The crowd of 6,236 is only the third crowd in UK home match history to surpass 6,000 fans and the most to witness a match in Lexington since 1983. The two higher crowds in UKVB history are from 1983 and 1993 when Memorial Coliseum had the older configuration model. The Wildcats have now played this season in front of four crowds of over 6,000 fans, setting a new program record in that category. UK lost to Nebraska, but beat Tennessee, Penn State and Louisville in front of such crowds.
Eva Hudson and Brooklyn DeLeye held the offensive line for UK on Sunday afternoon, hitting .381 and .211 respectfully as Kentucky hit .252 as a team. Hudson led the match with 19 kills on 42 swings with five digs and four blocks as two were solo roofs. DeLeye went for 18 kills on a team-high 57 swings with an ace, five digs and two blocks. Kassie O’Brien ran the UK offense to the tune of 40 assists on 53 of Kentucky’s kills in the match with four blocks, including a solo block in the opening set.
Molly Tuozzo’s strong floor defense held Tennessee to .240 for the match as a team as Tuozzo’s 12 digs alongside Kassie O’Brien led the way for the Wildcats in that category. The double-double for O’Brien was her sixth of the year. Kentucky also had a terrific serving match as the Wildcats dropped in five aces on the Lady Vols with UT only acing UK once.
Kentucky is now 20-2 in 2025 and holds a 13-0 record in the Southeastern Conference, with two matches remaining for all SEC teams. The UK will play Oklahoma (7-6) and Arkansas (1-12) to close the season, needing to win one of the two matches to secure a tie for the SEC title and control its own destiny to win the outright title if it wins both matches.
UK plays Oklahoma on Friday at 7 p.m. ET with the broadcast on SEC Network+ and the ESPN app before closing the regular season Sunday at 1 p.m. ET against Arkansas. Texas A&M sits one match back at 12-1, with Texas at 11-2. UK has guaranteed itself a double-bye in the SEC Tournament and a top-three seed in Savannah.
Set 1
Kentucky saw a seven-point lead in the first set evaporate as Tennessee took the opener, 25-22. The Wildcats came out on fire, hitting .650 at the halfway point of the first set, but it was the Lady Vols who then took charge as they won 21 of the next 32 points to close the set and a one set to none lead in the match. It was the first time that Kentucky lost the first set of a match since it dropped the opener to Texas A&M on Oct. 8. UK hit .200 in the set with Tennessee clipping the ball at a .279 rate with 19 kills to seven errors. Kentucky had a season-low 11 kills in the set with only three hitting errors and four blocks to the Lady Vols one in the opening frame.
Set 2
Tennessee had a late lead in the second set and was looking to go up two sets to none on the Wildcats, but a Kassie O’Brien stuff block at the net with Tennessee leading 19-16 turned the tide and momentum of the set as Kentucky used that as a catapult to go on a 3-0 run and square things back up at 19-19. Tennessee called its first timeout after that and then Brooklyn DeLeye scored her 13th point of the match to make things 20-19 as UK picked up its first lead since it was 14-13 and the run ballooned to 5-0 on an Eva Hudson sideout swing for her seventh termination of the match. The teams traded sideouts down the stretch until a UK block from Jordyn Dailey, who had just entered the match as a blocking sub housed a Lady Vol attacker and UT burned its final timeout trailing 23-22. Kentucky then won two of the final three points to close the book on the second set as Kentucky evened things up at one set all.
Set 3
Kentucky took a two-set-to-one lead in the match with a clinical and convincing third-set win over the Lady Vols, 25-18. The first several points were back and forth until a 6-0 run midway through the set pushed Kentucky out in front by a match-high nine points at 18-9 with Tennessee using both timeouts during the run to try and stop the Kentucky offense, which hit at a .242 clip in the third frame. Kentucky’s lead was trimmed to six points at 23-17 but a Brooklyn DeLeye kill on an out-of-system ball on the left side from an extended rally ended the set and gave UK the 2-1 advantage. Tennessee was held to under .150 hitting in the set and had itself blocked seven times by the Kentucky front line as the Wildcats took control of the match with the historic crowd sending UK into the set break.
Set 4
Kentucky led wire to wire in the fourth set as the Wildcats took the match with a 25-18 fourth-set victory. UK won its third challenge of the match early in the frame to take a 6-4 lead and the lead grew to six point at 11-5 and Tennessee blew for its first timeout to try and stop the UK momentum. UT went on a 3-0 run to close within three at 11-8, but it was UK’s outsides that made the difference down the stretch as Kentucky grew the lead to nine, a set-high number at 22-13, following the 14th block of the match from UK as Lizzie Carr stuffed a ball. Match point went the way of the Wildcats as UK closed the match on a 2-0 run.
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