24th-ranked Kentucky volleyball team has earned 20 or more victories following a 3-0 (25-17, 25-17, 25-20) sweep of visiting South Carolina on Friday night in Memorial Coliseum. Sophomore defensive specialist Jessi Greenberg totaled a career-high 17 digs in the match to lead the way.
With the victory, Kentucky improves to 20-4 on the season and 11-2 in Southeastern Conference action. South Carolina falls to 11-11 and 2-10 in league play. UK improves to 6-0 at home during conference action.
Kentucky will next face No. 13 Florida in Memorial Coliseum on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. ET. The match will air live on CWKYT and Fox Sports South with Dave Baker and Kathy DeBoer on the call.
There will be a Halloween costume contest and free candy for kids eighth grade and younger. Fans can also earn free admission with a ticket stub from Saturday’s football game vs. Mississippi State.
Greenberg led the defensive charge with an average of 5.7 scoops per stanza. Junior Stephanie Klefot added 18 to the Wildcat cause.
Junior Ashley Frazier paced the offense with 14 kills and has now charted 10 or more hammers in a match in 11 of 13 conference matches. Freshman Lauren O’Conner was next with eight. Sophomore Whitney Billings and senior Gretchen Giesler both added seven kills to a UK squad that notched 50 for the match and used a .304 hitting clip.
Reigning SEC Player of the Week, Christine Hartmann, dished out 38 assists and added three kills and eight digs to the victory.
Frazier and Hartmann both notched a pair of service aces as the Wildcats added seven to their offensive firepower.
Senior Becky Pavan captured the first point of the match with a kill to begin the scoring in the first frame. South Carolina tied the score at three, but a kill from Frazier gave the Wildcats a 4-3 advantage it would never relinquish. UK earned its largest lead at five with a 16-11 edge following back-to-back kills from senior Ann Armes and Frazier. Pavan ended the stanza in the same fashion she began it with striking for a kill to give UK a 25-17 opening set win.
The Wildcats totaled 18 kills on an impressive .378 hitting clip to start the match. Frazier, Armes and Pavan all had four kills in the set.
Kentucky earned a 25-17 second set win to take a 2-0 edge into the locker room. Frazier led the offense with five kills as UK turned in 15 kills on .286 hitting. South Carolina managed 12 kills on a .178 clip.
Kentucky quickly took a 4-0 lead and never dropped its advantage. O’Conner began the scoring with a kill and then teamed with Pavan for a rejection. The Wildcats stretched their lead to seven at 14-7 with a kill from Giesler. A Pavan and Billings block capped the set in favor of the home team.
The third frame featured nine tied scores and four lead exchanges with UK eventually prevailing by a 25-20 margin. Frazier once again led the offense with five more kills as the Blue and White charted 17 in the set. Klefot had 10 digs in the frame to pace the defensive effort.
Hartmann’s kill followed a service error by the Gamecocks to give UK an early 2-0 lead. The visitors fought back and earned its first lead of the match at 4-3. Kentucky then took a lead on a kill from Frazier at 6-5 and would maintain an advantage until a tie score came at 10. The final tie came at 18 before Giesler and Frazier posted consecutive kills as the home team pulled away. UK scored six of the final eight points to capture the win.
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Razorbacks post fourth straight sweep
STARKVILLE, Miss. – The University of Arkansas volleyball team won its fourth match in a row with a three-set win over Mississippi State Friday evening at the Newell-Grissom Building in Starkville, Miss. Jasmine Norton and Kelli Stipanovich led all hitters with 12 kills apiece and the Razorback defense held Mississippi State to a .043 hitting percentage in the Southeastern Conference Western Division matchup. Libero Christa Alvarez paced Arkansas’ defense with 13 digs while Kasey Heckelman and Roslandy Acosta each had four total blocks.
In the first set, Mississippi State (10-12, 5-8 SEC) jumped out to a 6-2 lead after a kill by Caitlin Rance. The quick start by the home team forced a timeout from Pulliza. Arkansas (16-8, 8-5 SEC) worked itself back into the set behind a pair of kills down the line by Stipanovich and tied the score at 9-all. From that point, the score was tied on four more occasions before the Razorbacks surged ahead.
A service ace by Norton gave Arkansas the 15-14 advantage, its first lead of the night. Stipanovich and Heckelman teamed up for a block of Rance and the Razorbacks went ahead, 20-16. Arkansas arrived at set point after a Mississippi State attack error. The Bulldogs won the next three points to stay alive but on the team’s fourth chance to close out the set, Norton found the floor to secure the opener, 25-23.
Unlike the first set, Arkansas got off to a quick start and won the first four points of game two. The Bulldogs responded to even the score at 5-all but the Razorbacks won five of the next six points to re-establish control of play. With the score tied at 15-15, Arkansas won four points in a row to take the lead for the final time in the game.
Later in the set, the Razorbacks used a quick surge to take a five-point advantage, 23-18. It was the team’s largest of the set. Heckelman put the ball down on a slide attack to bring Arkansas to set point. As they did in the first, the Bulldogs extended the set and saved two set points before Faith Steinwedell sent a service long to give Arkansas the game, 25-21.
After winning the first two points of the set, the Razorbacks fell behind by two with the home team leading, 8-6. Arkansas recovered to win the next five points to regain the advantage on the scoreboard. The teams traded points through the middle stages of the match but, once again, with the score tied at 15-all, Arkansas made its final push to close out the Bulldogs.
The Razorbacks used an 8-0 streak to take a 23-15 lead. The run of points included three kills from Norton and a pair of tandem blocks from Acosta and Heckelman. A kill by Rance ended the run but Raymariely Santos picked up a kill on a second-ball attack on the next play to give her team match point. An attack error by Mississippi State ended the match in favor of Arkansas.
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Alabama Beats Georgia in Straight Sets
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama women’s volleyball team completed the season sweep of the Georgia with a straight sets Southeastern Conference victory over the Bulldogs from Foster Auditorium. The Crimson Tide won the individual sets 25-17, 25-22 and 25-22.
The season sweep was the first for the Crimson Tide over Georgia (9-14, 5-8 SEC) since the 2006 season and it was the first season sweep on a SEC opponent since 2009 (South Carolina).
The Crimson Tide (11-13, 4-9 SEC) got the 11th double-double of the season from Kayla Fitter, who had a match-high 10 kills to go along with 15 digs. Cristina Arenas posted a match-high 21 digs and was one of four Alabama players with double digits in digs. Kelsey Anderson had 18 digs, while Andrea McQuaid added 13 digs and notched her 13th double-double of the season with 15 assists.
Georgia was held to a .074 hitting percentage, as Brittany Northcutt and Kathleen Luft paced the Bulldogs with eight kills each. Contributing to the low hitting percentage for UGA was an Alabama season-high 78 digs for a three set match.
Alabama took the opening set by a score of 25-17, as the Tide hit .275 while holding the Bulldogs to .065 in the set. Fitterer led the Tide with four kills, while Shelbi Goode and Cortney Warren added three kills each. After Georgia took an 8-6 lead, Alabama went on a 12-3 run to open an 18-11 advantage. UA’s lead reached as many as eight (23-15) following a service error by the Bulldogs.
The Tide took a 2-0 lead in the match after winning the second set 25-22. UA held the Bulldogs under .100 in hitting for the second set of the night, as the Bulldogs hit .056 in the set. Alabama hit .135 in the set as Andrea McQuaid and Goode led the way with three kills each. Kelsey Anderson had 10 digs in the second set alone.
Alabama opened the third set with an 8-3 lead, but the Bulldogs rallied to even the set at 9-9, From there, UA went on a 7-2 run for a 16-11 lead, but Georgia battled back to get within two (17-15) following a kill by Luft. With Alabama leading 21-20, the Crimson Tide got a kill by Goode and two from Fitterer to help put the match away.
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OLE MISS RALLIES TO TAKE DOWN AUBURN 3-1
OXFORD, Miss. – The Rebels got 12 kills each from Kara Morgan and Allegra Wells as Ole Miss (7-14, 3-10 SEC) rallied after dropping the first set to defeat Auburn (9-14, 3-10 SEC) by a score of 3-1 (23-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-19) on Friday night.
Three other Rebels approached double-digits in digs as Regina Thomas, Amanda Philpot and Whitney Craven all put down nine kills each. Four players turned in double-digit digs, led by 15 digs each from Morgan and Philpot, while Morgan Springer added 13 digs and Ashley Veach came up with 10 digs.
Morgan and Philpot both tallied double-doubles on the night.
Ole Miss pulled out to the early lead on the Tigers, riding the emotion of a raucous crowd at the Gillom Sports Center before Auburn settled in and evened the set at nine and pushed out to a three-point lead as a part of that run. The Rebels would cut the Auburn lead to one point four separate times down the stretch, but could never overtake the visiting team as the Tigers took the first set 25-23.
After falling behind 4-1 at the start of the second set, it was the Rebels who fought back with a run to tie the set before pushing out to a 15-11 lead that sent Auburn to the benches in a timeout. Ole Miss held the lead the rest of the way, though the Tigers would cut the lead to two at 24-22, but the Rebels grabbed the final point of the set on a Morgan kill to take the set 25-22 and tie the match.
A back-and-forth struggle early in the third set turned into a four-point Auburn lead when Ole Miss called a timeout down 10-6 in the first set. The Rebels fought back out of the break in action to tie the score at 10 before using a ferocious push to take the lead back at 14-13 and send Auburn into a timeout.
The Tigers called a second timeout as the lead grew to 17-13 in favor of the Rebels before mounting a run of their own. Ole Miss fought off the Tiger rally that cut the advantage to one at 24-23 and claimed the second set 25-23 when Regina Thomas put down a solo block – one of her six blocks on the night – to give the Rebels the set.
It was all Ole Miss in the fourth set as the Rebels took a 4-0 lead out of the gates and weathered an early Auburn run that saw the Tigers pull within one at 9-8. Ole Miss never relinquished the lead, pushing back in front by as much as six down the stretch on the way to a match clinching 25-19 win in what proved to be the final set of the match.
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ARKANSAS BLANKS STATE
STARKVILLE, Miss. --- The red-hot Razorbacks proved too much to handle for the Bulldogs Friday night as Arkansas (16-8/8-5 SEC) climbed into first place in the SEC Western Division with a straight-sets win over Mississippi State (10-12/5-8 SEC) at the Newell-Grissom Building.
State fended off three UA serves at set point in the opening frame before bowing 25-23. Arkansas hit a match-best .231 and never trailed in taking the second set 25-21, and then took advantage of 10 MSU attack errors in the third set to clinch the match with a 25-16 win. It was the sixth win in the last seven matches for Arkansas.
MSU’s struggles on offense mirrored the team’s performance in a straight-sets loss at Arkansas Sept. 23. The Bulldogs were held to a season-low 28 kills in that match in Fayetteville and in Starkville managed but 30 kills and the season’s second-lowest attack percentage, .043.
Caitlin Rance registered a team-best 10 kills, her 54th career double-figure showing in kills. But little else worked for the Bulldogs. Junior rightside hitter Faith Steinwedell finished with five kills, a team-best four blocks and eight digs while freshman middle blocker Kristin Byers, appearing in her fifth match of the year, came off the bench in the second set and finished the night with five kills and three blocks.
Arkansas held a 42-30 advantage in kills and led 50-42 in digs, despite a match-leading 14-dig effort by State libero Hillary Parker. Mississippi State did finish with a 10-8 advantage in total team blocks. Freshman Lainey Wyman backed a four-kill showing with three blocks.
Jasmine Norton and Kelli Stipanovich delivered 12 kills each for the Razorbacks, who used 4-0 runs midway in the opening two sets to pull away from close battles with the Bulldogs. Kristin Byers delivered a kill that knotted the score at 15-15 in the third set before Arkansas went on an impressive match-closing 10-1 run.
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Lady Vols Defeat Gators
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The No. 20 University of Tennessee volleyball team gave the second largest crowd in UT history a lot to cheer about on Friday evening, as the Lady Vols defeated No. 13 Florida in four sets, 25-15, 17-25, 25-23, 25-21, in front of 2,012 rowdy fans at Thompson-Boling Arena.
“For us, it was a pretty emotional match,” Lady Vol head volleyball coach Rob Patrick said. “We didn’t talk about it just being another match. We talked about it being as one of the biggest matches that we would play this year. Our kids prepared for this match as well as they prepared for any match.”
Tennessee (19-3, 12-1) now is the lone team in the SEC with one conference loss and plays in front of its home crowd in four more conference matches this season. Entering the match, the Gators (17-4, 10-2) were on an eight-match winning streak and had not dropped a set since falling to UT on Sept. 25, in a five-set thriller on ESPNU.
The victory over the Gators marks just the second time ever that the Lady Vols swept UF in a season, as the only other occurrence came in 1988. UT also knocked off Florida twice in a season in 2004, when the team traveled to Gainesville to defeat the Gators in regular-season finale and downed them in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
The Big Orange defense limited to UF to a mere .160 hitting percentage, as the Gators were leading the conference and the nation at a clip of .314. Sophomore Ellen Mullins led the charge defensively, racking up a match-high 17 digs, while junior DeeDee Harrison caused headaches for Gator hitters, as she sent a team-best seven UF attack backs.
On the other side of the set, freshman Tiffany Baker put forth a tremendous effort, registering her second career double-double after blasting a team-best 13 kills and digging up 11 balls. The Carrolton, Texas, native had a hitting percentage of .345 on the night.
Fellow freshman Shealyn Kolosky led the team in the hitting percentage category at .364. Versus UF, she notched five kills on 11 attempts and only committed one error. Kelsey Robinson, a sophomore, tallied 10 kills and was one of four Lady Vols to have an ace on the night. Junior Jasmine Brown, freshman Nikki Brice and Mullins were the other three.
A constant at the setter position for the Orange and White this season, freshman Mary Pollmiller had a hand in 38 of UT’s overall total of 41 assists, as she just missed a double-double by one dig after recording nine. Brice also had nine digs and recorded her first kill as a Lady Vol on Friday.
For the match, Tennessee outhit the Gators, .175-.160 and out-dug UF by four, 61-57. This season the Lady Vols have only lost one match when out-hitting and out-digging the opposition.
The Orange and White were hitting on all cylinders early, as the squad kicked off the opening frame by scoring the first five points to force UF to take a timeout. Up 5-2, Tennessee pushed its lead out to six, 8-2, after a Robinson kill, a combined block by Baker and Harrison and a Gator miscue. UT never trailed in the set, as Florida would get to within four on four occasions.
With a 13-9 lead, the Lady Vols would score four of the next five by way of kills from Robinson and Harrison, plus a solo block by Baker and a Robinson service ace to make the score 17-10. Up eight, 22-14, the Orange and White scored three of the final four points in the set to earn the win, 25-15, and take an early 1-0 match lead. The 10-point set win was the largest margin of victory that UT has ever defeated Florida in a set during the rally scoring era. UT hit a blistering .345 in the frame, while limiting Florida to a clip of .032.
The momentum carried over early into the second set, as with the set tied at three all, a kill by Baker, a UF attack error, an ace by Brice and a block by Pollmiller and Kolosky gave the Lady Vols a 7-3 advantage. Florida battled back, scoring seven of the ensuing eight points to take a 10-8 lead.
The Gators would never relinquish that lead, as it pulled ahead 15-10 before kills from Robinson and Baker got UT within three, 15-12. UF pushed its lead out to seven, 20-13, as it scored five of the next six. Florida ended the set by scoring the final three points to earn the set win, 25-17, and evened the match score up at one all.
After the break, the third set was a slugfest between the top two offensive teams in the SEC. In a back-and-forth set that featured 12 ties and seven lead changes, Tennessee used a valiant effort late to win the set.
Down 5-4, the Lady Vols rallied to tie the third set up at seven and again at eight, before scoring the next two points off of Florida errors to take a two point lead, 10-8. Florida would catch up to UT at 11-11 and even take the lead at 12-11.
The Big Orange rallied however, scoring three straight, two of which we kills from Harrison, to grab a 14-12 advantage. The set would be tied up at 14, 15 and 18 before it looked like the Lady Vols were going to close out the set strong. A Kolosky kill and a block by Harrison and Robinson gave UT a 20-18 lead, but Florida would score four straight and force Patrick to call a timeout.
Down 22-20, a kill by Robinson sparked a furious comeback, as a block by Harrison and junior Leslie Cikra, a UF putback by Harrison and Robinson and a Gator attack error ensued, as the Lady Vols reclaimed the lead, 24-22. Florida would cut the deficit to one, 24-23, but an attack error gave the Lady Vols the set, 25-23, and a 2-1 lead on the overall scoreboard.
With the crowd behind them, the Lady Vols made sure to dash any hopes the Gators may have had to send the match to a fifth and decisive final set. Florida jumped out to a quick 5-2 lead before an attack error and a blast off the arm of Robinson made the score 5-4. After tying the match at six, seven and eight, the Lady Vols pressed down on the accelerator.
Down 10-8, a service error by the Gators would be the first of six straight points by the Lady Vols, who took a 14-10 lead. During that stretch, Baker had a pair of kills, Baker combined with Harrison for a block and Florida had a ball handling error.
The Lady Vols would never look back, extending their lead to five, 16-11, after a Mullins ace, and 18-13 after a UF serving error. With a 20-16 advantage, Florida scored two straight to cut into the Lady Vol lead, 20-18. Quickly rebounding, a Robinson laser and a block by Harrison and Cikra gave UT another four-point lead, this time at 22-18.
The two squads would trade the next four points of the set, which put the Lady Vols within one point of securing their 19th win of the season. With the lead at 24-21 and Florida at the service line, Kristy Jaeckel sent the ensuing serve long, which started the Orange and White celebration as Tennessee won the set, 25-21, and the match.
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