A Perfect Nine: No. 2 Kentucky Sweeps Arkansas for Outright Title
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 2 Kentucky Volleyball team completed the perfect Southeastern Conference season Sunday afternoon, sweeping Arkansas 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-12) to finish the regular season 15-0 in SEC play and earn the outright regular-season championship. The title is the ninth-straight championship for Kentucky Volleyball, marking the longest consecutive championship streak in power four conference volleyball.
On her senior day, Eva Hudson hit .438 for the afternoon, leading all players in the match with 15 kills on 32 swings with only one error. Hudson was one of two players to record double-figure scoring Sunday as her teammate Brooklyn DeLeye had 13 kills on 27 swings to complete the 15-0 season in the SEC as DeLeye and Hudson combined for 28 of Kentucky’s 48 kills on the match.
Kassie O’Brien ran the Kentucky offense to the tune of .376 hitting with eight different UK players recording a kill including two middle blockers, Kennedy Washington and Lizzie Carr, who both had seven kills in the match on a combined 23 swings with only two hitting errors. Washington’s block came alive in the third set, with three stuffs in the set alone as she was responsible for 8.5 points in the match.
Kentucky concludes its regular season with a 22-2 overall record in addition to its 15-0 SEC mark. The Wildcats are the No. 1 overall seed in the 2025 SEC Tournament, which begins Friday in Savannah. Kentucky has earned a double bye into the quarterfinal round and will play its first match Sunday at Noon ET against the eight seed, nine seed or 16 seed depending on who advances in the first and second rounds. The match will air on SEC Network.
UK was 15-0 in the regular season with wins over the second-place and third-place finishing teams of the league on the road head-to-head. Kentucky won both of its five-set matches in league play and the Wildcats went 7-0 on the road with seven sweeps in its 2025 SEC season.
Set 1
Kentucky cruised to an opening set victory with a .400 hitting percentage as a team to collect the first set, 25-16 inside HMC. Brooklyn DeLeye led an impressively balanced offense for the Wildcats with six kills and only one error to hit .500 for the set with a team-high seven digs as well, just four kills and three digs from a double-double in the set. Kentucky led 15-11 at the media timeout and then a 5-0 run made things 17-12 in favor of the Wildcats that pushed the Razorbacks into an early timeout. Arkansas then found itself down 23-16 and called its final timeout with Kentucky two points from taking the set. Out of the timeout by UA, the Wildcats got a stuff from Lizzie Carr and an Eva Hudson kill on her senior day put a bow on the first set with a back-row kill as Kentucky took the frame, 25-16.
Set 2
The Wildcats went up two sets to none with a 25-20 second-set win as Kentucky hit .351 in the frame and held the Razorbacks to .224 for the set to put UK in a commanding position. Kentucky led 15-11 at the media timeout thanks to a 4-0 run bookending the Wildcats run by kills from Brooklyn DeLeye as she got to 10 kills for the match on her 18th swing of the afternoon. Kentucky forced Arkansas into their first timeout at 18-12 with Kentucky then growing the lead to a set-high seven points at 23-16 before closing things out with a kill from Lizzie Carr for her seventh termination of the match to make things 25-20 and put Kentucky one set from the finish line.
Set 3
Set three was all Kentucky as a 7-0 run boosted by three Brooklyn DeLeye aces pushed the Wildcats out to a 9-4 lead that sent Arkansas into an early timeout. The lead buoyed at seven points for a majority of the set as an overpass that led to a kill for Kennedy Washington, one of her seven of the match, made the leas a set-high eight points for the Wildcats at 20-12 and Arkansas was forced to call its second timeout of the set. Kentucky arrived at set point with a 24-12 lead and Eva Hudson’s team-leading 15th kill of the match closed out the championship and the match for the Wildcats.
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