“So, coach, tell me what you like about this team?”
“Well, we have a nice mix of older players and younger players that should help to make us successful.”
Many say it, but it’s likely that few are convinced it actually will make a difference in results.
Perhaps Kentucky coach Craig Skinner said words of that ilk during the preseason when talking about his team. Whatever the case, the Wildcats proved that, indeed, a blend of savvy, battle-tested upperclassmen and eager, talented freshmen can make a successful team.
Even a title contender.
The Wildcats (21-7) are in their ninth NCAA Tournament round 16 since 2009 and face SEC rival Arkansas (27-5), which has advanced this far for the first time since 1998. The teams square off at 3:30 p.m. Central Thursday at Nebraska after the Huskers (30-1) play Georgia Tech (24-6)
Kentucky and Arkansas faced each other twice this season, with the Wildcats winning a five-setter in October and then sweeping the Hogs to clinch at least a share of the SEC title in the penultimate match of the regular season.
It was the seventh consecutive conference title for Skinner — one of four SEC co-coaches of the year — and his program. Kentuck, which has won 18 in row, swept Wofford and Baylor in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. For that matter, Kentucky has swept four matches in a row, which included winning at Arkansas just weeks ago. When Arkansas visited UK in October, the Wildcats won in five.
“We have played Arkansas twice already this year, but I think it’s just another obstacle for us to overcome,” senior outside hitter Reagan Rutherford said. “I feel like we all felt pressure playing them for the SEC title, and just being (defending SEC) champions, so that was a really intense game, and we made it out of that.
“So I feel like it’s just the same kind of intensity we’re ready for.”
The Wildcats are ready. All of them. From the four 2020/spring ’21 national championship team holdovers — Rutherford, fifth-year middle blocker Azhani Tealer, senior middle Elsie Goetzinger and senior libero Riah Walker — to fab freshmen Brooklyn DeLeye and Molly Tuozzo.
That mix of seniors and freshmen is clicking on all cylinders.
But it wasn’t always that way.
Early in the season, the Wildcats struggled to find their stride, losing six of their first nine non-conference matches.
Then, just as SEC play was about to start, Rutherford sustained eye and ankle injuries that kept her out of six…
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