All-American Whitney Billings tallied 13 kills and 14 digs to lead the No. 18 Kentucky volleyball team to a 3-0 win (25-18, 25-21, 28-26) over Morehead State Monday (September 23) at Memorial Coliseum.
The Wildcats, who have now won 22 straight matches against MSU, improved to 8-3. MSU dipped to 9-5.
Morehead State led 22-19 in the third frame and had two set-point opportunities, but the hosts tallied four of the match's last five points. The Wildcats also scored the final six points in the opening set to grab control of the contest.
"I told our team that, while I wasn't happy with the loss, I was happy with our effort," Head Coach Jaime Gordon said. "We made a few too many errors, and you can't do that against a nationally-ranked team and expect to get a positive result."
MSU had seven service errors and committed 19 attack errors, but the Eagles did double-up the Wildcats on blocks, 12-6. MSU has 29 team blocks in the last two matches. Junior right-side hitter Alex Fitzmorris had six stops, while junior middle blocker Laura McDermott and sophomore middle blocker Hannah Sigala tallied five apiece.
Senior libero Leslie Schellhaas picked up a match-best 19 digs and moved into fourth place in career digs at MSU with 1,840.
Kentucky hit .209 for the match, with Billings as the lone player in double-digit kills. Setter Morgan Bergren had seven kills, including five in the first set, and hit .357.
"Their setter was tough," Gordon said. "She really took advantage and got a lot of kills on us early, but I thought we did a nice job in the second and third sets adjusting to their offense."
McDermott paced Morehead State with 11 kills and hit .308. Sophomore outside hitter Courtney Smith totaled eight kills. Kentucky out-dug the Eagles, 60-48.
Morehead State begins Ohio Valley Conference play on Friday, September 27, at 8 p.m. at Belmont.
