Kassie O’Brien’s 43 Assists Lift No. 4 Kentucky Past Ole Miss
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Thanks to 43 assists from sophomore setter Kassie O’Brien and a .302 hitting percentage for the match as a team, the No. 4 Kentucky Wildcats overcame a sloppy fourth set to beat Ole Miss 3-1 (25-14, 25-20, 22-25, 25-19) on Sunday afternoon in front of over 4,200 fans in Historic Memorial Coliseum.
Kentucky was cruising through the opening pair of sets as the Wildcats hit .400 in the first and .429 in the second set with an over 70 percent sideout ratio before that number fell by over 20 points as Ole Miss jumped out to an 8-1 lead and never trailed in the third to take the set and become the first Southeastern Conference team to win a set off of Kentucky at home this season.
UK had three players with 10-plus kills paced by DeLeye’s 14, Morgan Gaerte’s 13 and Lizzie Carr logging 11 kills to go alongside on 24 swings. UK as a team hit .302 for the match and held the Rebels to .197 for the afternoon. Kennedy Washington threw in eight kills on 10 swings to hit .700 for the afternoon with one stuff block.
Molly Tuozzo had eight digs and two aces, one of four UK players to record multiple aces. Included in that bunch is Brooklyn DeLeye who tied the school record with 119 aces as she had two Sunday afternoon, and will look to break Eleanor Beavin’s record in UK’s next match.
Kentucky is now 13-3 on the season and sits 5-1 in Southeastern Conference play. Ole Miss fall to 8-8 and is 2-3. Vanderbilt beat Florida on Sunday afternoon in Nashville, which now places Kentucky into a tie for first place in the SEC in the loss column with the Gators. UK is the only 5-1 team, as UF is 4-1.
UK will next begin a three-match road swing as it will play Oklahoma at 7 p.m. ET on Friday night in Norman live on SEC Network+ and the ESPN app before closing the weekend in Fayetteville against Arkansas on Sunday.
Set One
Kentucky hit .400 and had only three hitting errors in the first set en route to an easy 25-14 opening frame victory to take a 1-0 lead in the match. The Wildcats got four kills from Brooklyn DeLeye on only six swings, as that pushed the Wildcats past the Rebels, who hit just .222 of the frame. Ole Miss took a timeout after a 3-0 service run by Brookyln DeLeye with an ace to make things 9-6 and then the Wildcats Brynn Covell made things 17-9 with a 4-0 run of her own that also sprinkled in an ace as UK had four service aces in the opening set alone to take control of the frame. Kentucky got to 20 first with Ole Miss 10 points behind and a kill by Kennedy Washington on an overpass ended the first set as the Wildcats went up 1-0 for the match. Kassie O’Brien had 10 assists in the opener and Molly Tuozzo had five digs to lead the defensive effort for UK.
Set Two
Kentucky won the second set 25-20 withstanding a late charge by the Rebels as UK service errors crept into the fray late in the set. Ole Miss and UK went toe-to-toe in the opening part of the set with a 5-5 scoreline through the first 10 points but a nice run at the line by Brooklyn DeLeye made things 8-5 and after an ace to make things a four-point cushion – Ole Miss burned its first timeout. The media timeout came with Kennedy Washington hammering a quick out of the middle to make things 15-9 and the Wildcats would win the next three points in a row to push the Rebels into their final timeout, with UK doubling up Ole Miss, 18-9. The lead grew to 20-10, just like set one, before Ole Miss ran off four in a row thanks to UK hitting errors and service errors, but the Wildcats steadied the boat and Morgan Gaerte’s eighth kill of the match ended the frame. UK hit .429 for the set with Ole Miss hitting .269 and Kentucky logging 18 kills on 35 swings and recording the first two stuff blocks on the afternoon thanks to Kassie O’Brien, Lizzie Carr and Morgan Gaerte.
Set Three
Ole Miss led 5-0 to begin the set and never looked back in the third to become the first team to beat Kentucky in an SEC set at home this season, 25-22. The Rebel lead was 8-1 through nine points and the Wildcats crept as close as one later in the frame with UK closing things to 21-20 thanks to two points on Caroline Prihoda’s serve, but it was an Ole Miss sideout at 24-22 on an offspeed shot that ended the set and closed things out. UK hit just .125 in the set and was outblocked by the Rebels, 3-1.
Set Four
Kentucky never trailed in the fourth set, jumping out to a four-point lead early at 11-7 and pushing the Rebels into a timeout. The Wildcats used their only ace of the set off the hands of Kassie O’Brien to take a 16-12 lead, the largest it would be until the final stanza of points. Ole Miss got the UK lead down to two with the Wildcats eight points from the finish line but a 3-0 run capped off the match as Brooklyn DeLeye’s 14th kill of the afternoon ended the afternoon for UK.
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