Balanced Offense Pushes No. 4 Kentucky Past New Hampshire
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Behind five different hitters that recorded five or more kills in the match, the No. 4 Kentucky Volleyball team completed a sweep of the New Hampshire Wildcats 3-0 (25-14, 25-12, 25-5) on Saturday afternoon inside Rec Hall.
Eva Hudson led the way with nine kills on 18 swings with only one error with Brooke Bultema and Brooklyn DeLeye knocking down seven kills to the floor, Georgia Watson having six kills and junior Lizzie Carr logging five terminations for the match.
Kentucky as a team hit .589 for the match, including .591 for the third set alone, where UK held New Hampshire to a .066 hitting percentage for the match. Kentucky had five blocks in the match with Kennedy Washington leading the way on three blocks and Georgia Watson having two blocks in the match Saturday afternoon. Molly Tuozzo had nine digs to lead all players in that department for the Wildcats in the match.
UK will now turn its attention to the Shriners Children’s Showdown at the Net on Wednesday night as it plays No. 9 Pittsburgh at 6:30 p.m. ET on ESPN at Dickies Arena in Ft. Worth, Texas.
With Kentucky’s second-straight win and second-straight sweep of the year, the Wildcats now are 3-1 on the 2025 season and have won six-straight sets as the season will enter week three next week.
Set 1
Kentucky pushed New Hampshire into an early timeout 14 points into the match as Molly Tuozzo aced UNH on the left side of the court to give UK the 10-4 lead as New Hampshire elected to stop play down six points, a then-set high lead for the Wildcats at the time. UK was hitting .714 at that point with UNH hitting in the negatives at -.143. Kassie O’Brien pushed across her first kill of the day on a setter dump to balloon the UK lead to 17-9 with the eight-point lead being the most it was all match to that point. New Hampshire called their second timeout off a Molly Tuozzo ace in the late stages of the set as Kentucky ran its lead to nine at 21-12 with UK having three aces to its name at that point in the match. Brooke Bultema on a slide to the right pin ended the opening set with Kentucky taking things 25-14 hitting .727 hitting with no errors the entire frame and nine assists from freshman setter Kassie O’Brien.
Set 2
Three-straight aces by reigning Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, Brooklyn DeLeye opened the scoring in the second set as Kentucky was off and running with a 3-0 lead in the blink of an eye. A pair of UNH hitting errors and a kill by Lizzie Carr pushed the lead to 6-1 and New Hampshire called its first timeout of the set. The lead grew to nine for Kentucky as freshman Georgia Watson hammered home her first-career kill from the left pin as UK took a 13-4 lead that thrusted the Wildcats into a 4-0 run, its longest run of the set since the opening points on DeLeye’s serve. New Hampshire called its second timeout down 19-8 after Georgia Watson stuff blocked a UNH attack and then Brooke Bultema pummeled her fifth kill to the floor which was the impetus to the timeout. Hannah Benjamin’s first kill of the afternoon on her second swing ended the set as UK closed out a two sets to none lead with a 25-12 set win. UK hit .483 in the set and held UNH to .037 for the frame and UK had 12 digs in the set paced by Molly Tuozzo’s four. Kassie O’Brien had 20 assists through two sets.
Set 3
Brooke Bultema’s seventh kill of the match pushed an early opening set lead to 7-2 for UK and New Hampshire called its first timeout of the set down five early points and needing to win the set to force a fourth set. Hannah Benjamin’s second kill of the match gave UK a 13-3 lead and Molly Tuozzo kept UK’s foot on the gas petal as she served through a 8-0 run midway through the set to hand Kentucky a 16-3 lead and New Hampshire elected to call its final timeout of the set. The run continued to 10-0 on an unsuccessful UNH challenge, their second and final one of the match. Georgia Watson then hammered a ball off the block to make it an 11-0 run as Kentucky’s lead became 19-3 in the third.
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