Kentucky players celebrated with coach Craig Skinner after beating Washington Thursday to reach the national title match. (NCAA Photo)
Never did I imagine a day when Kentucky would win four straight Southeastern Conference volleyball championships, but that is exactly what coach Craig Skinner’s team has done. Never did I really imagine Kentucky playing for the volleyball national championship, yet that is exactly what Skinner’s team will do tonight at 8 against Texas on ESPN2.
So in fairness, I wondered if Skinner ever in his wildest dreams imagined a volleyball watch party at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington like there will be tonight when the national championship match is going on in Omaha.
“I will never forget walking into my first match in 2005 against Wright State. We might have won in four sets. There were about 67 people in the stands,” said Skinner Friday. “Dreams start somewhere. I was hoping one day my daughters would be in the stands with thousands watching (UK play). To know there is a watch party in Memorial is pretty damn cool.”
Yes, it is and it is also well deserved for this team that is 23-1 and on the verge of UK’s first national volleyball championship. Kentucky has turned casual UK fans into die-hard volleyball fans during the NCAA Tournament bubble and there should easily be more people watching volleyball in the state of Kentucky tonight than ever before.
“We have the attention of the nation and volleyball world which makes it nice,” All-American setter Madison Lilley, the national player of the year, said Friday.
“This is a team of crazy competitors. I have never been on a team that likes to compete like this one. We are not taking no for an answer.”
Skinner knows his team has a special chemistry along with a big talent level that has got it to the title game in a season that started in October, took a two-month break, and resumed in late January. He says players one through 15 have all contributed either in matches or pre-match preparation.
“It’s not about volleyball. It is about people,” Skinner said. “That’s important for us to understand in recruiting. If you did not have good people in a year like this, good luck. We would not be here if we did not have the type of people to make this go.
“You can’t recruit chemistry but you can recruit people who understand the bigger picture and will be happy for other people. If you recruit selfish people, you’ve got a problem.”
Kentucky doesn’t have that issue but instead has team players who are also skilled players.
Skinner was an assistant coach at Nebraska when the team went 34-0 and won a national title. Now he has a chance to win a title back in Nebraska with Kentucky.
“We are living a dream right now. The dream, when I left Nebraska, was to build a program similar (to Nebraska’s),” Skinner said. “To be able to bring home a national championship to Kentucky is special. That’s another reason I wanted to come to a program that has won multiple national championships in men’s basketball and rifle. You want to be around those types of people. They make you better.”
After tonight’s match, my guess others are going to be using national champion Kentucky volleyball as a role model, too.
