DeLeye and Gaerte Steer No. 3 Kentucky to Season-Opening Sweep
MILWAUKEE, Wisc. – The No. 3 Kentucky Volleyball team used 12 kills from Brooklyn DeLeye and 10 from Morgan Gaerte to secure a season-opening sweep of No. 6 Wisconsin, 3-0 (25-20, 26-24, 25-18) at the AVCA First Serve in Fiserv Forum.
Kentucky as a team hit a robust .380 for the match with 43 kills to only eight errors. Lizzie Carr out of the middle was incredibly impressive for the Wildcats, throwing eight kills on the stat sheet with no errors on 14 swings to hit .571 and lead all players in the match. Kassie O’Brien ran the Kentucky offense to the tune of .380 with 33 assists as well as a pair of kills and four blocks in Friday night’s opener.
Kentucky outblocked Bucky 10-5, doubling up UW at the net with O’Brien, Carr and Gaerte all logging four stuffs to co-lead the Wildcats. The Kentucky defense anchored by Molly Tuozzo held Wisconsin to just .186 attacking as a team as Tuozzo had a team-high 12 digs and was not aced once in 23 attempts.
UK will take Saturday off and return to play Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET against No. 4 Pittsburgh on ESPN.
Set One
Kentucky hit .448 in the first set to claim a 25-20 win and take the opening frame from the Badgers. The Wildcats never trailed in the set and led by as many as six points at 24-18 as they reached set point. A big stuff by Lizzie Carr pushed Kentucky out to a then set-high five-point lead at 15-10 as the match went into its first media timeout. After the lead was five, the Badgers threw four in a row on the board to send Kentucky into its first called timeout leading, 15-14. Lizzie Carr’s second block of the set made things 20-17 and after the lead was down to one and grew to three – Wisconsin called its first timeout with UK five points from ending the set. Carr again made her presence felt with a kill, her third of the set, to make things 22-17 and the Badgers called their final timeout. After a pair of points including an ace for UW at 24-18, Morgan Gaerte stuffed a huge attack on the left side to close out the set and send Kentucky to the 1-0 lead. Asia Thigpen, Gaerte, Brooklyn DeLeye and Carr all had three kills in the set to co-lead the attack for UK as Kassie O’Brien had 12 assists on 15 Wildcat kills with Kentucky hitting .448 on the starting set.
Set Two
Wisconsin led for a majority of the second set before a 5-2 run into the media timeout pushed Kentucky in front at 15-14 for its first lead of the frame since UK took the opening point on a service ace. Kentucky won its first challenge of the season after a UW challenge was successful as the Wildcats challenged a successful UW net fault early in the rally to reverse the score and give UK a 17-16 lead. The Wildcats took a multi-point lead on Lizzie Carr’s fourth kill of the match as she blistered one through the scheme and then the Badgers burned a timeout. After both teams were neck and neck down the stretch of the set Kentucky took set point at 24-23 and then again at 25-24 as Lizzie Carr hammered an overpass from the middle to hand UK the set in a deuce set, 26-24. UK hit .417 in the set with 17 kills to only two errors in the second. Brooklyn DeLeye and Morgan Gaerte co-led Kentucky with eight kills each through the first two sets and DeLeye was errorless on her 21 swings of the first two sets. UK held Bucky to a .251 attack percentage and forced UW into 12 attack errors.
Set Three
Kentucky jumped out to an 8-4 lead by winning eight of 10 early points and led 15-11 at the media timeout of the set. The Wildcats then railed off three points in a row on Brooklyn DeLeye’s serve as she threw in her only ace of the night to push UW into a timeout with Kentucky leading 18-13. After Kentucky came out of the timeout and won the next two points, as Kassie O’Brien stuffed a ball solo to make things 20-13 and sent Wisconsin into its final timeout. A Badger hitting error closed the match as UK took the sweep, 25-18 in the third set.
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