No. 3 Kentucky Walks Off No. 13 Penn State at Wrigley Field in Four Sets
WRIGLEYVILLE, Ill. – Behind 21 kills from Brooklyn DeLeye and a season-high 48 assists from Kassie O’Brien, the No. 3 Kentucky Wildcats beat No. 13 Penn State 3-1 (25-23, 25-21, 23-25, 25-15) in four sets Sunday night at Wrigley Field in front of the largest crowd to ever watch a Kentucky Volleyball match.
In a historic night in Wrigleyville, the Wildcats hit .281 on the night and held Penn State to .173 hitting as the nearly 100-point differential was one of the keys in the match as Kentucky forced the Nittany Lions into 27 hitting errors.
The Wildcats defense anchored by 19 digs from Molly Tuozzo and 12 blocks won the day for Kentucky. Both Lizzie Carr and Morgan Gaerte had six blocks in Sunday night’s match to co-lead the team as the Wildcats took control of things in the blocking phase with a 12-8 advantage at the net.
Sunday night’s showcase was part of the 2026 Allstate Big Ten/SEC Volleyball Challenge, hosted by the Big Ten Conference at Wrigley Field. The week-long event culminated Sunday night with UK playing Penn State and Nebraska facing Missouri to cap the week. Kentucky earned two points for the SEC with its matches this weekend as the Wildcats beat UCLA on Wednesday and Penn State on Sunday.
DeLeye led the Wildcats with 21 kills on 47 swings for the night and was one of three players in double-figures scoring for Kentucky with Morgan Gaerte logging 15 kills on 32 swings and then Asia Thigpen hammered in 12 kills for UK who had 60 kills on the night, a new season high for the team.
Chicagoland native, Georgia Watson, entered the match with Kentucky leading 22-12 in the fourth set and closed out the match with the final two kills for Kentucky, including on match point as her second kill on two swings handed the Wildcats the victory. UK hit a blistering .394 in the fourth set after the Nittany Lions rallied from 19-14 down in the third set to extend the match to a fourth.
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