Four Kentucky players had double-figure kills as DeLeye and Hudson were joined by Brooke Bultema (11) and Lizzie Carr (10) who all reached double figures in the contest. Kassie O’Brien had 30 assists through the first three sets and Ava Sarafa came in for the cramping O’Brien and notched 25 assists and two digs as she led Kentucky to .545 in the fifth set alone with 13 kills and only one error on 22 swings.
Eva Hudson had 21 digs, a new career high for the senior, in addition to her 24 kills as she joined Brooklyn DeLeye (24 kills, 14 digs), Kassie O’Brien (30 assists, 10 digs) who all had double-doubles in the match, marking the first time in 13 years that three Kentucky players have recorded double-doubles in the same match.
The win for Kentucky marks its sixth of the season as the Wildcats move to 6-2 and second top-10 win on the year having already beat No. 5 Penn State earlier in September. UK hit .209 for the match with 70 kills and the Cards hit .072 for the match with 47 kills as a collective team.
Kentucky will close non-conference play Saturday afternoon against Washington inside Historic Memorial Coliseum at 1 p.m. ET. The match will stream live on SEC Network+ and the ESPN app. Tickets are available at UKathletics.com/tickets.
Set 1
Louisville won the first set, taking the early lead in the match one set to none with a 25-21 opening set victory. The Cards raced out to a 12-7 lead in the midway point of the set with Kentucky rallying to win three points in a row for the first time in the match to close the gap at 13-12 before UofL ran off four successive points to push Kentucky into a timeout trailing, 17-12. UL then was the first to 20 by running off three in a row against the UK offense with two blocks and an ace to push the lead to six at 20-14 as the Wildcats called their final timeout of the frame. Kentucky fought off five set points as the Cards took a 24-17 lead, but Brooklyn DeLeye ran off four-straight kills to close the gap to 24-20 and UL called its first timeout. After DeLeye then pushed the Cats to within three at 24-12, Louisville got a touch off the block to end the set and take the opener, 25-21. UK hit .217 as a team with UL hitting .300 as DeLeye led the way with eight kills on 17 swings. Louisville had eight blocks in the set with UK only registering three as the main difference in the set.
Set 2
Through the midway part of the second set, neither team took more than a one-point lead until Brookyln DeLeye and Brooke Bultema registered back-to-back kills to make things 18-16 in favor of the Wildcats. The next point went the way of the Wildcats on an overpass kill by DeLeye for her 13th kill of the match as UK took a 19-16 lead and UL called its first timeout of the set. The Wildcats offense then got cooking again with three-straight points to get to 22-18 and the Cardinals called their final timeout of the frame down four. Kentucky arrived at set point at 24-18 and closed things out on set point No. 4 thanks to a kill by Eva Hudson off the dime from Kassie O’Brien to make things even at one set all. Kentucky hit .135 for the set, but it held the Cards to -.048 hitting as a team in the second set to close out a 25-21 second-set win. O’Brien had 22 assists through two sets with Brooke Bultema logging six blocks and four kills on 11 swings with UK as a team having 10 blocks through the opening pair of sets.
Set 3
Louisville won a deuce set in the third to take a two sets to one lead in the match. 26-24. Kentucky won the first four points to take a 4-0 lead, but it was Louisville that responded with six of the next eight points to even up the frame and took a 15-12 lead into the media timeout. Kentucky took a 20-19 lead on Brook Bultema’s seventh kill of the match to make things in UK’s favor before the Cards went on a 3-0 run and take the 22-20 lead as UK called its first timeout. Kentucky then won the next two points on the trot to square the set and push the Cards into their first timeout at 23-23. UL sided out for set point and UK responded with a kill on an extended rally from Eva Hudson in the back row to make things 24 all. After UL took a 25-24 lead, the Cards clinched the set with a kill from Chloe Chicoine to end the set and make things two sets to one.
Set Four
The fourth set was all Kentucky from start to finish. The Wildcats lead ballooned to as many as 13 midway through the frame and the Wildcats sided out at over 80 percent in the set to close the book on the Cardinals, 25-12 and send the match to a fifth set.
Set Five
Kentucky raced out to a 4-0 lead to start the fifth set, just as it did in the third set. Ava Sarafa won four-straight points on her serve and then UL finally sided out to make things 4-1. A solo block by Brooklyn DeLeye, one of her three on the night make things 8-2 at the changeover and UK was halfway to the win. DeLeye’s fourth termination of the set made things 10-4 in favor of the Wildcats, and Louisville responded by calling its first timeout. UK then sided out the next two points to get to 13-6 and won the final two point of the match with kills from Eva Hudson and Lizzie Carr to close the book on the five-set win.
For the latest on UK Volleyball, follow the Wildcats on Twitter and Instagram at @KentuckyVB.