With the win, Kentucky is into its third NCAA Regional Final under Craig Skinner, and will play either (1) Pittsburgh or (4) Oregon on Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN2. Anne Marie Anderson, Nicole Branagh and Michela Chester will have the call from the Petersen Events Center in downtown Pittsburgh.
During the match, Kentucky hit .347 with three players etching into double-figure scoring as DeLeye led all players in the match with 22 kills and Megan Wilson (13) joining Brooke Bultema (10) with 10+ terminations for the match. Emma Grome guided the Kentucky offense with her seventh 50+ assist match of the season as she also notched a double-double with 10 digs to go alongside her 50 assists in the match.
Along with Molly Tuozzo’s team-leading 11 digs for the match, Eleanor Beavin had 10 and Grome had 10 with Kentucky holding Missouri to .241 hitting for the afternoon, including a -.037 percentage in the fourth set as the Wildcats closed out their berth in the NCAA Regional Final. Tuozzo also had a kill in the match.
Both teams had five aces in the match with Brooklyn DeLeye notching three of Kentucky’s five aces for the match along with six digs and a pair of blocks. In what was an incredibly even match statistically, both teams also had seven blocks for the contest, but it was the four stuffs by UK in the fourth set alone that made the difference down the stretch to push the Wildcats into the next round.