LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky volleyball has one goal this season: finish what it started last year. Senior Lizzie Carr, a transfer from Purdue, said the team is drawing both confidence and motivation from last season’s historic run to the NCAA championship game.
The Wildcats finished 30-3 last season before falling to Texas A&M in the title match, a performance that has galvanized the returning roster. “We made it all the way there but we didn’t get over the edge,” Carr said, noting the team regularly discusses how to avoid repeating past mistakes.
Carr found her footing with the team after joining from Purdue in spring 2025, quickly becoming one of coach Craig Skinner’s key voices. “Craig does a really good job of encouraging every single player to be a leader,” she said. The senior class has benefited from additional familiarity this offseason, with Carr and her fellow seniors having studied opponents and teammates throughout last season.
Skinner, in his 22nd season, has built Kentucky into a national powerhouse, leading the program to its only NCAA title in 2020. The Wildcats have reached consecutive SEC championship games and regularly compete at the highest level of college volleyball.
Carr noted that this year’s team comes into the gym with sharper competitive edges from the start of practices. “Last year, we struggled to find our edge at the beginning of practices,” she said. “This year, we’re doing a way better job of starting with competition from the get go.”
The 2026 Wildcats will seek to improve on last season’s near-miss as they pursue what would be the program’s second national championship.
Sources
- UK Athletics
- Texas A&M sweeps Kentucky 3-0 in 2025 NCAA championship
- Craig Skinner coaching record and Kentucky volleyball history
This article was generated by AI (claude-haiku-4-5-20251001) based on source material from UK Athletics, enriched with 2 web searches. The original source is available at https://ukathletics.com/news/2026/08/17/carr-cats-ready-for-2026-season/.
