DeLeye’s 14 Kills and Tuozzo’s 19 Digs Advance Kentucky in NCAAT
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Brooklyn DeLeye’s 14 kills and Molly Tuozzo’s 19 digs were enough to send Kentucky past Wofford in a 3-0 (25-11, 25-19, 25-12) sweep of the Terriers in the first round of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament.
Kentucky will now play (8) UCLA on Friday night at 7 p.m. ET in Historic Memorial Coliseum in the second round. The match will be broadcasted on ESPN+ with Dick Gabriel and Cam Scheitzach on the call from Lexington. Tickets are available at UKathletics.com/tickets and parking around HMC is free of charge for the event.
UK hit .298 for the match, including a .438 hitting percentage in the third set, its highest-percentage output of the evening. The Wildcats had 66 digs in the match, which is now a school record for the most amount of digs in a three-set match in school history, both regular and postseason. Molly Tuozzo led the way with 19 digs and three other players had 10+ digs in the match with Molly Berezowitz having 13, Kassie O’Brien having 12 and Brooklyn DeLeye logging 11 on the night.
Wofford, who won the automatic bid out of the Southern Conference this season, finishes its year with a 17-14 overall record and finished its conference season with a 10-6 mark and SoCon Tournament Champions. This was Wofford’s second trip to the NCAA Tournament’s Lexington Sub-Regional as the Terriers played in Rupp Arena back in 2023 when they faced the Wildcats in the first round.
Set 1
Kentucky took a one set to none lead with an explosive 25-11 opening frame victory as the Wildcats held the Terriers to a -.048 hitting percentage with six kills to eight errors. Kentucky shot out of a cannon in the first few points to take an early multi-point lead at 13-6 as the Terriers called their first timeout down a set-high seven points. Kentucky began to slowly build its lead to a 10-point margin at 20-10 thanks to Eva Hudson’s five early kills to push UK into a double-digit advantage. Kentucky then closed the set on a 5-0 run as Hudson slammed one to the floor off an extended rally kept alive by Molly Berezowitz on set point to hand UK the 25-11 opening-set win. Kentucky hit .231 for the frame with 14 kills to five errors and UK recorded 26 digs with nine of them by SEC Tournament MVP, Molly Tuozzo to lead all UK players in the set. Brooklyn DeLeye had three kills in the opening set, going errorless on eight swings and a .375 hitting percentage. Lizzie Carr and Asia Thigpen combined for UK’s solo block in the set defensively.
Set 2
Kentucky took a 2-0 lead in the match thanks to a 25-19 second-set win. UK closed the set on a 5-0 run after it was the Terriers that controlled the lead for a majority of the second set, with its largest lead being two points at 12-10 midway through the stanza. The Wildcats then clawed back to take a 17-16 lead on an overpass kill and ran away with the second set from there. UK hit .256 in the set and held the Terriers to .191 for the set with UK having 15 kills to four errors in the set and 15 assists on the set with all 15 resulting in kills. Brooklyn DeLeye stayed errorless through the match with nine kills and no errors hitting .409 with eight digs for the match to that point.
Set 3
The third set was a dominant frame from the Wildcats, who closed out the Terriers with a 25-12 third-set win to complete the sweep. UK shot out of the starting gates to a 10-4 lead and Wofford called for an early timeout to try and stop a 5-0 Molly Tuozzo service run. The run grew to a set-high 7-0 spot and then Molly Berezowitz’s third ace of the night made things 18-9 and Wofford called its final timeout of the night. Kentucky, like it did in the second set, closed the third set on a 5-0 run and DeLeye’s 14th kill of the night ended the match.
For the latest on UK Volleyball, follow the Wildcats on Twitter and Instagram at @KentuckyVB.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Kentucky Head Coach Craig Skinner
Opening statement…
“I saw Lynzee outside from Wofford, I just, I’ve always had a lot of respect for her and her program. Congratulations on a great year, and, you know, they play a great brand of volleyball and are very difficult to play against. But with our offensive progression through that day, our defense was really good for the whole time. I know Tuozzo was feeling it out there. I think she had about 15 digs in the first set. Brooklyn, you know, really started to heat up and get after it. And that was important because I thought we got a little conservative with our arm swings early. Kassie, a little conservative, you know, in her set location, and we did a good job adjusting and getting the job done.”
On the attendance of the game and the fan base…
“You know, it means a lot, I just want to continue to challenge our fans to keep coming and get behind this team. It’s a special group. And we’re not promised tomorrow. You know, obviously tomorrow, tomorrow, but after tomorrow, you never know. And so, we need them and it’s obvious when they’re behind us. It’s been a long time coming and we are just proud of the recognition our players are getting when they’re walking down the streets of Lexington and in and out of restaurants and shops. It amazing. How well they know what we’re doing and, it’s part of why you want to be at a place like the University of Kentucky. There’s no pro sports and people love Wildcats.”
On continuing to play at home as UK wins …
“Oh, it’s significant. I mean, it’s really, really hard. First of all, you get a top 16 seed and to get a number one seed overall is even tougher. I think you saw it today. There’s a lot of parody in our game. I mean, a ton of parody. There’s a lot of really good teams, and every night out, you have to be ready, you have to be ready for an enormous amount of challenges, and for us to be able to do that on our home floor is significant, and definitely we aren’t going to take that for granted.”
#12 Molly Tuozzo, L
On setting program record in digs…
“I think it all comes down to preparation. I think we watched the hitters a lot beforehand, so we knew kind of their hard shots and what they like to do. So I think it just comes out of that.”
On being on the receiving end of the second set…
“We can’t really underestimate any team; they are in the tournament for a reason, so I think we have to respect them, and they have nothing to lose. They want to beat us. We know that we have a huge target on our shoulder every single game. I think they came out firing, and we had to respond. I think we did a good job.”
On what to expect for UCLA…
“I mean, watching them, they’re an amazing team. I think they have a lot of grit within their team, so it’s going to be a good match regardless. I think we just have to come out guns a blazing and ready for a big fight tomorrow.”
#17 Brooklyn DeLeye, OH
On the defense…
“I think it was just props to Wofford because they had some strong hitters, and I think we had to respond. I think everybody, from a defensive standpoint, had to step up. I think just like we didn’t know what was coming at us. The scouting report was good, but you can’t really prepare what a game’s actually going to be like. I think they were coming at us with full forces, and I think we just had to fight back even harder.”
On what is different with this team than past years…
“I think just like every team that we’ve been on has always had fire, but it just seems different this year. Every day in the gym, everyone’s coming to work hard and get better. I think this team, especially, like our depth, is so strong, and I think that just helps in practice, we’re pushing one another like no spot is guaranteed. I think that just truly helped us. I mean, to get this number one seed, and I think everybody had that main goal in mind since the first day we stepped foot in the gym. I think that’s just carried out every day throughout the whole season.”
On being the favorites in the tournament…
“I think just going into the tournament, everybody has a clean slate. What happened before doesn’t really exist anymore. Like Craig was talking about, you’re just playing to advance to tomorrow, and tomorrow’s not guaranteed, so I think you just have to play to the best of your ability every single match. If you don’t, some team’s going to step on the foot and take it from you. I think Wofford just came in strong, and I don’t think we were necessarily ready or that, but I think we just did a really good job of coming back at them. Tomorrow is going to be a tough match as well, all across the board. It’s anyone’s game.”
Wofford Head Coach Lynzee Ross
On their mindset going into a tough matchup…
“Our mindset was to come out and leave it out there. And I feel like we competed in some really good points. You know, that they got some separation and that was tough, but I’m really proud of the way that these, you know, women competed in the season that we had.”
On the atmosphere in Kentucky…
“And I think the atmosphere is outstanding. The amount of fans, my assistant coach said to me, there’s more fans here than people that go to our entire school. So I don’t know what the attendance was… 3,572 and we’re a school of 1,700. So we were playing in front of two, Wofford colleges… but they’re great fans.”
On what they want to see going into next season…
“We want to fight. You know, and I think that’s gonna be the same sentiment [as last year.] Like, I think we want to schedule tough, we want to be ready for a fight… we want to get that 1st set win in an NCAA tournament.”
#21 Chloe Smith, OH
On playing back in home state …
“It was amazing just to be able to have some family and friends that I don’t get to see very much anymore come watch me play. And I was super cool to just have that support.”
#33 Laney Klika, L
On strategy against Kentucky …
“We talk a lot about playing relentless defense and going for every single ball, we knew that tonight was going to be a tough task, but you never really know unless you go for it.”
#18 Annemarie Rakoski, MB
On staying resilient and throughout the match
“We talked a lot before the game about playing how we play and not letting their offense or defense change the way that we like to play.”
