Kentucky Serves Past South Carolina in 3-0 Sweep of Gamecocks

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Thanks to 12 service aces including three from senior setter Emma Grome, the No. 14 Kentucky Volleyball team won its fourth match in a row on its five-match Southeastern Conference road trip Friday night as it swept South Carolina 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 25-22) inside the Carolina Volleyball Center.

Kentucky out-aced USC 12-1 on the night with six Kentucky players each recording an ace in the match and five of the six Wildcats tallying multiple aces. Emma Grome led the way with three aces to go alongside her 34 assists as Kentucky’s offense clicked to the tune of a .228 hitting percentage on the night.

It was the UK defense that carried the day for the Wildcats on Friday, however, as UK held South Carolina to a .128 hitting percentage for the match, and a .028 percentage in the second set alone thanks to the lethal back-row play of Molly Tuozzo who logged 16 digs in just three sets Friday night. Tuozzo teamed with Emma Grome and Asia Thigpen who both joined Tuozzo in double figure digs with Gome and Thigpen both recording 10. Grome’s 10 digs alongside her 34 assists gives the senior from Loveland, Ohio her sixth double-double of the season.

Thigpen continued to tear defenses apart as she carried a .200 hitting percentage on the night with nine kills on 20 swings, 10 digs, a career-high two aces and a solo stuff that pushed the Gamecocks into their first timeout of the third set as Kentucky pushed its way to a win.

Kentucky closes out its three-week, five-match road trip Sunday afternoon in the Classic City as the Wildcats will face the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens at 2 p.m. ET. The match will be broadcast live on SEC Network+ and the ESPN app with coverage starting at 2 p.m.

Set One

Thanks to four service errors, with all four of them coming from different UK players, the Wildcats jumped out to a 13-7 lead in the first set and South Carolina called its first timeout down half a dozen after Molly Tuozzo sent a serve into the floor on USC’s side. After back-to-back hitting errors by USC and a block on the right side by Brooke Bultema and Emma Grome, Kentucky’s lead was reinstated to six points at 18-12 after USC cut it to four and the Gamecocks called their final timeout. Brooke Bultema’s second kill of the match was the one that ended the set as Kentucky took the opener, 25-18 hitting .290 as a team while holding USC to .200 and logging five service aces to just one for the Gamecocks. Brooklyn DeLeye led the set with seven kills on 13 swings while also throwing in an ace. Emma Grome had 15 assists and Kentucky had 15 kills as a team.

Set Two

After South Carolina jumped out to a 3-1 lead that grew to 7-5, Kentucky used a mid-set service run by Emma Grome to run off six points in a row with an ace thrown in to give Kentucky a 15-11 lead at the media timeout as UK was on its longest run of the match at that point. The run extended out of the timeout as Kentucky won the next two points out of the timeout to make things 17-11 and South Carolina called its first timeout trailing by a set-high six points and Kentucky sitting on a 7-0 run. A Brooklyn DeLeye ace ended the set as Kentucky won the second frame, 25-16 and took a two sets to none lead in the match. The Wildcats hit .206 in the set but more importantly held the Gamecocks to a .030 percentage in the set as the USC match number dropped to .094 as a team through the opening two sets. Brooklyn DeLeye had nine kills through two sets and freshman Asia Thigpen continued her torrid play with six kills on 11 swings with seven digs after the second frame.

Set Three

Kentucky faced its largest deficit of the match in the third set, trailing by three points at 8-5 before a 4-0 run off of Eleanor Beavin’s serve flipped the set around into blue’s favor with Kentucky taking a 9-8 lead and that advantage ballooned to three at 13-10 following a thunderous kill from Asia Thigpen, the freshman’s seventh of the match to that point. USC took a 3-0 run into the media timeout and led 15-14, its latest lead of any set in the match to that point. Asia Thigpen had a monster stuff solo on the left pin to give UK its first two-point lead of the set since it was 13-11 and with UK leading 21-19, South Carolina called its first timeout to talk things over. A block by Brooke Bultema and Kennedy Washington sealed the deal for Kentucky, as it took the third set 25-22 and the match, three sets to none.

For the latest on UK Volleyball, follow the Wildcats on Twitter and Instagram at @KentuckyVB.