Kentucky Wins Epic 2025 Allstate SEC Volleyball Tournament

SAVANNAH, Ga. – The top-seeded Kentucky Volleyball team reverse swept third-seeded Texas to win the 2025 Allstate Volleyball Tournament Championship on Tuesday night at Enmarket Arena in Savannah. With the win, Kentucky puts the bow on one of the best regular seasons in program history and clinches the SEC’s automatic qualifying spot into the 2025 NCAA Tournament which begins next week.

Kentucky fought off three championship points that Texas had in the third set as the Longhorns were two sets to none up and leading 24-21 before the Wildcats rallied to win six of the next seven points to claim the set and send things to a fourth set, improbably. In the fourth set and the fifth set, Kentucky only trailed for two total points as it rallied to win the match in its second reverse sweep of the 2025 season and second in the last two weeks.

The 2025 NCAA Volleyball Selection Show will be held this upcoming Sunday, November 30 at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN with Courtney Lyle, Holly McPeak and Katie George unveiling the field of 64.

Eva Hudson hit .300 for the match with 25 kills on 70 swings and had 11 digs for a double-double to close out her regular season championship run and put a bow on her 2025 SEC Player of the Year campaign. Lizzie Carr and Brooklyn DeLeye both had 13 kills each with Asia Thigpen sparkling with 10 kills to no errors, hitting .500 and four stuff blocks.

Kassie O’Brien helped Kentucky hit .277 for the match as she had a new career-high 56 assists.

Heading into the match, Kentucky was the projected No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament according to ESPN bracketologist Charlie Crème with Texas as the No. 3 overall seed. Texas closes its regular season with a 23-3 overall record, finishing 13-2 in SEC round-robin play and two of its three losses coming to UK.

Set 1

Texas raced out to an early lead at 11-5 which pushed the Wildcats into an early timeout with the Longhorns leading by the most amount of points in the four sets the teams have played so far this season. Texas would balloon the lead to seven points at 19-12 which promoted a timeout by UK, its second of the set as the Wildcats tried to slow down the UT offense which was hitting above .800 midway through the first. Kentucky cut into the lead a smidge and got things down to five points at 23-19 but a sideout by Abby Vander Wal ended the set and UT closed out a 25-19 opening set win. Texas hit .439 in the set and Kentucky hit .289 with 15 kills to four errors. Kassie O’Brien had 10 assists for UK with Torrey Stafford having six kills in addition to Vander Wal’s seven in the first. It marked the second-straight match in which UK lost the opening set.

Set 2

Kentucky was the aggressors in the second set, jumping out to an early 9-4 lead and prompting Texas to call its first timeout of the set down five points. The lead grew to six points later in the set when a kill by Lizzie Carr made things 12-6 and that lead steadied at half a dozen for a majority of the set until Texas began to creep back into the set with the Longhorns cutting into the lead at 13-11 with UK calling its first timeout. Kentucky got its offense back going and made things 22-18 after a successful challenge to award Asia Thigpen a kill as the Wildcats got to the 23 point mark with a 23-20 lead. Texas then went in a 4-0 run to make things 24-23 and Texas picked up set point before UK did. Kentucky fought off set points at 24-23, 25-24 and 26-25 before a kill by Texas off an extended rally ended the set with Texas taking things, 28-26. UK hit just .184 in the set with Texas clipping the ball at a .250 rate for the frame and Kentucky had six hitting errors to bring its total to 10 for the match.

Set 3

Texas led from the jump, as the Longhorns didn’t trail all set, until Kentucky closed the set on a 4-0 run to fight off two championship points at 24-22 and 24-23 before rallying to tie the set at 24-24 and earning a set point of its own off an illegal contact call at 24 all to take a 25-24 lead. The Wildcats then ended the set off an Asia Thigpen kill, her eighth of the night, to take the deuce set, 26-24. Kentucky hit .270 in the set and still managed to take the set despite the Longhorns hitting .357 in the frame. UK was led by Eva Hudson’s 14 kills at that point in the match through three sets and her nine digs put her just one shy of a double-double. Kentucky only led for one point the entire set, which happened to be it’s only set point, and that was Thigpen’s hammer to close things out. Texas’ lead was as much as five in the early parts of the set and late in the third set, it was a 23-19 lead that the Horns had, but failed to convert it into a sweep.

Set 4

Kentucky took control of the fourth set and never trailed from wire to wire, taking the fourth frame, 25-22. The Wildcats led 4-0 after the opening four points of the set and ballooned its lead to five points after Texas took its first timeout of the set at 20-15 following an Eva Hudson kill. The lead then became the highest it would be all set as Kentucky made it 21-15 on a blocking error by the Longhorns and Kentucky found itself four points from forcing a fifth set. Texas then began to mount a charge to the finish line as a 3-0 UT run sent UK into a timeout with its lead down to 21-18 at just three points. Kentucky failed to sideout the next two points following a successful Texas challenge as the Horns pulled to within one at 21-20 before Hudson’s 20th kill of the match got Kentucky unstuck from the rotation and pushed 22 points for the Wildcats on the board. A 2-0 run gave Kentucky its first set point at 24-21 and following a Texas sideout, Lizzie Carr hammered one to the floor to give Kentucky the fourth set, 25-22 and force the SEC Allstate Volleyball Tournament to a decisive fifth set.

Set 5

Kentucky saw Texas race out to a 2-0 lead in the fifth before the Wildcats rallied to win six of the next seven points to take a 6-3 lead and send Texas into a timeout. After Texas tied the match at 8-8, Kentucky ran off three of the next four to make it 11-9 and UT burned its final timeout. Kentucky closed the match on a 6-0 scoring run led by Brooklyn DeLeye’s serve and a kill by SEC Player of the Year, Eva Hudson, ended the match handing UK the fifth set, 15-9.

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