DeLeye’s 15 Kills Enough To Sweep Cleveland State and Advance
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Thanks to a .391 team hitting percentage and 15 kills from sophomore outside hitter Brooklyn DeLeye, the third-seeded Kentucky Volleyball team raced past Cleveland State 3-0 (25-15, 25-14, 25-16) in three sets Thursday night to book a spot into Friday night’s second round of the 2024 NCAA Volleyball Championship.
DeLeye was one of two Kentucky players to reach double-figures scoring, as she notched 15 kills and Erin Lamb had 10 as the two combined for 25 kills on 45 swings as Emma Grome dished out 33 assists and Jordyn Dailey had a team-high four stuffs in the match. Molly Tuozzo led all Wildcats with 12 digs, the only UK player to record double-digits in the digs department as Kentucky held the Vikings to a .114 hitting percentage for the match.
With Thursday night’s win, [3] Kentucky advances into Friday night’s second round to play [6] Minnesota for a spot in next weekend’s NCAA Regional Semifinals. [6] Minnesota beat Western Kentucky 3-1 in four tight sets during Thursday’s opening match of the Lexington Sub-Regional. Friday night’s match between the Wildcats and Gophers will begin at 7 p.m. ET and shown live on ESPN+. Tickets are available at UKathletics.com/tickets and will be available at the UK Ticket Office all day Friday for pickup, as well.
Thursday night’s win marks the eighth-straight season that Kentucky has advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament under head coach Craig Skinner.
Set One
Kentucky came out of the gates roaring, as the Wildcats hit .766 inside the opening 11 points with Brooklyn DeLeye scoring six early points to give UK the 9-2 lead and force the Vikings into an early timeout down seven. Cleveland State put match pressure on Kentucky in the midsection of the frame as the Vikings pulled the Kentucky lead back from nine points to three at 13-10, but a 4-0 service run by Brooklyn DeLeye encompassing an ace and CSU timeout gave Kentucky the 19-11 lead as the Wildcats cruised from there to an easy first-set win, 25-15. In the first set, Kentucky hit .424 with 18 kills as a team and 15 assists from setter Emma Grome. Brooklyn DeLeye led all scorers in the first with six kills and one error on 10 swings to hit .500 and an ace to go alongside. Cleveland State hit .143 in the set with no player registering more than three kills.
Set Two
Cleveland State led through the opening stages of the second set with the Vikings leading 4-2, their first lead of the match before Emma Grome and the UK offense took center stage and commanded the middle part of the set as Kentucky took an 11-10 lead and ballooned it to 17-10 on a 6-0 Eleanor Beavin service run that resulted in Cleveland State taking its first and second timeouts of the set with the Wildcats up seven. A kill by Erin Lamb, her fifth of the match to that point gave Kentucky the second set as the Wildcats took the second set, 25-14. UK hit .419 in the set with 15 kills to just two errors and Emma Grome tacked on another 10 assists to her total on the night for 25 assists through two sets. UK held the Vikings to .088 in the set as Molly Tuozzo notched her 10th dig midway through the second frame as Kentucky took a 24-14 lead to pick up set point.
Set Three
Each of the first five points in the third set went the way of the Wildcats, as Cleveland State burned its opening timeout early on, trailing 5-0 to start off the frame. After Brooklyn DeLeye sent her 14th kill of the night to the floor to put Kentucky ahead of the Vikings 9-2, CSU called its final timeout of the set down seven and its backs against the wall needing to win the set to extend the match. The Wildcats grew their lead to 19-11 on a kill by Erin Lamb, her eighth of the match and got into the red zone with a kill by Lamb again as Kentucky took a 20-13 lead to sit five points from the finish line.
For the latest on UK Volleyball, follow the Wildcats on Twitter and Instagram at @KentuckyVB.
NCAA REGIONAL POSTGAME QUOTES
CLEVELAND STATE VS. KENTUCKY
HISTORIC MEMORIAL COLISEUM – LEXINGTON, KY.
DECEMBER 5, 2024
KENTUCKY QUOTES
Kentucky Head Coach Craig Skinner
Opening Statement…
“Always pleased to have the ability to play well enough to advance in the tournament. Chuck is a good friend of mine and I’m proud of him and their team for getting to this point, they weren’t picked to win their league so the chance they got out is awesome. I thought our team did a good job of producing offensively and holding Cleveland State attackers to a low percentage.”
On how the teams’ back-to-back games helped them prepare for this tournament…
“We’ve done a good job all season long of preparing for the next day and today is super important but also preparing by what we do physically in the gym and how we make sure we’re engaging our effort and loads to prepare us to play back-to-back days. It’s not easy for both Minnesota and us, but these guys have been looking forward to this moment all season long.”
On what he knows about Minnesota…
“I know they are a good team and they’ve got great wins this year. Tomorrow they are going to hit the ball extremely hard and they are going to put some tough serves on us. They’re a team of streaks, they score a lot of points in a row, and they can give up some points and I think that’s been shown all day today in the NCAA tournament.”
On the key to holding attackers to a low percentage…
“It starts with the serving pressure like they talked about earlier. They run a little bit slower tempo balls so it took us a little bit of time to catch the rhythm of when the starter approached footwork for blocking and when to be at the top for our jumps once we got that it really limited their range of attack and then the back part that we have it’s really hard for the ball to hit the floor so it is really a combination of all three phases there.”
#17 Brooklyn DeLeye, OH
On what she attributes Kentucky’s fast start to…
“I think we just knew that we had to jump from the start. You can’t really start a game off coming in soft. I mean, we knew they were going to come out swinging, and that’s kind of what they did, but I think we did a really good job of stopping that and just playing our game and not letting the tournament really affect us.”
On her connection with Emma and her improvement in attacking from the back row…
“I think last year it was kind of a short thing that we just got right into it. And in the spring, we worked really hard on getting that connection down, because we had a lot of time to work on that. I think she’s done a really good job of working with me and what I need and what I need from her, and what she wants from me. I think just talking and communicating throughout the play, and if something didn’t go as planned, I know she’s going to give me the next ball.”
#13 Erin Lamb, OH
On how their serving pressure affected Cleveland State…
“We knew they were a good passing team, and their libero is very good, so we knew that we would have to bring it, and they have a couple of heavy arms, so we knew that serving was going to be key. We’ve been working on it really hard over the whole season, and just kind of sticking to what we do, knowing that we can apply pressure and take care of business.”
On playing with a hitter like Brooklyn who opens the net up…
“It’s a great help. Brooklyn’s awesome. I mean, she’s the hardest worker at her craft, and it’s no surprise that people have to pay so much attention to her because she just puts so much time, energy, and effort into the game. So yeah, it definitely helps, but she deserves it.”
CLEVELAND STATE QUOTES
Cleveland State Head Coach Chuck Voss
Opening Statement…
“I think as a coach this has really been about 12 months in the making. It was these guys, they just did a great job deciding it was something they really wanted, and these are two of the hardest working players I have ever had. They just did a great job over the last 12 months getting to this point. I was proud of the way we played today. Kentucky is an amazing team and they just do things that we don’t see. They’re taking things from the men’s game and implementing them at a very high level. I’ll be rooting for those guys moving forward.”
On Kentucky’s play…
“Their speed, athleticism. Defensively, the pursuit, I bet there were swings that Liberty or other attackers had that we thought were going down, and all the sudden it’s just popped up. The way that they just reset and put pressure right back on you in those moments is just impressive. Like I said, it’s great to see that this is where women’s volleyball is headed. To see a team like that, and I know there’s other teams doing the same things, I think there’s things that we can take and work on, and hopefully we will be back next year and do better.”
#3 Liberty Torres, OH
On the season overall…
“Yeah, we really came into the beginning of the season with the mindset ‘NBAC’ which means Nothing But A Championship and we started working on that last spring. And so, it’s really rewarding to see all that hard work pay off and that our mindset was strong the whole way through. When we were watching the game before us, they were showing little girls dancing up in the stands and I mean it’s crazy to think that was all of us at some point. I’m really happy to say that like me and all my teammates have made it to this point and are players on the court. So it all kind of came full circle and I’m so glad to do it with this group of girls.”
#6 Emma Walker, L
On the season overall…
“Like Liberty said, we went in with the mentally ‘NBAC’ and even though no one saw us as a contender, I think we’re ranked sixth coming into the season. That was fine with us we knew we were underdogs, but we knew if we put our mind to it that we could beat anyone we wanted to in our conference. Same going into here, no one picked us to win and we still had the mentality lets play for every point. Its not the outcome we wanted but I know we can go out there and say we did everything we could.”
