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Kentucky Sweeps No. 6 Wisconsin
Kentucky hit .380, doubled Wisconsin's block count and won 25-20, 26-24, 25-18 in a Final Four rematch on opening night.
Kentucky had not played a match since December, when Texas A&M swept the Wildcats in the national championship. Eight months is a long time to sit with a result like that.
Friday night in Milwaukee they opened against Wisconsin, the team they had beaten in five sets to reach that final. This time it took three. Kentucky won 25-20, 26-24, 25-18 in front of an announced 6,345 at Fiserv Forum.
The kill counts almost matched. The Wildcats put 43 balls on the floor, the Badgers 42. Everything that separated them lived one column over, where Wisconsin committed 21 attack errors to Kentucky's eight and needed 113 swings where Kentucky needed 92.
Kentucky hit .380. Wisconsin hit .186, and .086 in the third.
Craig Skinner's team will not be ranked third for long.
Gaerte Answered the Only Question Kentucky Had
Morgan Gaerte came to Lexington to replace a graduate. Eva Hudson left, and Kentucky went and got the Notre Dame outside hitter who put away 497 kills last season and made first-team All-ACC doing it.
Then she sat out the exhibition against Dayton for what the program would only call precautionary reasons, and Skinner spent the week before the opener being asked about it. On Aug. 19 he said she was fine. "Morgan is ready to go, been practicing."
She played. Gaerte, Brooklyn DeLeye and Lizzie Carr combined for 30 kills on .435 hitting, a better number than either team managed as a whole. DeLeye led everyone with 12 kills against two attack errors.
Whatever the week had been about, it was settled by the first set.
Sheffield Named the Problem Immediately
Kentucky put up 10 blocks and Wisconsin put up five, all five belonging to three players. Eva Travis had three, Jaela Auguste two, Charlie Fuerbringer one.
Kelly Sheffield did not need to be asked twice about it, per Badger of Honor. "We were really relying on our backcourt," he said. "I thought our block was pretty much nonexistent."
The second set is where a different night was available. The Badgers pushed it to 26-24 before Kentucky closed it out, and losing it cost more than one line in a box score. They then hit .086 in the third and never got back to level.
Travis still led Wisconsin with 13 kills. Audrey Flanagan added nine, Lynney Tarnow eight, Auguste seven. Wisconsin even served better, four aces to two. None of it moved the hitting percentage.
Wisconsin has now lost to Kentucky twice in eight months, and the second one took two fewer sets. The Badgers get No. 7 Louisville at 3 p.m. Central on FOX, roughly 19 hours after this one ended. Kentucky gets No. 4 Pittsburgh on Sunday.
