The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Kentucky
Lady Rebels Drop Match On Road To Wildcats 3-0
11/3/2002 | Volleyball
Nov. 3, 2002
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Ole Miss came out on Kentucky's senior night with a pitched battle on its hands, as the Lady Rebels sat one place behind the Wildcats for the final spot in the Southeastern Conference Tournament. The winner of the match would go a long way to staking a solid claim to the final berth.
Them match would be over before it even really began, as Kentucky outmatched the Lady Rebels across the board as the Wildcats would beat Ole Miss 3-0 (16-30, 14-30, 25-30).
Elena Garcia and Rachel Refenes led the Lady Rebels offense with five kills apiece off of 13 sets by Jade Polonich. Defensively Sarah Lansden and Garcia led the squad with four digs each.
The Wildcats came out and struck first at the Lady Rebels, taking a 2-0 lead before a kill from Jade Polonich would put Ole Miss on the board. Kentucky would respond quickly with another run that pushed the lead out to 7-1, forcing the Lady Rebels into a timeout. A Polonich kill would once break up the run, but only for a point as Kentucky would rattle off another run to go up 11-2. The run from UK would continue as Ole Miss took its second timeout at 16-5.
Out of the break a Garcia kill would start the Lady Rebels scoring again, but the Wildcats would once again rattle off a run to push even farther ahead hitting 22 points before Ole Miss would break double digits. The Lady Rebels would rattle off a small run, but the Wildcat domination would continue as Kentucky would take the first game easily 30-16.
Kentucky opened the second game with the first score, before Ole Miss bit back with two quick scores. The teams traded points out of the brief Lady Rebel lead. Ole Miss got back into the match as Rachel Refenes and Karla Zschau took over at the net, recording two straight points off blocks. It would be short lived, as Kentucky would push back out to the lead 9-6. Ole Miss would have to take a timeout at 13-8 to regroup and plan a new attack.
The Wildcats score four straight points out of the break before the Lady Rebels would score on two straight points. Kentucky would again throw a small run at Ole Miss to move ahead 20-11. Timeout would be called by the Lady Rebels at 22-12. Kentucky would storm out of the timeout to the win in the second game 30-14.
The Lady Rebels followed the same trend in the first two games, allowing Kentucky to pull out to an early lead before a Polonich kill would make the score 2-1. The score would wind up being 4-1, before the Lady Rebels would fight back to take the lead 5-4. The squads would trade points from there before Ole Miss would push out to a 9-7 lead. The Wildcats fought back with a five point run to take the lead back 12-9. Ole Miss would fight back into the match, pulling within one and hanging with the Wildcats almost point for point until Kentucky put together a run to extend the lead to 19-15 from 15-14.
The Lady Rebels would rally again, pulling with three at 23-21, forcing the Wildcats into a timeout. Ole Miss would pick up two quick points after the timeout to tie the game at 23, but a Garcia service error would give the Wildcats back the lead. Three quick scores off Lady Rebel errors would force Ole Miss into a timeout at 26-23. The Wildcats would close out the game and the match with a 30-25 win in game three.
Kentucky got big performances from Sarah Spinner and Kristen Bratt, who turned in 19 and 16 kills, respectively, on the night. Aleshia Craven recorded 16 digs, while Spinner also turned in 12 digs for the Wildcats.
The Lady Rebels will return to action to close out home play in the SEC with Arkansas and LSU next weekend. Ole Miss will play Arkansas on Friday at 7 p.m. and LSU on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Sunday's match will be senior night.
