After losing to Tennessee Friday at home, Alabama faced Kentucky Sunday for the second time this season and won the match 3-2 (25-16, 25-20, 25-21, 25-23, 15-13) in the CAVE, snapping a seven-game losing streak.
UK’s Lauren Rapp sent a stunning kill over the net for the first point of the match. After that, the match proved to be an all-out battle for the lead until Kentucky’s lofty front line picked up speed and better protected the net, setting the score 10-5 at the first timeout called by Alabama.
The Tide trailed by as much as 10 points throughout the first set but still showed admirable team work and communication while cutting the deficit to as little as six points. But Kentucky won the set, 25-16.
The first point of the second set went in favor of Alabama, but Kentucky was quick to strike back, gaining another early lead. The Tide tied the score 11-all midway through the match. An outside hit broke the tie and Kentucky pulled ahead.
An error by Kayla Fitterer gave the Wildcats their next point, and though her redemption kill made up for it, the team just couldn’t hang on, and Kentucky took a commanding 2-0 lead.
Tied at 13-all in the third set, Alabama took the lead thanks to a sharp kill from Kelsey Anderson. Struggling to keep the lead, play misjudgment caused the Tide to momentarily drop the lead only to regain it minutes later, 18-16.
Fitterer sent out three back-to-back kills in the name of the Tide and pushed the score higher to 21-18. Alabama had to fight off two kills from UK but refused let go of its lead. The Tide stayed alive with a 25-21 third-set win.
“We’ve not had a great serving match since we played Florida,” said head coach Judy Green. “This was our best serving match completely. We served the ball harder and knocked Kentucky out of their system. They were consistent about 90 percent of the time, but finally we stepped up and served the ball better and calmed down from a passing perspective, too.”
In the fourth and final set, Alabama’s new-found stride was starting to fade. Several Wildcat dig attempts failed to knock the Tide down further, and Alyssa Meuth sealed her ninth kill of the game to set the score at 15-12, Kentucky.
Alabama brought the game to 16-all and 19-all thanks to some sharp communication but lost both ties to Kentucky. Tied up again at 23-all, due to a kill to the center from Fitterer, the lead finally went to Alabama and they pulled out another win over Kentucky, 25-23.
The teams then faced off in a match tiebreaker. An out-of-bounds kill from Kentucky and a kill from Fitterer earned Alabama the first two points. The Tide kept a safe lead until Kentucky broke the 7-all tie.
The atmosphere in the CAVE was fanatical, fans and teammates cheered for the Tide’s win, and when Alabama broke the 12-all tie, the building exploded in ovation. Fitterer blasted her 34th and final kill over the net to give Alabama its last two points, winning the set 15-13 and the match 3-2.
“This was a team effort and I’m just so proud of us,” Fitterer said. “We started slow and lost the first two, but coming back to win three was awesome. We haven’t done that this year at all… It gave us a ton of confidence and I’m proud that we haven’t given up.”
Alabama (10-15, 2-13) plays again on Friday in Columbia, S.C., against the South Carolina Gamecocks.
