Kassie O’Brien Named AVCA National Player of the Week

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky Volleyball’s sophomore setter Kassie O’Brien was named the American Volleyball Coaches’ Association National Player of the Week, the organization announced Tuesday afternoon.

O’Brien becomes the sixth-different player in Kentucky Volleyball history to win AVCA National Player of the Week, joining Krista Robinson (1993), Lauren Rapp (2010), Leah Edmond (2017, 2019), Alli Stumler (2019) and Eva Hudson (2025).

She was also named the Southeastern Conference’s Setter of the Week and Player of the Week on Monday afternoon by the league office.

Brien ran the Kentucky offense to the tune of .344 hitting on the weekend with a mammoth 13.00 assists per set as the No. 4 Wildcats beat Oklahoma and Arkansas. O’Brien recorded 50 assists in a four-set win over Oklahoma on Friday before turning around and throwing 41 assists on the stat sheet Sunday as UK hit .381 in a sweep over Arkansas.

The sophomore from Katy, Texas helped UK hit .300+ in both matches on the weekend, the first time this year UK has hit .300 in back-to-back matches both in and out of conference matches. With O’Brien’s 17th assist Friday night vs. Oklahoma, she notched her 2,000th-career assist.

No. 4 Kentucky will play Wednesday night at 7 p.m. ET on SEC Network in a top-10 showdown at No. 9 Tennessee inside the Food City Center at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville. Kevin Fitzgerald and Kele Eveland will have the call from Rocky Top.

For the latest on UK Volleyball, follow the Wildcats on Twitter and Instagram at @KentuckyVB.