Kentucky Wins Outright 2024 SEC Championship With 3-1 Win
COLUMBIA, Mo. – By winning 17 of the last 21 points of the match in the fourth set, down by as many as six points, the No. 12 Kentucky Volleyball team beat Missouri 3-1 (25-19, 25-14, 23-25, 25-20) to clinch the outright 2024 Southeastern Conference championship and secure the SEC’s automatic qualification spot into the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
Kentucky has now won eight-straight SEC Championships with five of the eight being outright titles. The Wildcats head coach, Craig Skinner, won his 300th-career SEC match Wednesday night as well, adding to his place as the winningest head coach in Kentucky Volleyball history.
The Wildcats won the first two sets easily, taking set one 25-19 and set two, 25-14 before the Tigers turned up the service pressure to make things interesting in the third set. Kentucky trailed by as many as seven points in the fourth set, but rallied to close the set to within two thanks to Brooklyn DeLeye’s 19 kills in the match. Missouri claimed the third set and all eyes headed to the fourth.
Mizzou won the first three points of the fourth set with a kill on an extended rally in the opening point and two service aces. The lead ballooned to five point to make it a 10-5 lead for Mizzou and Kentucky had to call an early timeout trailing by five. After another attacking error, Kentucky’s 15th of the match and fourth of the set alone, UK called a timeout trailing 16-10. Brooklyn DeLeye then went on a 5-0 service run to bring Kentucky within a point and UK then won 17 of the last 21 points of the match to take the fourth set, 25-20 to win the match on a kill by Jordyn Dailey with the assist coming from Emma Grome. The Wildcats trailed by as many as six points in the set but rallied to recover and win the set to take the match and clinch the outright Southeastern Conference Championship.
The 2024 NCAA Volleyball Selection Show will be Sunday night at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN with Courtney Lyle, Holly McPeak and Katie George unveiling the 64-team bracket. The top-16 seeded teams in the bracket will host the NCAA First and Second Rounds next weekend on campus sites. Kentucky currently in the metrics the selection committee uses to evaluate teams sits No. 10 in the RPI, No. 11 in the KPI, No. 5 in strength of schedule and No. 1 in opponent strength of record.
Kentucky closes the 2024 regular season with a 20-7 record and finishes its SEC season 14-2 having won 11 matches in a row to finish the season.
Set One
In a tightly-contested first set, Kentucky’s Brooklyn DeLeye took advantage of her lethal serve to build Kentucky out of a 14-12 hole to push UK into the 15-14 lead at the media timeout after a sideout and back-to-back aces that hit the floor. Ava Sarafa then took over with immense service pressure that pushed Kentucky into an 18-15 lead after a kill by Brooklyn DeLeye and an attack error by the Tigers as Mizzou called its first timeout down three points. A triple block by Emma Grome, Jordyn Dailey and Brooke Bultema bolstered the Kentucky lead to a set-high five points at 22-16 and Missouri called its final timeout a point later on Jordyn Dailey’s third kill of the set. Dailey’s fourth kill of the set on her fourth swing of the set handed Kentucky the opening set as the Wildcats took a one set to none lead over the Tigers. UK hit .345 for the set with five kills and no errors from Brooklyn DeLeye, as she hit .714 individually and threw in three aces and a dig.
Set Two
It was another Brooklyn DeLeye service run that pushed Kentucky into the lead in the midway point of the second set as her fourth ace of the afternoon lifted Kentucky to a 15-9 advantage at the media timeout, UK’s largest lead of the set to that point. UK at that point in the set was hitting .500 with 10 kills and only 1 error with DeLeye only one kill shy of double-digits and Emma Grome displaying 25 assists on all 25 of Kentucky’s kills to that point in the match. Jordyn Dailey’s third block of the evening pushed the lead to eight as the Wildcats used Sarafa’s service pressure again to go on its run to create separation and UK pushed Mizzou into a timeout down eight on her serve. Megan Wilson turned up the heat late in the second set as her fourth kill of the match gave Kentucky a 21-12 lead with a termination down the line and Missouri elected to call its final timeout. Wilson’s first ace of the match and Kentucky’s fifth as a team gave the Wildcats the second set as UK took a two sets to none lead with a 25-14 second-set win. UK hit a blistering .452 in the second set with 15 kills to just three errors as the Wildcats held MU to just .103 offensively and nine kills to six errors for the Tigers.
Set Three
Missouri raced out to a 13-7 lead, its largest lead in any set to that point in the match and Kentucky had to call its first timeout with the Tigers ahead by half a dozen. After Missouri won the point out of the break, Kentucky got an ace from Molly Tuozzo after a sideout to cut the lead to 14-9 to begin to chip away at the Mizzou lead. An ace from Eleanor Beavin cut the lead to 19-16, as the three-point deficit was the closest UK had been since it was 10-7 earlier in the set. After a sensational play by Molly Tuozzo in the middle of the court, Kentucky again pulled to within a trio at 21-18 and Mizzou burned its first timeout four points from the finish line of the set. Kentucky got within one point at 21-20 and 22-21 but an attack error pushed the Tigers to 23-21 and the Wildcats called their final timeout of the set with Mizzou two points away. Mizzou closed out the set on its second set point to extend the match with a 25-23 third set victory.
Set Four
Mizzou won the first three points of the fourth set with a kill on an extended rally in the opening point and two service aces. The lead ballooned to five point to make it a 10-5 lead for Mizzou and Kentucky had to call an early timeout trailing by five. After another attacking error, Kentucky’s 15th of the match and fourth of the set alone, UK called a timeout trailing 16-10. Brooklyn DeLeye then went on a 5-0 service run to bring Kentucky within a point and UK then won 17 of the last 21 points of the match to take the fourth set, 25-20 to win the match on a kill by Jordyn Dailey with the assist coming from Emma Grome. The Wildcats trailed by as many as six points in the set but rallied to recover and win the set to take the match and clinch the outright Southeastern Conference Championship.
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