Kentucky volleyball defeats SEC rival, books its first trip to Elite Eight since 2020

Third-seeded Kentucky volleyball booked its ticket to the Pittsburgh Regional finals on Thursday afternoon with a 3-1 (25-20, 25-20, 16-25, 25-13) victory over Southeastern Conference rival Missouri, the No. 7 seed.

This marks the Wildcats’ third consecutive victory over the Tigers this season. It’s also the third NCAA regional finals appearance during the Craig Skinner tenure, third since 2017 and first since UK won the national championship in 2020.

Kentucky (23-7) navigated the first two sets without much problem, relying on its familiarity with the Tigers to ease to a 2-0 advantage. The Wildcats took their first lead of the match at 9-8, and never relented, even as Missouri kept things close for the majority of the set. Kentucky hit .457 and closed the set on a 6-2 scoring run, putting the Tigers away with 18 kills, two blocks and an Emma Grome service ace.

UK kept things rolling in the second set, working hard to pick on Missouri (22-9) standout and SEC Newcomer of the Year Mychael Vernon, who recorded five kills during the first set. Kentucky jumped to a 12-8 lead on a kill by 2024 SEC Player of the Year Brooklyn DeLeye, forcing a Missouri timeout, and continued to fight to take a 19-11 lead and force another one. Though the Tigers made adjustments and scored four straight, a well-timed Skinner timeout up 21-17 allowed the Wildcats to regroup and secure the second set.

However, the Tigers avoided the sweep with an impressive third-set response. What began as a 5-4 lead for the Tigers quickly snowballed into a 10-0 scoring run bolstered by a dominant serving effort from Missouri senior libero Kiaraliz Perez Catala; she recorded each of her three aces during that stretch. UK redshirt freshman middle blocker Brooke Bultema stopped the bleeding with a kill, but the Wildcats couldn’t get closer than eight points for the remainder of the set.

DeLeye noted after the victory that the Wildcats weren’t discouraged following the third set. Though UK successfully swept the Tigers in Lexington on Oct. 6, Missouri muscled a set off Kentucky in the Nov. 27 rematch in Columbia — a third-set response packed with renewed energy to extend the match.

Kentucky entered Thursday’s fourth set on a mission to reach the regional finals, and scored first before taking a comfortable 12-6 lead and forcing a Missouri timeout. Out of the timeout, UK pushed out to an 18-10 advantage before a successful challenge from Skinner lifted the Wildcats to a nine-point lead and forced yet another Tigers timeout. Kentucky claimed the final set, and booked its ticket to Saturday’s NCAA Elite Eight with a 6-3 stretch.

It was a dominant day for Grome, who set UK volleyball’s all-time assists record in the Wildcats’ second-round win over Minnesota last week. Against Missouri, Grome recorded 50 assists — pushing her career total to 5,013 — and 10 digs.

DeLeye totaled a match-high 22 kills while hitting .419 in the Wildcats’ victory. Bultema finished with 10 kills, and senior outside hitter Megan Wilson added 13 of her own.

The Wildcats will face No. 1 overall seed Pitt on Saturday at 5 p.m. in the Elite Eight at Pittsburgh’s Petersen Events Center.

Pittsburgh defeated No. 4 regional seed Oregon in five sets on Thursday.

This year’s NCAA Final Four will be hosted by Louisville at the KFC Yum! Center.

Louisville also advances

After Thursday’s NCAA Sweet 16 matches, Kentucky and Louisville remained on course for a collision in the Final Four in Louisville next week.

The Cardinals earned a spot in the Elite Eight for the fourth year in a row with a 3-0 sweep of Purdue in Freedom Hall on Thursday night.

Louisville, seeded No. 1 in its regional, was to face No. 2 seed Stanford in Freedom Hall on Saturday night.

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