No. 3 Kentucky Reverse Swept by No. 9 Tennessee
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – After winning the opening two sets 25-17 and 25-18, the No. 3 Kentucky Volleyball team was reverse swept by the No. 9 Tennessee Lady Vols on Wednesday night in Knoxville, falling 3-2 (17-15, 18-25, 25-19, 25-21, 15-10) in five sets.
Kentucky never trailed in the first two sets, hitting over .450 as a team and even hitting over .500 for the second set alone, but Tennessee turned the tides in the third set, racing out to a large lead that it never looked back from and held on to win a tight fourth set before winning the fifth set without trailing the whole frame. It is the first time Kentucky has been reverse swept this season and only the second time UK has been reverse swept since 2017 (Penn St, 2004).
UK was led by Brooklyn DeLeye’s 25 kills on 53 swings with a .321 hitting percentage in the match and she was one of three Wildcats in double figures scoring with Asia Thigpen having 12 kills and Morgan Gaerte recording 11 terminations.
Kentucky never led in the fourth and fifth sets, as Tennessee hit .429 combined in those two sets with Kentucky only recording one block and pushed the Lady Vols over the finish line. Tennessee’s Chelsea Sutton had 14 kills to no errors in the match and hit .583 to lead UT on the night.
With the loss, Kentucky falls out of first place in the SEC and now sits 15-4 on the season and 7-2 in the Southeastern Conference. The Wildcats will next play No. 19 Texas A&M in a rematch of the 2026 NCAA National Championship at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday with the match televised live on ABC in Historic Memorial Coliseum.
Set One
Kentucky won set one convincingly 25-17 hitting .375 with 17 kills and only two errors on 40 swings. Brooklyn DeLeye helped jump Kentucky out to an 8-2 lead that led to an immediate timeout by Tennessee with the Wildcats ahead by an early six points. The media timeout came with the Wildcats leading 15-8 after an ace by new all-time ace leader Brooklyn DeLeye, her first of two in the opening set for the Wildcats. Kentucky then slowly grew its lead to eight when Lizzie Carr hammered an overpass for her second kill of the set to hand UK a 22-14 edge and send Tennessee into its second and final timeout of the set. Down the stretch, it was strong serving to push Tennessee out of system and the passing of Molly Tuozzo that kept UK ahead to the end as an overpass by Carr for her third kill ended the set. DeLeye hit .500 in the set with eight kills on 14 swings and five UK players had multiple kills in the frame. Tennessee hit just .135 in the frame with six errors and hit twice into Kentucky stuff blocks, both by Kassie O’Brien teaming with a middle blocker. O’Brien had 11 assists on 17 Kentucky kills with five digs to co-lead the floor defense with Molly Tuozzo.
Set Two
The second set was much the same for Kentucky, who won the frame 25-18, hitting a robust .552 with no hitting errors as a team in conjunction with 16 kills. Kentucky and Tennessee traded points early, before a 3-0 run off the serve of Morgan Gaerte pushed the Wildcats out to an 8-4 lead, its first lead of three-plus points in the set to that point. The lead ballooned to five points after the media timeout was taken as Lizzie Carr earned a kill in transition followed by a stuff block to push the Wildcats ahead 18-13 and after an ace by Brooklyn DeLeye to make things 19-13, Tennessee called its second timeout of the set. Kentucky entered the red zone leading 20-14 and then closed the book on the set with an off-speed termination by Asia Thigpen, her fourth of the night on 11 swings and made things case closed for the second frame. UK through two sets was hitting .449 as a team off the backs of the .552 second set and Kassie O’Brien had another 11 assists in the second set to make her total 22 for the match. Tennessee hit .117 for the second set and had six hitting errors.
Set Three
Tennessee blocked four balls, all in the last 10 points of the set, to claim a 25-19 third-set win to extend the match. The Wildcats had 14 kills and 10 hitting errors in the second set after having only six as a team for the entirety of the opening two sets. Tennessee jumped out to a 2-0 lead, its first lead of the entire match to start the third set and Kentucky punched back to square things at five all before battling to take the lead at 15-14 on a 3-0 run leading into the technical timeout. Out of the timeout, Tennessee closed the set by winning 11 of the last 15 points including six in a row, a match-high run for the Lady Vols that handed Tennessee a 20-15 lead that pushed UK into a timeout midway through the frame. After three sets, Kentucky was hitting .340 after hitting .135 in the third set and Tennessee jumped its hitting percentage to .198 after a .209 third set as a team with 12 kills to only three errors.
Set Four
Tennessee won the fourth set 25-21, leading by as many as seven points in the set at 11-4 before the Wildcats fought back to chip away and make things 12-8 and push the Lady Vols into a timeout. The media timeout came with Tennessee leading 15-10 and that lead grew to 17-11 out of the break as Kentucky tried to mount a rally down the stretch to get back into it. UK clawed as close as one point at 19-18 before two overturned challenges handed the Lady Vols a 23-20 lead and a UK misfire closed the match. UK hit only .111 in the fourth with Tennessee hitting .278 and two aces as the Wildcats struggled to pass in the early and middle phases of the set.
Set Five
Tennessee never trailed in the fifth set and collected match point at 14-10 before a Kentucky error closed out the match to hand the Lady Vols their first win over Kentucky since 2023.
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