Brooklyn DeLeye’s .600 Night Overpowers Oklahoma, 3-1
NORMAN, Okla. – Senior Brooklyn DeLeye broke the Kentucky Volleyball ace record with her 120th-career ace, one of three on the night for DeLeye, as No. 4 Kentucky outlasted Oklahoma 3-1 (25-21, 25-22, 25-27, 25-16) in four sets in a packed McCasland Fieldhouse painted in blue.
DeLeye’s service ace to break the record came in the first set to hand Kentucky a 23-21 lead as part of the key service run for UK that ended the first set. DeLeye passed Eleanor Beavin, who had the record for three seasons and ended on 119 for her career.
Additionally, in the second set, Kassie O’Brien passed 2,000 career assists for her career as she assisted on Brooklyn DeLeye’s seventh kill of the match to give O’Brien 2,000 assists for her career.
The Wildcats hit .313 for the match and held Oklahoma under .100 for two of the four sets Friday night and .231 for the match. DeLeye led all scorers with 19 kills and only one error on 30 swings to hit .600 for the evening and threw in nine digs and four blocks in one of the most complete matches of the year for DeLeye. Molly Tuozzo also tied her career high with 22 digs in the match for Kentucky as she notched another 20+ dig performance, her third of the season to this point.
Kentucky is now 14-3 on the season and retains a lock on first place in the Southeastern Conference with a 6-1 league record as SEC play hits the halfway mark. UK will next play at Arkansas on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET with the match shown live on SEC Network+ and the ESPN app.
Set One
Kentucky took the opening set 25-21 thanks to a 3-0 to close the set and the final two points coming off of Brooklyn DeLeye service aces. Kentucky started things off by leading 3-1 before Oklahoma went on a 3-0 run to take a 4-3 lead and OU held that lead for the middle stages of the set, including at the media timeout, 15-14. The Wildcats then used a 4-0 run powered by Kassie O’Brien’s serving and the terminal blocking of Lizzie Carr to take a 20-19 lead and push the Sooners into a timeout, their first of the set. UK then was punched back to make things 21-21 and called its first timeout. Brooklyn DeLeye picked up her third kill of the match on four swings to make things 22-21 and her three points at the service line closed the book on the first set. Morgan Gaerte’s four kills on 10 kills led the way as she hit .400 and UK hit .333 as a team with four players all recording kills for the Wildcats. OU hit .167 for the set and Kassie O’Brien had eight assists.
Set Two
Kentucky won set two, 25-22 with 19 kills and only two errors in the set as O’Brien led the UK offense to .486 for the frame and Brooklyn DeLeye had eight kills on 10 swings to hit .800 in the set. Kentucky was down three early on, trailing after two Sooner blocks 11-8, which was the largest lead of any set for OU on the night thus far. Kentucky slowly began to chip away and squared the set at 11 all after a block by Brooklyn DeLeye on the left pin made things 12-11 in the successive point and pushed Oklahoma into its first timeout of the set. The media timeout came four points later as Asia Thigpen got in on the defensive action with her second block of the night to make things 15-12 in favor of UK. Kentucky won its second challenge of the night to make things 18-14, UK’s largest lead of any set to that point and the Wildcats sided out with conviction to reach set point at 24-20. Kentucky won the set 25-22 on the third set point on Asia Thigpen’s seventh kill of the night. DeLeye’s 11 kills led the night for UK through the opening two sets and Kassie O’Brien had 24 assists to push her over the 2,000 mark for her career.
Set Three
Oklahoma fought off a set point for Kentucky in the third at 25-24, and won the last three points of the set on three-straight UK hitting errors that handed Oklahoma a 27-25 third-set victory to send the match to a fourth set. The Wildcats were behind from the get-go in the frame with the Sooners taking a 10-6 lead and forcing UK into an early timeout. After UK fought back to make things 11-11, it was again OU that took control of the set with the Wildcats falling behind 22-19 and 23-19 after the sixth attacking error of the set for Kentucky. Molly Tuozzo then stepped to the service line and put together a 5-0 run, tying the longest of the match for Kentucky to hand UK a 25-24 lead and give UK a match point. After an OU sideout, UK then proceeded to hit into two hitting errors to close the set and extend the match to a fourth set. UK hit .128 in the third, its lowest-percentage output of the match to that point after two-straight in the .300’s to start the night.
Set Four
Kentucky hit .393 and dominated set four as the Wildcats smoked the Sooners 25-16 and had 13 kills to only two errors on the set. The Wildcats jumped out to a 10-6 early lead and that lead ballooned to 18-11 as the seven-point edge was the largest of the afternoon for either team. Match point was a kill by Asia Thigpen, her 13th of the match.
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