By Noah Allison
Louisville volleyball suffered a 3-1 defeat at the hands of UK Tuesday night. Despite the backing of a record crowd of over 5,800 fans in KFC Yum! Center the Cards were not able to overcome 16 ranked Kentucky.
“I’m really disappointed right now because I think things started to slide last week. After we get a big win against Minnesota I don’t think we practiced well enough. Hats off to Kentucky, they did a great job and they are a well-coached team and they put us in position to look like we were out of sorts tonight,” head coach Anne Kordes said. “I know our kids are competing and I know they are working hard and I appreciate that about them but when it comes down to execution and being tactical in a match we lost it tonight. It’s disappointing and it’s not going to fly.”
By the end of the match Kentucky had eight blocks to Louisville’s four, 77 digs to Louisville’s 58 and 67 kills to Louisville’s 50.
After a back-and-forth first set that went the way of UK, Louisville was able to come out and dominate the second set for their only win of the night. From that point on, despite the fight U of L put up many of UK’s points came with ease, taking advantage of lofty balls the Cards returned and easily defending U of L’s attempted kills.
“We just kind of clinched up, got nervous and started putting the ball right in the places where they can dig; we weren’t aggressive at all with our swings,” Kordes said.
Sophomore outside hitter Maya McClendon led the Cards in kills with 16 and was second in digs with 14.
“I put a lot of stock in what Maya McClendon can do because she is a phenomenal kid and I am so glad she is on this team. But we are trying to get her to carry a heck of a lot of the weight on this team and when she goes away for a couple points, we can’t afford it. She is one of those kids that really can carry a team. I think for her she has to understand the responsibility of what she can do,” Kordes said.
McClendon was one of the few Cards that were able to take the fight to the other side of the net but inconsistent passing led for too basic of an attack to stunt the Wildcats’ defense.
“We are one dimensional and we can’t pass, they know where we are going to go, they know we are going to go to Maya, they know we are going to go to the pins and that makes it an easy way to set up for defense,” junior setter Katie George said.
With eight new players on the 15-woman roster the Cards are still adjusting and learning to play as a team.
“We just didn’t make enough plays on our end defensively, we certainly had our opportunities but it comes down to making the most of those opportunities. We had a pretty good game plan going in, it’s just executing and be able to keep some composure when you are struggling offensively to be able to create some offensive opportunities out of your defense,” assistant coach Lee Maes said.
Of the most basic problems the Cards faced were their inability to serve away from the libero, the consummate defender in the game of volleyball. The easy returns made for easy attacks for UK, and U of L’s poor passing led to a stagnant offensive threat for Kentucky to feast on.
“Right now the most important aspect of the game for us to work on is serving and passing, from a mentality standpoint and an efficiency standpoint if we can clean that up our game is going to improve significantly. It’s going to effect our offense if we pass better and if we serve better it’s going to effect our defense,” Maes commented.
Now the Cards go on a two-week road trip before returning home on September 26 for their first ACC match against Boston College.
“We showed that we have a lot of work to do,” George stated. “We have to mature as volleyball players and as a team, that definitely has to happen before we go into ACC play. We want to be able to compete for the ACC title, and what we just did here tonight that’s not going to cut it.”
