No. 4 Kentucky Volleyball Pulls No Punches, beating No. 3 Louisville, 3-1

LEXINGTON, Ky. — This year's edition of the Bluegrass battle was billed as just that. The first-ever showing between two, top-five volleyball programs in the history of Memorial Coliseum, a national spotlight courtesy of ABC, and an in-state rivalry that's as bitter as it comes. A battle, waiting to happen.

Such was the pregame story of the Cats and the Cards. Postgame? Perhaps we'd undersold it. That's how good it was Sunday afternoon in Lexington.

In front of more than 6,000 ravenous fans, the No. 4 Kentucky volleyball team defeated No. 3 Louisville in a matinee thriller, 3-1 (19-25; 29-27; 25-21; 25-19).

While three of the last five meetings between these programs have been pushed to the maximum, the Cats needed just four sets today to claim their second-straight win in the series, the first at home since 2019.

Brooklyn DeLeye and Morgan Gaerte led the offensive attack for the home team, finishing with 22 and and 20 kills, respectively. Asia Thigpen and Kennedy Washington joined them in double figures, adding 14 and 10 terminations. Kentucky libero Molly Tuozzo dug a match-best 21 balls from the back row, while setter Kassie O'Brien recorded 59 assists to lead her team to a .277 hitting percentage on the day.

The Cards shook off the short road trip and the warmup jitters first, jumping out to an early lead in the first frame. Louisville put the first four points of the day on the board and would lead by as many as eight points, 14-6.

Kentucky would claw its way back within striking distance but never closer than five, as the Cat-turned-Card, Brooke Bultema, ended the first set with a termination, 25-19.

Still, it was enough to rebuild momentum and reignite confidence.

Although the Cards scored first in the second, an onslaught of Kentucky points quickly followed. The Cats went up 5-2 before the Cards responded with a run of their own run, soon tying the set at six points apiece. It would remain neck-and-neck for the remainder of the frame, with neither team earning more than a two-point advantage until the Cats eventually went up by three, 20-17.

That safety was short lived. Bultema pulled her new team back within two, where the score would remain the rest of the set.

Back and forth the blows were both thrown and absorbed, as the rivals went well past the necessary 25-point threshold. Suddenly, leading by even two seemed impossible. On the sixth set point of the frame, the home team strung two points together, winning 29-27.

Kentucky hit a blistering .420 in the frame; 25 of Kentucky's 29 points came via Wildcat kills.

Defense came to play in the third, with Kentucky recording two early blocks to set the tone.

Meanwhile, Louisville struggled to get into a rhythm from the service line, collecting zero aces while committing four service errors throughout the frame. Those translated into Wildcat points, as UK claimed the third set, 25-21.

The home crowd continued to cheer into the fourth frame, as the Wildcats were firing on all cylinders.

Again, Louisville scored first.

Again, Kentucky responded.

An early 4-0 run sparked by DeLeye and Gaerte's terminations helped the Cats find some separation. Although the lead never ballooned past a few points, the Wildcats were clearly in control for the duration of the day, winning set four, 25-19 and the match, 3-1.

After dropping the first set of the day, the Cats got better and better as the battle wore on, winning set two by two points, then set three by four points and set four by six points.

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Kentucky thus concludes the non-conference portion of its schedule with an 8-2 mark, including wins over No. 6 Wisconsin, No. 13 Penn State, No. 18 North Carolina and now, No. 3 Louisville. The only flaws came via road losses to No. 4 Pitt and No. 8 SMU.

The Cats begin conference play next week, with a road trip to Nashville up first. Kentucky will play at Vanderbilt for the first time in program history Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.

The Commodores are led by former UK Associate Head Coach, Anders Nelson, and former UK All-American, Azhani Tealer, who is in her second year as an assistant with the program in Music City.

BBN Tonight

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