Alli Stumler (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky volleyball has its highest seeding ever — No. 2 overall — in the upcoming NCAA Championships but that is no real surprise to all-SEC junior Alli Stumler.
“It’s not a surprise at all what we have done,” said Stumler. “You could see from the moment we got into quarantine that this was a new team. We did not get to play with each other that much but you could see all we did behind the scenes to get ready for the season.
“The freshmen had no idea what was going on but they all bought into accountability groups. It was like a cultural thing. We have one of the best cultures of any volleyball team.
“So our success is not a surprise. Once I saw how everyone bought in, I knew we could win the SEC and national championships.”
Kentucky went through an SEC-only schedule with a 19-1 record. The only loss came at Florida, a top 10 seed in the NCAA tourney also.
Even a split season with a long layoff between matches did not derail UK, something that should help UK when it plays its first NCAA match in April after almost a three-week layoff between games.
“We also had two weeks of matches canceled (by COVID issues with opponents). There was so much uncertainty all year. We didn’t even know for sure if there would be a championship or not and that made it frustrating at times,” Stumler said.
“We just kept focusing on day by day and the next time we would get to be on court practicing or when we would get back to campus and making it a priority to compete and prepare.”
Stumler recalled even when the players were at home how the bond continued to build.
“We were all sending in pictures of our workouts. We never gave up on communicating and I think we just all knew our hard work was going to eventually pay off,” the UK junior said.
