O’Brien’s 50 Assists Powers No. 3 Kentucky Past Alabama in Sweep
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Freshman setter Kassie O’Brien tallied a freshman three-set match school record 50 assists Sunday afternoon as the No. 3 Kentucky Volleyball team beat Alabama 3-0 (25-18, 25-22, 25-17) in a sweep at Foster Auditorium.
O’Brien had 50 assists on 53 of Kentucky’s kills in the match as she paced the Kentucky offense to a .381 hitting clip with four different attackers having five or more kills in the match led by Brooklyn DeLeye’s 16 terminations and Eva Hudson logging 14 for herself in Sunday’s win over the Crimson Tide. The win for Kentucky completes a 2-0 road trip and six of seven sets played won for the Wildcats, who in totality have now won 13 matches in a row on the season.
Kentucky’s defense kept Alabama off kilter all day with the Tide only hitting .189 for the match and siding out only 54 percent of the afternoon with UK hitting a robust .381 Sunday and siding out over 60 percent of the match, including a strong 73 percent in the opening set.
With Sunday’s sweep over the Tide, Kentucky is now 16-2 on the season and 8-0 in Southeastern Conference play, holding steady with Texas, who is also undefeated through league play. Alabama with Sunday’s result is now 10-10 on the year and sits 2-8 in SEC play.
Kentucky makes its return to Historic Memorial Coliseum on Friday night as it plays host to Vanderbilt at 7 p.m. ET inside HMC. The Wildcats will welcome back 2020 NCAA National Champions Anders Nelson who is the head coach of the Commodores and Azhani Tealer, an assistant coach for VU. This is the Dores first season playing volleyball since the reinstatement of the program. The match will be broadcast on SEC Network+ and the ESPN app.
Tickets for Friday’s match are available at UKathletics.com/tickets with both reserved seating and general admission seating available.
Set 1
Kentucky took a 1-0 lead in the match with a 25-18 opening set victory as the Wildcats hit .438 for the set and had 16 kills opposed to only two hitting errors in the frame. Kentucky led early, jumping out to an 8-3 lead as Alabama used its first timeout after back-to-back kills from Brooklyn DeLeye and Eva Hudson pushed the Kentucky lead to five. Bama cut into the lead after Kentucky grew its lead to 13-7 as the Tide pulled to within two at 16-14 before an out-of-system kill by DeLeye from the back row and a Kennedy Washington slide run on an extended rally gave Kentucky a four-point edge at 18-14. Alabama used its final timeout at 21-16 with Kentucky ahead by five and a 4-0 run had Kentucky ahead 23-16, its largest lead of the set after an Alabama hitting error and stuff block by Lizzie Carr and Asia Thigpen. DeLeye’s fifth kill of the set ended things with UK taking the opener, 25-18. UK git .438 and held Alabama to .125 for the frame as UA had 12 kills and seven hitting errors. Kassie O’Brien had 16 assists on all 16 of UK’s kills for the set and both Molly Tuozzo and Molly Berezowitz had five digs each to lead the Wildcats.
Set 2
Alabama took an early lead in the second set, leading by a match-high three points at one point, 8-5. The lead was 10-7 in favor of the Tide when Kentucky made a run pushed by great passing from the UK back row and a sharp cross-court swing by Eva Hudson that made things 11-11 as UK tied up the Tide for the first time since it was 4-4. Kentucky went on a 4-0 run from there to push the match into a media timeout at 15-11 in favor of the Wildcats. Kentucky won a challenge, its first of the match, to keep its lead at three with a touch off the block at 18-15 and then Alabama called for its first timeout with Kentucky ahead 19-14 after a long rally that fell in favor of the Wildcats. Kentucky arrived at set point with a five-point cushion at 24-19 when Alabama then won the next three point as UK was forced into its first timeout of the match at 24-22. Out of the timeout, Kentucky immediately sided out with a kill from the left pin as Brooklyn DeLeye hammered a ball in-system to give Kentucky a two sets to none lead in the match, 25-22 in the second set. UK hit .341 for the set with 19 kills and five errors. Bama hit .300 for the frame, up over .150 from the first set, but didn’t capitalize.
Set 3
Kentucky took set three and ran with it in the early parts of the set as UK won nine of the opening 10 points of the frame to lead 9-1 and force Alabama into an early timeout. The lead was eight for a majority of the time, but the Tide mounted a comeback that saw UA pull to within three points at 16-13 and Kentucky had to call its first timeout of the set. UK came out on fire from the timeout, getting a kill from Brooklyn DeLeye to make things 17-13 and Kentucky closed out the set winning eight of the last 10 points of the match to win 25-17 and end the match in a 3-0 sweep of the Tide. UK hit .375 in the final set, holding Alabama to .167.
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