Asia Thigpen Steers No. 15 Kentucky Past Tennessee on Rocky Top
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – In the first start of freshman Asia Thigpen’s career, she delivered the goods for No. 15 Kentucky as Thigpen launched 15 kills to just one error, hitting .583 on the night with eight digs to pair as the Wildcats downed the Tennessee Lady Vols three sets to one (25-21, 14-25, 25-22, 25-21) Wednesday night at the Food City Center in Thompson-Boling Arena.
Thigpen was nothing short of extraordinary in the match, not only playing Wednesday night in her first-career start, but playing all six rotations in the affair. The 5’11” outside hitter from Pittsboro, North Carolina launched her 15 kills on just 24 total attacks as part of her impressive night alongside an assist, a block and eight digs.
The Wildcats hit .340 for the match and .370 in the fourth set alone to the tune of 63 kills and only 12 hitting errors on the night. UK’s star setter, Emma Grome, had 50 assists on the night along with 10 digs for her fourth double-double of the match. Kentucky had three aces on the night as a team and Molly Tuozzo’s 16 digs led the way defensively for the Wildcats, who held UT to .289 offensively. Brooke Bultema joined DeLeye and Thigpen with 10+ kills on the night as the freshman Cincinnatian had 14 kills and hit .458 on the night.
Kentucky will next play at Alabama on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. ET in Tuscaloosa, Alabama at Foster Auditorium. The match will be broadcasted live on SEC Network+ and the ESPN app. With Wednesday night’s win, UK improves to 10-7 on the year and 4-2 in the SEC.
Set One
Kentucky took its first lead after falling behind 4-1 to start the match at 6-5 on a 3-0 run boosted by the offense of Brooke Bultema. The UK lead grew to four after that at 12-8 as Jordyn Dailey stuffed an attempted overpass for UK’s first block of the night and Tennessee took its first timeout to stop the UK run as Kentucky was up four. After the Lady Vols cut it to two, Bultema helped the UK response again with back-to-back terminations as the Wildcats took a 15-11 advantage. Kentucky used its first timeout after UT ran off three in a row to cut the margin to one at 15-14 and after the timeout the Wildcats were aced for UT to square the set at 15 all. Brooklyn DeLeye placed a dime of a serve down for an ace and then off an extended rally, Jordyn Dailey hammered home an attack from the right side that found the donut to give Kentucky a two-point edge and after UK ran its lead to 21-18, Tennessee called its final timeout. Asia Thigpen passed a perfect ball to Emma Grome and Megan Wilson hammered home Kentucky’s 24th point to make things 24-21 and a Brooklyn DeLeye kill ended the first set.
Set Two
Tennessee ran out to a 4-1 lead for the second-straight set and then the Lady Vols used a 5-0 run thanks to three service aces to take a 9-5 lead and Kentucky was forced into an early timeout trailing by four. Tennessee’s lead grew to give after a kill from the middle of the court made things 15-10 as the Lady Vols took the largest lead in the match for either side. UK took its second timeout after Tennessee’s lead extended to 17-11 and one point later, 18-11. Tennessee evened the match with a convincing 25-14 second-set victory. Kentucky hit .037 in the set with Tennessee’s offense clicking at a .560 percentage and 15 kills to just one error.
Set Three
Led by the serving of Eleanor Beavin and the terminal swings of Brooke Bultema, Kentucky exploded out of the gates in the third set to an 8-4 lead and after an ace by Brooklyn DeLeye to make it 9-5, Tennessee took its first timeout of the set down an early five points in the frame. Brooklyn DeLeye had a monster kill from the three-meter line out of the back row as Kentucky’s lead became 11-6 on a rally that took over 40 seconds to complete as the Wildcats offense began to catch rhythm. UT slowly began to chip away at the Kentucky lead as the middle phase of the set progressed with terminal kills and quality passing. The Wildcats sided out well thanks to the addition of Asia Thigpen in the back row and her eighth kill of the afternoon reinstated a two-point lead for the Wildcats at 20-18 as the set entered the stretch run. Tennessee ran off two in a row to tie the match at 20-20 for the first tied point since it was 1-1 and Kentucky called its first timeout. After Tennessee tied the set at 22-22, the Wildcats ran off two in a row thanks to the explosiveness of Asia Thigpen as she brought the Wildcats to set point at 24-22 and forced the Lady Vols into their final timeout. A Tennessee attack error ended the set as it sailed long out of the timeout and the Wildcats closed the set on a 3-0 run to take a 2-1 lead in the match with a 25-22 third-set victory.
Set Four
Kentucky fell behind by two in the earlygoing of the fourth, but a 5-0 run for the Wildcats aided by a pair of aces by Emma Grome and a pair of overpass kills by Asia Thigpen for kills number 12 and 13 of the night for the freshman gave the Wildcats a 10-8 lead and Tennessee called its first timeout trailing by two for the first time in the set. The two teams then engaged in a sideout war beginning at 13 all and running all the way to 19-18 with UT leading before the Wildcats grabbed a pair in a row thanks to Thigpen and DeLeye and the Lady Vols called their final timeout with UK back in front, 20-19. Eleanor Beavin then took over at the service line and Kentucky closed out a 25-21 fourth-set win for the Wildcats.
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