O’Brien, DeLeye and Gaerte Win SEC Player of the Week Honors

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Southeastern Conference announced its weekly volleyball awards Monday afternoon with Kentucky’s Kassie O’Brien named the SEC Player of the Week and Setter of the Week, Brooklyn DeLeye named SEC Offensive Player of the Week and Morgan Gaerte collecting SEC Defensive Player of the Week honors.

Kassie O’Brien ran the Kentucky offense to the tune of .344 hitting on the weekend with a mammoth 13.00 assists per set as the No. 4 Wildcats beat Oklahoma and Arkansas. O’Brien recorded 50 assists in a four-set win over Oklahoma on Friday before turning around and throwing 41 assists on the stat sheet Sunday as UK hit .381 in a sweep over Arkansas. The sophomore from Katy, Texas helped UK hit .300+ in both matches on the weekend, the first time this year UK has hit .300 in back-to-back matches both in and out of conference matches. With O’Brien’s 17th assist Friday night vs. Oklahoma, she notched her 2,000th-career assist.

Senior outside hitter Brooklyn DeLeye hit a monster .593 over the weekend with 19 kills against Oklahoma and 15 kills against Arkansas, all on only two hitting errors in her 54 swings. DeLeye also became the all-time aces leader at Kentucky when the first of her six on the weekend dropped to the floor Friday at Oklahoma for career ace number 120, moving solo first all-time in the UK record books. DeLeye averaged 4.86 kills per set and 2.71 digs, logging a double-double vs. Arkansas and was one shy against Oklahoma on Friday of back-to-back double-doubles. DeLeye’s match vs. Oklahoma hitting .600 was a new SEC career-high, besting her .464 mark set in her sophomore season of 2024. Her back-to-back three-ace matches are a first in her career, and her three aces tie her single-season high for this year. DeLeye has nine-straight 10-plus kill matches in a row.

Morgan Gaerte averaged two blocks per set this weekend as Kentucky went 2-0 with wins on the road at Oklahoma and Arkansas. Gaerte logged nine blocks against the Sooners on Friday night, a new career-high number as she helped UK hold the Sooners under .200 in two of the four sets. Gaerte then stuffed five balls Sunday against Arkansas, helping UK hold the Razorbacks to just .188 offensively for the match. Gaerte also sprinkled in strong offense with 3.86 kills per set and her sixth and seventh-straight 10-plus kill matches on the season. Gaerte’s eight digs vs. Arkansas on Sunday tied her SEC career high.

SEC Players of the Week – Oct. 19

Overall Player of the Week – Kassie O’Brien, Kentucky

The Wildcats will next play at No. 9 Tennessee on Wednesday in Knoxville with the match live on SEC Network at 7 p.m. ET.

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