Auburn Rallies From 0-2 Down to Beat No. 12 Kentucky, 3-2
AUBURN, Ala. – The Kentucky Volleyball team had its 22-match win streak over Auburn snapped Friday night in the 2024 Southeastern Conference season opener, as Auburn rallied from an 0-2 deficit to beat No. 12 Kentucky 3-2 (21-25, 18-25, 25-16, 25-20, 18-16) in Neville Arena.
Friday night marked Kentucky’s second loss this season after leading a match 2-0, after having never blown a 2-0 lead in any match since 2011 prior to it happening earlier this season. The Wildcats have now lost a season-high four-straight matches and sit 6-6 on the season.
Kentucky trailed most of the fifth set, but got its first lead at 11-10 and even earned a match point at 16-15, but Auburn closed the match on a 3-0 run with two stuff blocks to close things out to clinch the SEC opening win over UK. Friday night marked Auburn’s first win over UK since 2010
In the fourth set, Emma Grome crossed the 40-assists threshold for the 57th time in her career. That sets a new Kentucky Volleyball record for the most matches in a career with 40+ assists, as she passes Madison Lilley, a current assistant coach with the Wildcats, who played at UK from 2017-2020 in Lexington.
Kentucky’s two-match road trip to open up Southeastern Conference play continues with a top-15 matchup Sunday afternoon on ESPN against the No. 15 Florida Gators in Gainesville at Exacatech Arena. The 1 p.m. ET match will be called by Courtney Lyle and Holly McPeak from The Swamp in a showdown of the two teams who have won the last nine SEC championships.
Set One
Kentucky started the set well, executing at a three-point lead for a majority of the early stanza, but Auburn used a 3-0 run to take its first lead of the match at 14-13 and then used an extended-rally kill to take the 15-13 lead at the match’s first media timeout. The two-point cushion was Auburn’s largest lead before the Wildcats went on a 4-1 run to take a 23-21 lead and AU elected to call its first timeout. Out of the timeout, Brooklyn DeLeye tallied her sixth kill of the set to make it 24-21 and Auburn called its second-straight timeout after the kill before the final point was a DeLeye ace, UK’s fifth on the set, to end the opener, 25-21. Kentucky hit .303 for the set with DeLeye leading the way on six kills and Emma Grome tallying 12 assists on 15 Kentucky kills in the frame.
Set Two
Kentucky’s fourth ace of the match by Molly Tuozzo gave UK its largest lead of the set early in the proceedings at 9-6 and that three-point Wildcat lead ballooned to four at 13-9 on Jordyn Dailey’s third kill of the match before another Tuozzo ace sent the match into a media timeout at 15-11. The Wildcats came out of the media timeout playing clean with a kill by Brooke Bultema on a slide, followed by a service ace from DeLeye, her third of the match to push the Kentucky lead to 18-12 and Auburn called its first timeout of the set down half a dozen points. The lead grew to seven at 21-14 thanks to a kill out of the left side from Megan Wilson and a follow-up termination on the next point by Haley Melby, her fourth kill of the night. A net violation on the Tigers ended the second set and Kentucky took a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-18 second-set win. UK hit .409 in the set with only two hitting errors and held the Tigers to just .148 on the set with six hitting errors as opposed to just 10 kills. Through two sets, UK had five aces, Brooklyn DeLeye led the Wildcats with eight kills and Emma Grome had 22 assists on Kentucky’s 26 kills in the match to that point.
Set Three
Auburn went on a 6-1 run after things were square through the opening parts of the third set and Kentucky was pushed into an early timeout trailing the Tigers 14-9, its largest deficit of the match in any set to that point. Out of the timeout, AU chipped another point off the Kentucky block but back-to-back points began a Kentucky rally that started with a kill off the left side by Brooklyn DeLeye. Kentucky pulled to within two at 16-14 following an out-of-system termination by Haley Melby but a 3-0 Auburn run ruined that momentum as the Tigers took a 19-14 lead and UK had to call its final timeout. For the first time in 20 sets in the series, Auburn won a set, taking the third off of Kentucky, 25-16. UK only hit .152 in the set with no aces, only 11 kills compared to six hitting errors. The Tigers hit .385 and had only one service error in the set.
Set Four
Kentucky was down three early points at 8-5 but chipped away slowly to take a 12-10 lead thanks to strong serving and clinical siding out in the middle of the set by Emma Grome and the UK offense. Auburn went on a 3-0 run out of a timeout at 12-10 to take another lead at 13-12 thanks to Kentucky’s 17th service error of the night. Kentucky had to call timeout trailing by three points again when Auburn made things 18-15. Auburn won the fourth set, 25-20.
Set Five
Auburn led for the opening parts of the fifth set, but never by more than two points before a 3-0 Kentucky run exclimated by a Brooklyn DeLeye kill, her 20th of the night, pushed Kentucky into the lead at 10-8 and Auburn called its first timeout. The Tigers out of the break went on a 4-2 run and took a 12-11 lead as Neville Arena got back into the match and UK burned its first timeout trailing by a point. UK’s season-high 22nd service error brought Auburn to the first match point at 14-13 in the fifth set and the Tigers closed its first win over Kentucky since 2010 with a 18-16 final-set win on its third match point.
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