No. 10 Kentucky Sweeps SMU in Dallas on Friday Night
DALLAS – No. 10 Kentucky passed its first true road test with flying colors Friday night as it swept Southern Methodist, 3-0 (25-23, 26-24, 25-21) to win its third-straight match. Brooklyn DeLeye had a team-high 15 kills on the night as Kentucky hit .277 as a team in a hostile environment and its floor defense held SMU to a .250 hitting percentage.
Emma Grome had 38 assists on the night with four of her own kills on four attacks and stuffed the stat sheet with five digs and a pair of blocks. On the defensive end for the Wildcats, it was Molly Tuozzo yet again getting into double-digit digs with 11 on the night as she helped stymie the Mustang with strong floor defense. At the net, UK outblocked SMU 8-6 and seven of those eight blocks involved RS-freshman middle blocker Jordyn Dailey. The North Carolinian had a solo stuff and half a dozen block assists in the match as she also talked four kills to go alongside her defense.
Kentucky did not trail at any point in any of the three sets until midway through the third set, and after SMU steadied itself offensively, it was the serving of Erin Lamb and terminations of Brooklyn DeLeye that steered Kentucky back into the lead where UK won six of the last seven points in the third set to close out a sweep of SMU in Dallas.
With the win, Kentucky improves to 6-2 on the season as SMU falls to 5-3. Previously, SMU had defeated No. 2 Nebraska and No. 19 Baylor on its home floor this season as UK becomes the first team to knock off the Mustangs on their home floor this season.
Kentucky will close out the 2024 Doubletree Invitational on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. ET from Moody Coliseum against No. 7 Purdue in the winner’s bracket match. The match will not be broadcasted, but will be available to follow through live stats and the Kentucky Volleyball account on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Set One
It was a close opening points as Eleanor Beavin kicked off the match with a service ace, but an 8-0 run for the Wildcats aided by an Erin Lamb service run that had the SMU defense constantly under pressure put the first bit of separation between the sides and SMU called its first timeout with UK leading 11-7. The run grew to two more points at 13-7 following a Megan Wilson overpass termination and a Brooklyn DeLeye block and Kentucky had almost doubled up the Mustangs at that point on the serving of Lamb. After back-to-back hitting errors from the Wildcats, SMU pulled to within a pair at 20-18 and Kentucky called its first timeout of the set with its lead trimmed to two. Kentucky picked up set point at 24-21 and after two hitting errors that crept the Mustangs to 24-23 with a UK timeout squeezed in-between, Kentucky clinched the set with a Brooklyn DeLeye 10-meter kill to win, 25-23. Kentucky hit .128 in the first set with DeLeye’s five kills leading the way. UK’s defense held SMU to .094 offensively as the Mustangs only had nine kills with six errors on 32 attacks.
Set Two
Kentucky came out of the gates strong in the second set, winning the first four points punctuated by a Brooke Bultema block and after it was 4-0, SMU called an early timeout to try and stop the Kentucky momentum. SMU cut the Kentucky lead, which was as much as six, to three at 16-13 but a service ace from Brookyln DeLeye and a swing on an extended rally from Megan Wilson that terminated a second-straight point for the Wildcats reinstated their lead and with UK up 18-13, Southern Methodist called its final timeout trailing by five in the set. Kentucky ballooned its lead thanks to a Brooke Bultema kill to make things 22-17 as Kentucky closed to within three points of the set. After that happened, SMU used a double contact and two hitting errors to climb back into the frame at 22-20 and UK burned its first timeout. After Kentucky picked up set point at 24-22, SMU won back-to-back points and squared the set at 24 all as UK called its final timeout to regroup for the stretch run. UK got a kill from Brooklyn DeLeye out of the right side and an SMU error on back-to-back point after the timeout and took the set 26-24 to lead the match two sets to none.
Set Three
After Kentucky raced out to a 4-1 lead in the third set, SMU fired back and took its first lead of any kind in any set after a UK attack error that gave the Mustangs an 8-7 lead early in the frame. SMU held the lead through the third as the Mustangs had the 15-12 advantage at the media timeout and steadied the ship as things progressed in the middle stages of the third. Kentucky found its groove offensively midway through the set as it went to Megan Wilson and her 10th kill of the night gave Kentucky its first lead since it was 6-5 when she crushed a ball on the right side to make things 20-19 and SMU requested its first timeout of the set. The run extended to a 5-0 run out of the timeout as Erin Lamb planted a service ace to the middle back of the Mustangs and then Brooklyn DeLeye’s team-leading 13th kill of the match off an extended rally made things 22-19 in favor of UK and SMU burned its final timeout trailing by three in the set for the first time since it was 6-3. Kentucky went ion an 8-2 run to close the match and won the third set, 25-21.
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