No. 7 Florida Downs No. 3 Kentucky in Five Sets
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 3 Kentucky saw its 29-consecutive Southeastern Conference match win streak come to a close Sunday night as it dropped a 3-2 (22-25, 29-27, 25-21, 21-25, 15-8) five setter to No. 7 Florida.
The loss was Kentucky’s first since October of 2024 in the SEC and the first loss Kentucky has had to the Gators since the 2020 season. UK won the first and fourth sets Sunday night and even jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the fifth set, but fell victim to a 5-0 run and 9-1 extended in the fifth set that proved costly as Florida took the match in the fifth.
Kentucky is now 11-3 on the season and sits 3-1 in SEC play through the opening two weekends. Florida improves to 12-1 on the year and is 3-0 in the SEC.
Florida hit .226 for the match while holding the Wildcats to .133 hitting on the evening, a new season low for Kentucky. Brooklyn DeLeye hit .242 on the night to lead UK with 22 kills on a new season-high 62 swings. Morgan Gaerte, who returned from injury for the first time in two weeks action on the floor had 11 kills on 34 swings and a pair of blocks.
Kassie O’Brien had 43 assists and Molly Tuozzo had 21 digs to lead the Wildcats in that category.
UK will next play LSU on Friday night at 7 p.m. ET in Historic Memorial Coliseum in a match broadcasted live on SEC Network+ and the ESPN app.
Set One
Kentucky won the first set 25-22 as two critical Brooklyn DeLeye service runs were the difference in the set as UK ran out to the early lead. Kentucky won the first two points before Florida won the next four to take a two-point lead and that lead grew to three at 10-7, a set-high for the Gators. Brooklyn DeLeye took to the service line after her second kill of the match with UF leading 12-10 and helped UK reel off the next five in a row that made things 15-12 at the media timeout and hand the Wildcats their largest lead of the match to that point. Lizzie Carr had three kills within a seven-point stretch to bring Kentucky to set point at 24-21 and UK got a kill from Morgan Gaerte, who was returning from injury, to end the set, 25-22. Carr led the way with five kills on seven swings for the Wildcats and Brooklyn DeLeye had 10 errorless swings with three kills and three aces. UK as a team hit .235 behind nine assists from Kassie O’Brien and six digs from Molly Tuozzo. UF hit .273 as a team for the set with 13 kills and four errors.
Set Two
Florida won the second set 29-27 after coming back from down 21-17 with UK leading by four and needing only four points to secure the set. The Wildcats trailed by as many as seven points in the early stages of the set, as UF took a 13-6 advantage and Kentucky was forced into a timeout. UK then sent Kassie O’Brien on a 6-0 service run that brought the Wildcats to within a point at 13-12 and the Wildcats were back into the fray. Sidney Burley was entered into her first Southeastern Conference action as she took to the service line with UK trailing 17-16 and left after a 5-0 run with an ace that put the Wildcats ahead 21-17. UF then ran off two in a row to push the Wildcats into their final timeout and Florida arrived at set point leading 24-22. UK got a sideout and a stuff to make things 24 all and throw the set into a deuce set before a kill from Brooklyn DeLeye set up set point which Florida sided out on. After the two team each lost a pair of set points, it was a Florida kill at 28-27 to end the set and push the match to 1-1 overall.
Set Three
Florida took a two sets to one lead in the fourth with a 25-21 set win. The Wildcats led by as many as three in the early parts of the frame before the Gators went on an 8-2 run out of the media timeout to make things 21-15 in UF’s favor. The Wildcats would take that six-point deficit and reel off three in a row to make things 21-18 and that three-point run pushed the Gators into their first timeout of the set. UK crept to within two at 21-19 to close the gap, but UF ran through the finish line by winning four of the final five points to make things 2-1 in its favor. The Gators hit .222 in the set, the highest-percentage offensive set for any team in the match to that point with UK held to just .089 on the frame with 11 kills and a large amount of errors as UK had 21 attack errors through the opening three sets as a team to hit only .115 on the match to that point.
Set Four
Kentucky forced a fifth set with a 25-21 fourth-set victory. The Wildcats were up 8-5 within the first 12 points of the frame and the media timeout was reached with Kentucky leading by the same margin at 15-13. On one of the longest rallies of the match, Kentucky got two clutch digs by libero Molly Tuozzo, who climbed into the 20’s and Brooklyn DeLeye’s 16th kill of the match in transition and out-of-system made things 20-16 as the Gators called their first timeout with UK leading by a set-high four points. The next point out of the Gator timeout was a UF attack error and then Kentucky was into the red zone leading by four. UK hit .321 for the set and closed things out on Florida’s 14th service error of the match to make things 25-21 in UK’s favor and send the Wildcats into a fifth set for the first time in the 2026 season.
Set Five
UK led 3-0 to start the frame with three-straight points and then Florida won nine of the next 10 points to take command of the fifth set as UK’s passing broke down late in the match. Florida won the match 15-8 in the fifth.
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