Kentucky Volleyball Coach Craig Skinner, senior Whitney Billings and libero Jackie Napper discuss the Cats’ hard-fought second round loss to Michigan State.
Kentucky Head Coach Craig Skinner
Opening statement …
“The hardest part for me is that you have a group of seniors who deserve to keep playing. The effort that’s put in and how hard these guys work, it’s tough to swallow when you don’t come out on the winning end of the match like this. You have to give Michigan State credit because they killed the ball at an extremely high rate in sets three and four and that was the difference. The effort was there the entire match. They competed hard and you can’t ask for more than that. You just hope that you execute better so you can score the points. These two here [Whitney Billings and Jackie Napper] played a heck of a match today. From here, the returners have to figure out a way to get better and go beyond this point. Always proud of these kids from day one and always will be. Congratulations to Michigan State for moving on.”
On what changed in the third set …
“[Michigan State] started passing better, getting the ball in system. They run a fast offense and when you have to try and block two or three at a time when they run it that fast and hit it that hard, that was the difference. Our short serve obviously gave them problems early and then we couldn’t get out of system later so they were able to side out. We struggled too and thought we had some momentum and it changed. They earned their points there.”
On how the team struggled in the first set last night and the first set today…
“Well, we won the first set last night so I was happy with our effort in that set. I was happy with our effort in set one here too. They just came out on the winning end. These matches in this round of the tournament, when you play against good teams, rarely does it go 3-0. Tonight was no exception. We battled back and gave ourselves chances in sets two, three and couldn’t dig ourselves out of the hole in four so that was the big difference.”
On the determination he saw from the seniors …
“They’ve been committed since day one but you really saw a sense of pride and urgency for the program in the last half of the season. Nothing is ever given to you and at this point in the game, it really starts to hit home that it’s not given to you so you have to go for it. All of these guys went for it. Very proud of Jessi [Greenberg] and her commitment to this program and [Desirre’ Wilkerson] for changing schools and committing to Kentucky volleyball and Whitney [Billings] and [Alexandra Morgan] for putting five years of their lives into this program and a piece of them will always be here with us.”
Kentucky Student-Athletes
#1, Whitney Billings, OH
On what changed while she was on serve in the second set …
“I think we got them out of system with the short serve so we kept going with it. That’s how we got our runs, just keep serving them short.”
On whether she envisioned having such a strong career at Kentucky …
“When I first got here, I didn’t really know where my spot was going to be in Kentucky volleyball but as the years went on I kind of found my spot on the team as a leader. It’s where I am now.”
On how she feels about the legacy she’s leaving behind …
“I feel pretty good about it. I feel like I gave my team everything I could when I needed to and I know they looked up to me. I know there were some times where I didn’t come up for them, but most of the times I did.”
#15, Jackie Napper, DS
On what seemed like a one-on-one battle between the liberos …
“I just didn’t want it to be the last game for the seniors. They have fought hard since they’ve been here. Whitney [Billings] and [Alexandra Morgan] for five years, [Desirre’ Wilkerson] for two and Jessi [Greenberg] for four and I didn’t want it to be their last game.”
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