Kentucky will play Arkansas (5-20, 1-13 SEC) on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET inside Historic Memorial Coliseum for a chance at a perfect SEC season and an outright championship. Tickets are available at UKathletics.com/tickets. There is an extremely limited number of reserved seats available, so fans are asked to purchase tickets ahead of time before coming to HMC Sunday to ensure an easy entry.
The reverse sweep was Kentucky’s first since beating Kansas 3-2 eight years ago in September of 2018.
Oklahoma came out on fire in the match, hitting above .400 in the opening set, and again crushing the ball at a .357 rate in the second set to push out to a 2-0 lead as the Wildcats were down 0-2 for the first time since Sept. 10 against No. 3 Pittsburgh in Ft. Worth, Texas and came back from an 0-2 deficit to win for the first time all season.
In the opening set, Eva Hudson scored Kentucky’s 13th point of the match, marking her 2,00th-career kill, the only active player in D1 volleyball with 2,000 career kills. Hudson had 19 kills on 52 swings Friday night and nine digs with a pair of blocks. Sunday, Kentucky will honor Hudson prior to the match in its Senior Day ceremonies beginning at 12:50 p.m. ET. Hudson’s 19 kills led the Wildcats in the match.
Brooklyn DeLeye had 16 terminations Friday and Lizzie Carr had 11 kills in the match, marking the first time since UK played Texas A&M that Carr had 10+ kills and her fifth time this season reaching the 10+ kill mark. Freshman setter Kassie O’Brien logged a new career-high 54 assists, marking the second time in her career she has crossed the 50-assist plateau. Molly Tuozzo and O’Brien both had 13 digs in the match to lead the Wildcats on the defensive end.
OU had 17 blocks in the match, the most blocks by a single opponent against Kentucky this season and hit .301, the only team to hit above .300 all year against UK in SEC play, as well. Kentucky hit .389 in the fifth set, by far its highest-percentage set, and held OU to .059 in the fifth.
Set 1
Oklahoma was essentially flawless in the opening set, taking the first frame, 25-18 over the Wildcats. The Sooners hit .481 as a team, which was the highest any team has hit in any set against Kentucky this season as the Wildcats were held to just .207 in the first set with only one block to the Sooners five. Alexis Shelton led the Sooners with six kills on eight swings for a .625 hitting percentage as Brooklyn DeLeye led the way for UK with five terminations on nine swings for a .222 average. Oklahoma never trailed in the set and had its lead grow to a set-high eight points at 21-13 as Kentucky called its second timeout before going on a 3-0 run, its largest run of the set before a sideout by the Sooners made things 24-18 after an OU timeout. The succeeding point was a kill by Oklahoma and the Sooners closed the book on the opening set with a 25-18 first set win to lead the match one set to none.
Set 2
Oklahoma closed the second set on a 6-0 run to take a two sets to none lead in the match after Kentucky led 21-19. UK led for a majority of the set with a lead that was as big as five points at 14-9 but the Sooners began to chip away and tied up the set for the first time since to was 4-4 when a Kentucky attacking error made things 21-21 and pushed the Wildcats into a timeout. Eva Hudson and Brooklyn DeLeye both had seven kills in the match to that point, but UK was struggling offensively, hitting .183 as a team with OU clipping the ball at a .393 rate.
Set 3
Kentucky was able to put a set on the board in the third thanks to a tight 28-26 victory as the Wildcats clinched the set on their fourth set point. The Wildcats hit over .300 in the set with 18 kills to four errors with OU hitting .354 in the frame on 21 kills to four errors. The Wildcats jumped out in front early, leading 9-6 on a 5-0 run that pushed Oklahoma into a timeout and then a few points later, the Sooners elected to burn their final timeout when Brooklyn DeLeye hammered her 11th kill of the match to the floor as the Wildcats took a 13-8 lead. The lead was between two and five for a majority of the midway point of the set before the Sooners tied things up on an unsuccessful challenge by the Wildcats. OU then took a 20-18 lead as UK called its final timeout down two and OU five points from closing out the match. Molly Berezowitz had one of the best and most impressive digs of the season to give UK the 21-20 lead as Kennedy Washington put the exclamation point on the point with a kill down the line and the Wildcats arrived at set point leading 24-23. OU sided out four-straight times to make things complicated to the finish line for the Wildcats, but it was a kill by Eva Hudson that ended the set, her 16th of the match, as Kentucky took its first set of the night.
Set 4
Kentucky evened the match with a 25-19 fourth set win thanks to two separate 6-0 runs in the frame that pushed the Wildcats into a decisive fifth set. After OU won the first point of the set, Kentucky ran off six points in a row to take a 6-1 lead and put the Wildcats into the driver’s seat for the set. OU began to chip away at the lead and tied things up at 11-11 following a 5-1 run of their own and the sides reached the media timeout with Kentucky leading 15-14 thanks to an ace by Kassie O’Brien. O’Brien then ran off another ace on the other side of the timeout to expand the UK lead to two and that ballooned the Wildcats lead to 20-14 as OU called its final timeout of the set down six points. Kentucky got to set point at 24-19 and a solo stuff on the left pin by Brooklyn DeLeye pushed the Wildcats over the line and sent the match to a fifth set inside Historic Memorial Coliseum.
Set 5
UK continued its momentum into the fifth set as it jumped out to a 6-3 lead, prompting an early timeout by the Sooners. The lead grew out of the timeout to 7-3 and then a kill by Kennedy Washington made things 9-4 and OU burned its final timeout of the set with UK up five. Kentucky then made the lead seven on a misconnect by the Sooners on an extended rally and Kentucky sat four points from the finish line, leading 11-4. Oklahoma ran off three in a row after the teams traded sideouts and Kentucky called timeout with its lead at 13-10. UK lost a challenge and then on the next point got the seventh kill of the night from Jordyn Dailey to pick up match point at 14-11 and Kentucky closed things out with a kill by Eva Hudson on Kassie O’Brien’s 54th assist of the match to set a new career high.