Molly Tuozzo’s Monster Night Enough to Sweep Texas A&M
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky Volleyball team ran its season-long win streak to six matches Friday night in Historic Memorial Coliseum as sophomore libero Molly Tuozzo logged 22 digs with No. 13 Kentucky sweeping Texas A&M 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-14) in UK’s first home match in over a month.
Kentucky hit .216 as a team, but it was the Wildcat defense that told the story with libero Molly Tuozzo and company holding Texas A&M to a .091 hitting percentage for the match, including -.071 in the third set alone. The Wildcats got eight blocks in Friday night’s affair as Brooke Bultema led the way with half a dozen and Emma Grome and Brooklyn DeLeye joining in with three stuffs each.
Emma Grome led UK to the tune of a .216 night offensively as she set a new career-high for a three-set match with 42 assists on 46 of Kentucky’s terminations with a kill thrown in herself and a double-double for the AVCA All-American with 11 digs to go alongside.
With Friday night’s result, Kentucky reinstates its half-match lead over Mizzou in the Southeastern Conference standings with five matches to play in the season. Kentucky is now 15-7 overall and 9-2 in the SEC. Missouri sits 8-2 in the SEC, a half match behind as the Tigers have six matches to play.
The five-match homestand inside Historic Memorial Coliseum continues for Kentucky on Sunday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. ET as UK will play host to LSU. The match will be televised by the SEC Network with Sam Gore and Jennifer Hoffman on the call from HMC.
Set One
Brooklyn DeLeye notched four of the first five points for Kentucky as the Wildcats dug out of an early hole to square the set at five all. Texas A&M went on a 3-0 run to take a 10-7 lead which Kentucky slowly chipped away at to tie the set for the first time at 17-17 thanks to a kill from Asia Thigpen. Jordyn Dailey and Brooklyn DeLeye gave UK its first lead of the match at 19-18 and Texas A&M called its first timeout. The Wildcats then thanks to the hitting of Asia Thigpen, who had 13 kills in the match, cruised to the finish line for a 25-22 opening-set win.
Set Two
After losing the first point, UK ran off four in a row to jump on top of the Aggies and Kentucky ran off another four points in a row thanks to Molly Tuozzo’s digs on the backcourt into the media timeout to make things 15-12 in favor of the Wildcats at the set’s media timeout. Texas A&M then needed another timeout after an ace from Eleanor Beavin trailing the set 18-15 and Brooke Bultema’s blocking on the left pin pushed Kentucky to a 2-0 lead thanks to a 25-20 second-set win.
Set Three
Set three was decided early as Kentucky went on an 11-0 run with three aces from DS Eleanor Beavin to take an early 15-4 lead and push the Aggies into using both of their timeouts before they scored five points in the set. Texas A&M hit negative for the set and UK sided out at 71 percent to take the third set, 25-14 and tally a fourth-straight sweep of the season.
For the latest on UK Volleyball, follow the Wildcats on Twitter and Instagram at @KentuckyVB.
