No. 8 SMU Outlasts No. 3 Kentucky, 3-1 in Paradise Invitational
NASSAU, The Bahamas. – No. 3 Kentucky was upended by No. 8 SMU on Saturday afternoon, falling 3-1 (27-25, 21-25, 25-21, 25-22) at the BahaMar Convention Center and Resort in Nassau in the opening round of the inaugural Paradise Invitational.
The loss is the second of the season for Kentucky, who is now 6-2 on the year. No. 8 SMU improves to 6-1 in 2026 with Saturday’s result. Kentucky will play in the consolation match of the tournament Sunday at 1 p.m. ET against Houston live on ESPN2. The championship match will be at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN and feature SMU against Purdue.
Kentucky had chances in the opening set on three set points, but saw them evaporate thanks to the SMU attack and strong floor defense as the Mustangs took the set, 27-25 in extra points. Kentucky rallied back to win the second set 25-21, but again saw a late lead slip away in the third set to go down two sets to one at 25-21. SMU controlled the fourth set from start to finish until the last few points when Kentucky saved match points at 24-21 all the way through and finally made SMU close things out at 27-25.
Set One
SMU saw Kentucky lead for a majority of the opening set, but fought off all three of the Wildcats set points at 24-22, 24-23 and 25-24 to finish the set on a 3-0 run and cap off a 27-25 opening-set win to take the lead in the match. SMU only hit .179 for the set and Kentucky was noticeably better, hitting .226 but the Wildcats had five service errors in the set and six attack errors that restricted the offense or the Wildcats limiting them to only 12 kills. SMU took its first lead at 16-15 before the Wildcats rallied out of a timeout to take a 23-22 lead late in the set before SMU closed the set on the run to close out the set. Lizzie Carr, Kennedy Washington, Brookyln DeLeye and Morgan Gaerte all had three kills in the set for Kentucky and Kassie O’Brien had 11 assists with Molly Tuozzo recording one in an out-of-system situation. Brooklyn DeLeye had four digs to lead all Wildcats and Lizzie Carr’s four stuff blocks was the best of the match in either side for the opening set.
Set Two
Asia Thigpen’s service run midway through the second set ultimately ended up being the difference in the second set as the junior went on a 5-0 run behind the line and Morgan Gaerte had a pair of stuffs within the run to make Kentucky’s lead 19-15. SMU had the early edge in the set with the Mustangs winning seven of the first 11 points to lead 7-4 before Brooklyn DeLeye began the rally back for UK with some left-side kills in out-of-system situations to climbs UK back into a tie at 8-8. Kentucky’s lead grew to a set-high five points when things were 23-18 in favor of UK and SMU called for its second timeout with Kentucky two points from the set. The Wildcats arrived at set point leading 24-20 and closed things out two points later on DeLeye’s seventh kill of the match to win set two, 25-21 and tie the match up at one set all. DeLeye was joined by Gaerte and Thigpen who both also had seven kills through the opening two sets and Kassie O’Brien had 22 assists to lead UK’s offense. Defensively, it was Gaerte and Lizzie Carr who had seven blocks each in the opening pair of sets with Kennedy Washington only one less at six with Carr also throwing in three kills to her six blocks. Molly Tuozzo’s seven digs was pacing the UK floor defense to that point in the match.
Set Three
SMU took a two sets to one lead in the third set with a 25-21 third-set win. The Wildcats had control for much of the set, very similarly to the first set, but it was the Mustangs that closed on a huge run to end things and hand UK a 25-21 defeat in the third. Kentucky forced SMU into timeouts with UK leading 8-5 early in the frame and then again at 17-14, but it was a 12-3 run that closed out the set for the Mustangs that ended the set. UK hit just .162 in the frame with SMU closing out the set hitting .429 with no blocked attacks and only two errors to Kentucky’s eight, a set high for 2026 of attack errors in a set.
Set Four
SMU got to set point at 24-21 and the Wildcats used a kill by Morgan Gaerte and two Kennedy Washington stuff blocks to make things 24-24 before the Mustangs picked up set point at 26-25 and closed things out on a transition kill.
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