Lizzie Carr’s Eight Kills Push No. 3 Kentucky Past Houston
NASSAU, The Bahamas – No. 3 Kentucky closed out the 2026 Paradise Invitational with a 3-0 (25-13, 25-19, 25-23) sweep over Houston on Sunday afternoon at BahaMar Resort and Convention Center in Nassau.
Morgan Gaerte led Kentucky with nine kills on 21 swings with Lizzie Carr hitting over .600 with eight kills to only one error on 11 swings. Carr also imposed her defense on the Cougars with five stuff blocks as the Wildcats outblocked Houston 12-6 for the match and 10 of them coming from Carr and Gaerte for the afternoon.
Kentucky hit .274 as a team with Kassie O’Brien logging 27 assists for the afternoon and Molly Tuozzo’s nine digs led the way for UK’s floor defense.
UK will next take the week off before playing No. 5 Louisville on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET live on ABC with Courtney Lyle, Holly McPeak and Michella Chester on the call from Memorial Coliseum. Tickets are extremely limited and the match is nearing a sellout, so fans are asked to buy tickets now before the match sells out.
Set One
Kentucky won the most unusual of first sets with a 25-13 opening-set victory. The Wildcats hit .333 an held Houston to -.032 and encompassed in that was a power outage that lasted a little over a half hour’s time due to a power outage across the entire island of The Bahamas and Nassau. Kentucky ran out to a 10-4 lead and that lead was 14-10 before the media timeout. The Wildcats then went on an 8-0 run that ballooned the lead to 22-10 and UK sided out to the finish line of the set to make things straight-forward at the end. Lizzie Carr and Asia Thigpen each had three kills with Kassie O’Brien logging eight assists to run the offense at a .333 clip. Kennedy Washington recorded four stuff blocks to lead all Wildcats and all players in the match with Molly Tuozzo tallying a trio of digs in the opening frame. Houston only won back-to-back points once in the set.
Set Two
After a wild and crazy opening set, Kentucky won the second set 25-19 to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match by hitting over .250 for the set and holding the Cougars to just .018 for the set. The Coogs ran out to a 3-0 lead by winning the first three points of the set with an ace to cap off the run before Kentucky responded with a 4-0 run to make things 4-3 in Kentucky’s favor, a lead that the Wildcats wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the set. UK’s lead was bolstered by a pair of Brooklyn DeLeye aces and overpass kills that made things 15-10 at the media timeout and that lead grew to six at 17-11 after Kennedy Washington’s second kill of the match made the lead six. Brooklyn DeLeye’s third kill of the match made things 24-18 as the Wildcats arrived at set point and UK sided out with a service error from UH two points later to close the set. Molly Tuozzo had six digs to lead the Kentucky floor defense and Kassie O’Brien had 17 assists through the two sets with UK hitting .289 for the opening two frames.
Set Three
The third set was by far the tightest from start to finish as the Wildcats saw what was a two-point lead at 17-15 evaporate in the later stages of the set and Houston was the aggressors as the red zone approached with the Cougars taking a 23-20 lead that pushed Kentucky into its second timeout of the set with UH two points from the finish line. Kentucky then won the last five points of the match in a row sandwiched between a Houston timeout that made the final score 3-0 for Kentucky and capped off a sweep for the Wildcats.
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