Avery Skinner hopes to play another year of college volleyball but it will not be at Kentucky

Mark Kuhlmann/NCAA Photos

All-American Avery Skinner plans to be playing volleyball again next season — but not at Kentucky. She helped UK win the school’s first national championship — and first volleyball national title for the SEC — but will not use her extra year at Kentucky. Instead, Skinner has been accepted into her desired graduate school for Communication Sciences and Disorders at a different institution and hopes to play at that school next season.

“I’m excited to follow Avery continue the high level of education she aspires for in graduate school and advance her NCAA Volleyball career,” Kentucky coach Craig Skinner said.

Avery Skinner has been nominated for the H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship presented by the Southeastern Conference since 1986 to the league’s top male and female scholar-athletes. The SEC will name the 2021 recipients on May 18 who will receive a $20,000 post-graduate scholarship. The 26 remaining male and female finalists for the award will also receive a $10,000 post-graduate scholarship.

Avery Skinner has a double major in Communication Studies and Disorders along with Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education. She also has a 3.91 grade-point average.

On the court, she was part of four straight SEC championships — something that had never happened at UK. She averaged 3.81 kills per set with a hitting percentage of .350 this year. She had over 100 kills in NCAA Tournament play in her career, including 64 this season. Thirty-three of those kills came in UK’s final two matches.

She was part of a UK mission trip to Ethiopia and has volunteered in the NICU at St. Joseph’s Hospital, UK Early Childhood Education Lab, and the Lexington Hearing and Speech Center.

Her younger sister, Madi, was a freshman sensation at UK this year and a key player in the national title quest. However, Avery Skinner’s education pursuit will mean she won’t have another season with her sister.

Kentucky’s other seniors — Madison Lilley, Gabby Curry, and Kendyl Paris — will not be back on the team next year, either.

Lilley, the national player of the year, announced at the NCAA Tournament she would not be back. Curry has her MBA and already has a job lined up. Paris will begin pursuing her Doctor of Physical Therapy.

“The 2020-21 senior class will forever hold a special place in Kentucky Volleyball history,” Craig Skinner said. “This class has worked tirelessly together to build Kentucky into a national champion. They came in during the 2017 season and had the goal of winning a national title, and they were able to deliver while doing things the right way. This class has given so much to Kentucky volleyball and it’s fitting that they go out together.”