Carr, Washington Shine in the Middle as No. 2 Kentucky Beats Cal Poly, Advances to Regional Final

For the bulk of the season, Kentucky's offense has been largely predicated on the success of its outside hitters. But it was the middles who stole the show on Thursday as Lizzie Carr and Kennedy Washington dominated at the net to lead the Cats to a 3-0 victory (25-18, 25-19, 25-7) over Cal Poly to advance into the Regional Final Saturday against Creighton inside Historic Memorial Coliseum. 

After pulling off a pair of upsets over BYU and USC in the first and second rounds of the tournament, the Mustangs were the lone unseeded Cinderella left in the Big Dance heading into Thursday's Regional Semifinals against Kentucky. But the Cats asserted their athleticism and physicality on Cal Poly from the jump, in large part because of the offensive success of junior middle blocker Lizzie Carr. Carr terrorized the Mustangs' defense all afternoon long, finishing with a match-high 11 kills on a .667 clip with only one error. Her counterpart - Kennedy Washington - was just as effective for Kentucky out of the middle, finding the floor with seven kills on only ten swings with no errors. After the match, senior outside hitter Eva Hudson was proud of her teammates' success, especially that of Carr, who transferred to Kentucky from Purdue along with Hudson. 

"Personally, I've been with her (Lizzie) for a very long time," Hudson said. "So it's like a proud mom moment and I'm really happy to see her swinging away with confidence. She's such a great player so I'm glad she is reaping the amazing success. For our team, she brings so much energy to the team in the first place and then when she's scoring relentlessly that is so fun and it makes me and Brooklyn's (DeLeye) job so much easier. 

The Cats found success on the pins as well, as Hudson totaled nine kills with no errors on a .375 clip and Brooklyn DeLeye finished with eight kills on only 16 swings at a .375 hitting percentage. Jordyn Dailey and Kassie O'Brien each added a trio of kills of their own and Asia Thigpen finished with four. O'Brien had another great night balancing the offense at the setter position, dishing out 31 assists and directing the Kentucky attack to a .419 clip. 

After a slow start at the net defensively with only one block in the first set, Kentucky finished the match with 9.0 total rejections, led by six off the hands of Carr. Hudson, Washington, and O'Brien each had three and Dailey had one. Four Wildcats picked up at least five digs in the match, led by nine from junior Molly Tuozzo. DeLeye had eight, Hudson had seven, and O'Brien had five. 

While the first two sets remained relatively close up until the media timeout, the Cats utilized strong service runs in each to pull away late to take the frame. The third set proved to be a different story, however, as Kentucky scored 13 of the first 16 points of the set to pull ahead by double digits. Cal Poly tried to call a timeout to stop the bleeding, but the damage was already done as the Cats, and the packed crowd of 4,039 raucous fans, came alive. 

"I feel like even in that third set, we kind of talked about it, it was the loudest that we've heard it," O'Brien said of the crowd's energy. "And it being a Thursday at 3:30 you wouldn't really expect that. But it just shows how much BBN really shows out for us and is there."

With the win, Kentucky improves to 28-2 on the season and advances into the Regional Final against Creighton Saturday with a spot in the Final Four up for grabs. After Thursday's match, UK head coach Craig Skinner previewed the match against the Bluejays and cited the need for the Cats to come prepared for a battle. 

"I don't think they're a team you score in bunches, you're probably not going to score four or five points in a row. You're going to have to side out, maybe get one or two and keep siding out. It's a high-level game against a high-level team. It's big girl volleyball and you've gotta execute, score, maybe score a point here and there and just stay locked in the whole time because it's going to be a battle." 

First serve against the Bluejays is set for 5:00 pm ET and will be broadcast live on ESPN2.