Kentucky Volleyball Confident on the Road to the Final Four

Big Blue Nation bid farewell to the Wildcats on Tuesday evening at Blue Grass Airport as Kentucky travels to Kansas City for the Final Four. Even though it’s just the second Final Four appearance in program history, the highest-ranked team remaining in the tournament is confident ahead of its most difficult task to date.

“We’re pretty confident,” said Eva Hudson. “We’re just really excited, honestly. I don’t think any of us have been to the Final Four before, so trying to soak in the experience.”

Hudson, a transfer from Purdue, won SEC Player of the Year and is a finalist for the AVCA National Player of the Year. The exceptional outside hitter is indifferent about the individual accolades. What makes her so excited is how well this team is playing together.

“Each day, this team gets better and better. It amazes me how much better we get every day,” said Hudson. “We’re just trying to take it one game at a time and really fall back on our fundamentals.”

Kentucky is Battle-Tested

Kentucky has only two losses on its resume. That’s not because the Cats played weak competition. Kentucky logged a pair of wins over No. 1 seed Texas, took down Louisville, and swept Penn State on the road. Their only two losses came to other top seeds, Nebraska and Pitt. The latter is playing in the other semifinal match in Kansas City.

“The experiences of playing different styles, different ways of scoring from different teams has put us in a position where there shouldn’t be much that we’re surprised about,” said head coach Craig Skinner.

“I think Wisconsin will play a style that’s error-free, physical, and all of those things. They’ll play in a way that might be slightly different than some of those other teams, but there’s not a whole lot of situations we haven’t been in. We’ve been able to create balance in different ways of scoring, all of the volleyball pieces. But the feeling of being in different situations, I think we’ve been there. But Thursday will provide a whole new feeling because we haven’t played in the Final Four yet.”

New fans have flocked to the Wildcats through this dominant run to the Final Four. Skinner can feel the excitement. He just wants to deliver a few more wins for Big Blue Nation.

“I think we’ve always known we’re playing for something bigger than ourselves, but not it’s a whole new spectrum. I can’t thank our fans enough for the love, support, and enthusiasm, the intensity they provide for us on the sideline. For those that’ll be there, they’re going to have a wonderful experience. For those that are yelling at their TVs on Thursday night, we’ll feel it there too,” said the Kentucky head coach.

Fans who are making the trip to Kansas City can watch the Wildcats in action on Wednesday, where there will be an open practice at the T-Mobile Center from 1:20-2:50 PM CT. For fans in Lexington, KSBar will be the place to be for Thursday night’s match against Wisconsin at 9 PM ET.

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