.482 Hitting Efficiency Powers No. 6 Kentucky Past South Carolina
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Kentucky Volleyball team hit a monstrous .482 and collected its fourth-straight sweep in Southeastern Conference play Friday night as the No. 6 Wildcats beat South Carolina 3-0 (25-14, 25-17, 25-16) in the Carolina Volleyball Center.
Morgan Gaerte led the Kentucky offense with 13 kills on 23 swings to hit .478 on the evening and stuffed a pair of blocks for the Wildcats. Brooklyn DeLeye also was into double figure kills with 12 on 24 swings with only one error to hit .458 in the match as the two Wildcats in double-figure scoring.
Kassie O’Brien logged 39 assists on the night, leading UK to the .482 hitting percentage, one dig shy of a double-double and three blocks. O’Brien also closed out the match with a kill from an out-of-system ball in the center of the court with a behind-the-back dump.
Kentucky is now 19-5 on the year and 11-3 in the Southeastern Conference and with Friday night’s result, have clinched a double bye in the SEC Tournament next weekend in Savannah. Kentucky is tied with Vanderbilt for second in the SEC. UK will receive the double bye into the quarterfinals on Sunday.
The Wildcats will close out the 2026 regular season schedule with a match Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. ET at Georgia from Stegeman Coliseum in Athens. The match will air live on SEC Network+ and the ESPN app.
Set One
Kentucky hit .484 in the first set and cruised to a 25-14 opening set win to take control of the match 1-0. UK got six kills from Morgan Gaerte and five kills from Brooklyn DeLeye with only three team errors in the set as the Wildcats notched 18 kills to three errors. After USC won the opening point, Brooklyn DeLeye’s serving run pushed the next five points Kentucky’s way to make things 5-1 and after an ace by Molly Tuozzo to make Kentucky’s lead 9-2, South Carolina burned its first timeout. The media timeout came after Brooklyn DeLeye’s second kill of the match to make things 15-6 in UK’s favor and after the fourth service ace of the set for the Wildcats, the Gamecocks called their final timeout trailing 20-10. Kentucky reached set point leading 24-12, a set-high 12-point lead, and UK sided out to close the book on the set at 24-14 thanks to DeLeye’s sixth kill of the match to hit .556 in the first set. Lizzie Carr hit .750 in the set with three kills on four swings and the only block of the set came from Gracison Saylors and Kassie O’Brien midway through the frame.
Set Two
Kentucky won the second set with a 25-17 victory by hitting .483 for the frame with 16 kills and only two errors on 29 swings. Craig Skinner won his first challenge of the match to make things 2-0 tilted in Kentucky’s favor to make things tilt the Wildcats way early in the set and that lead grew to four at 6-2 and USC burned its first timeout. The Gamecocks ran off three in a row for the first time in the match to make the score 7-6 in UK’s favor, but Molly Tuozzo stepped to the line for a service run of four in a row and the media timeout was reached with Kentucky ahead 15-11. Kentucky won the four points straight out of the timeout to make things 19-11 and USC called its final timeout. The Wildcats arrived at set point with a 24-16 lead after leading by as many as 10 at 23-13 and a kill by Lizzie Carr, her seventh of the match, ended the set. Morgan Gaerte had nine kills to lead all players through two sets and DeLeye had eight kills on 17 swings without an error and Molly Tuozzo’s 10 digs led the off-blocker defense for the Cats. Kassie O’Brien had 25 assists through a pair of sets and Gracison Saylor’s three blocks were the leader at the net. Lizzie Carr was hitting .889 through two sets with eight kills on nine swings with no errors.
Set Three
The sweep was completed in set three as the Wildcats won set three, 25-16, hitting .424 in doing so. It was another strong start for UK, as Kentucky won its second challenge of the match on the second point to make things 2-0 in its favor with South Carolina calling its first timeout trailing 10-5. The media timeout was reached with the Wildcats leading 15-10 and that lead was ballooned to eight at 19-11 when the Gamecocks called their final timeout. Kentucky arrived at match point leading 24-14 and closed out the match on a kill by Kassie O’Brien.
For the latest on UK Volleyball, follow the Wildcats on Twitter and Instagram at @KentuckyVB.
