Top-Seeded Pittsburgh Sweeps Kentucky in NCAA Regional Final
PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The overall No. 1 seeded Pittsburgh Panthers swept third-seeded Kentucky 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-17) on Saturday afternoon to advance to the NCAA Volleyball Championship Final Four next weekend in Louisville.
With the result Saturday, Kentucky’s season comes to a close with a tremendous 23-8 overall record and once again a title to its name with an eighth-straight Southeastern Conference championship after a 14-2 league season that saw UK become the team from the SEC advance the deepest into the NCAA Tournament.
Saturday night also marks the end of the careers of six Kentucky seniors, including Emma Grome, Eleanor Beavin and Erin Lamb who were with the Wildcats all four years of their collegiate careers. The trio helped Kentucky to four-straight SEC championships in their time in Lexington, 91 wins, and three NCAA Regional appearances with Saturday marking UK’s return to the NCAA Regional Final for the first time since the 2020 NCAA National Championship. Megan Wilson, Lane Jenkins and Delaney Hogan, who transferred to Lexington, also earned rings this season with Wilson pushing Kentucky to the 2023 and 2024 SEC title during her two-year stint in Lexington and Jenkins earning titles in 2022, 2023 and 2024 after coming in from Loyola-Chicago.
Pitt hit .333 for the afternoon, while holding Kentucky to .167 on the match. UK had more kills than the Panthers with 42 to Pitt’s 37, but 23 errors ultimately did the Wildcats in.
Set One
Pitt led by a pair at 15-13 of the first media timeout as the Panthers were clicking offensively early in the match with Kentucky conceding five service errors to Pitt at the first stoppage of the match. Brooklyn DeLeye placed four early kills on the board for the Wildcats and it was Eleanor Beavin pacing the UK floor defense with four early digs. Rachel Fairbanks had a block on an Erin Lamb attack that ballooned the Pitt lead to 16-13, its first three-point lead of the set and after a kill on the next point to make it 17-13, Kentucky took its first timeout down by four. The run extended to 5-0 and Pitt took a commanding 19-13 lead. A service ace by Megan Wilson followed by a kill out of the middle from Megan Wilson pushed Kentucky to within four at 21-17 and Pitt called its first timeout with the lead trimmed. The Wildcats trimmed the lead even further to two at 22-20 but a reversed challenge pushed the lead back to three for the Panthers, and they took the opening set, 25-22.
Set Two
Kentucky won the first five points of the second set and Pitt took an early timeout down 5-0 as the Wildcats cruised out to the early lead. What was a 6-1 lead turned into a 6-6 tie thanks to a 5-0 Pitt run, as the early UK lead was erased on three consecutive hitting errors by Kentucky. With things played within a three-point window for then next stanza of the set, it was a critical solo stuff on the right side that reinstated a momentum swing for Kentucky as Brooke Bultema stuffed Babcock and Kentucky took a 17-13 lead to give UK the four-point lead. An Erin Lamb swing for 19-15 and a net error by the Panthers made things 20-15 in favor of Kentucky and Pitt burned its final timeout. Pitt went on a 6-0 run to tie the set at 22-22 after UK had a 22-16 advantage and the Wildcats called their final timeout. Pitt then closed the set with a service ace to cap off an 8-1 run to finish the set and they took a 25-23, 2-0 lead in the match over Kentucky.
Set Three
Pitt took an early lead in the third and never looked back, hitting .500 in the set to a 25-17 final-set win over Kentucky to close out the match.
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