Lamb’s Late Heroics Lead No. 20 UK Volleyball Past No. 10 Arkansas in Five

Thanks to a team-high 17 kills from freshman Brooklyn DeLeye and some late-game heroics from Erin Lamb, the No. 20 Kentucky volleyball team took down No. 10 Arkansas in a five-set thriller (16-25, 25-16, 25-22, 19-25, 15-10) Sunday inside Rupp Arena to move into first place atop the Southeastern Conference.

Offensively, setter Emma Grome directed the Kentucky attack to 66 kills with only 16 errors, good for a .305 hitting clip. Three Wildcats eclipsed double figures on the afternoon, led by DeLeye’s 17 terminations. The freshman totaled just two errors through 46 attempts on a .326 hitting percentage. Seniors Reagan Rutherford and Elise Goetzinger tallied 14 kills apiece, Megan Wilson had eight, and Azhani Tealer had seven.

But the hero of the match turned out to be Erin Lamb, who was inserted into the match late in the fourth set but totaled four kills on six swings in the fifth set alone. The junior found the floor with her fourth kill on match point to give the Cats their second Top 10 victory in seven days.

UK head coach Craig Skinner made the decision to insert Lamb into the match to try to generate an offensive spark. And after her recent play in practice, he had complete confidence that she would make the most of the opportunity. 

“We’ve seen her in practice tear it up all the time,” Skinner said. “That’s why she got that opportunity and why you feel proud that some kid doesn’t just pack it in because she’s not playing or because she started a lot last year and now she’s not.”

But after seeing Lamb work in the gym every day, Eleanor Beavin and the rest of her teammates weren’t surprised to see her success.

“Any time she comes in it’s almost like we’re expecting her to kind of go off,” Beavin said. “So to see her do that is really special. She works really hard in practice and when she gets that opportunity we all have so much trust in her.” 

Defensively, Beavin had a career day for Kentucky, as she set a new career-high with 30 digs. But it wasn’t just Beavin who played well on the back line, as sophomore Audrey Whitworth added a career-high 18 digs of her own, Molly Tuozzo had 15, Grome had 9, and DeLeye had 8.

At the net, Rutherford recorded 6 rejections, with three coming on back-to-back-to-back plays at a pivotal moment in set five. Tealer had 4 blocks, Goetzinger had 3, and Wilson added 2. 

With the win, Kentucky improves to 10-7 on the season and 8-1 in the SEC. The victory snapped a 16-match winning streak for Arkansas and the Cats now move into first place along with the Razorbacks atop the SEC. Next up, the Cats will travel to Baton Rouge for a matchup with the LSU Tigers. First serve is set for 9:00 pm E.T. on Friday evening and will be broadcast live on the SEC Network.