Erin Lamb’s 12 Kills Power No. 5 Kentucky to Sweep of Tennessee

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.– Freshman Erin Lamb hit .550 with 12 kills on 20 swings Wednesday night as the No. 5 Kentucky Volleyball team swept Tennessee 3-0 (25-17, 25-19, 25-19) inside Thompson-Boling Arena to improve to 9-0 in Southeastern Conference play.
 
Lamb stepped up big in a critical situation for Kentucky’s offense, hitting over .500 in her first SEC action as a Wildcat in the full-time rotation. The freshman from Stewartville, Minnesota ripped the ball all night, including to the tune of seven first-set kills to put the Wildcats up 25-17 in the first set and get UK off to a good start.
 
Kentucky is now 16-3 on the season and is 9-0 in the SEC, as the league’s only remaining undefeated team. Tennessee falls to 16-5 and is 8-3 in the league.
 
UK will take the next week off before facing South Carolina on November 4 and 5 in Columbia, S.C., at 7 p.m. ET both matches. The series will be shown on the SEC Network+, ESPN3 and the ESPN app.
 
Kentucky as a team hit .407, its best offensive mark in an SEC match all season and highest offensive output since opening weekend. Setter Emma Grome ran an efficient offense all night, with 45 assists on 53 of Kentucky’s kills and three different Wildcats hit in double-figures with Azhani Tealer (11) and Alli Stumler (15) both logging 10-plus kills.
 
Defensively, UK held Tennessee to .208 hitting, and Eleanor Beavin led the way with 14 digs as five Wildcats had five-plus digs in the match. Kentucky only allowed two Lady Vol players to achieve double-figure scoring.
 
Bella Bell was Kentucky’s leading blocker in the match with four.
 
Set One
Kentucky won six of the first eight points of the match to take a 6-2 lead behind a pair of Lady Vol hitting errors and a pair of Alli Stumler kills to force UT into an early timeout down by four points. UK’s run extended out of the timeout to a 5-0 run to take a 7-2 lead. Erin Lamb, taking the place of Madi Skinner in Wednesday night’s rotation got into the offensive action early with two early kills to extend the Kentucky lead to 13-6 as the seven-point lead was Kentucky’s largest of the match to that point. Alli Stumler’s seventh kill of the match put Kentucky up 17-6 in the opening frame to put the cap on a 3-0 UK run and Tennessee called its final timeout. Leading by 11, Kentucky’s largest lead of the set came at 23-12 before Tennessee ran off four in a row to close the gap to 23-15. An Erin Lamb kill from the left side closed the set and Kentucky took the opener, 25-17.
 
Set Two
UK saw the wrong side of the scoreboard for the first time all match in the opening part of the first set at 2-1, but quickly went on a 4-0 run to turn things around as UK took a 6-4 lead. Back-to-back kills from the left side by freshman Erin Lamb sent her to eight for the match and sent Kentucky into a 10-6 lead as the Lady Vols called their first timeout down four. Tennessee responded by going on a 7-1 run separated by two 3-0 stanzas and the Wildcats called their first timeout of the match down 11-10 in the second set. The run was extended out of the timeout on serve receive issues for UK as the Lady Vols ran their lead to 14-11. Kentucky then climbed on the arm of Erin Lamb and rode it for an entire trip to square the set at 18-18. UK garnered its first lead at 19-18 and at 21-19, Bella Bell and Reagan Rutherford blocked the Lady Vols and UT called its final timeout of the set. UK closed the set on a 6-0 run and Bella Bell’s side kill ended the frame with Kentucky taking a 2-0 lead on Rocky Top, 25-19.
 
Set Three
It was a tight early stanza of the third set before Kentucky began to pull away and reached a four-point lead at 18-14, prompting Tennessee to call its final timeout of the set. UT called its first timeout to stop a 2-0 UK run early in the third at 6-5 to burn both before the teams got to 20 on the frame. The Wildcats closed the match on a 3-0 run and ended the match 25-19.
 
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