No. 10 Kentucky Uses Balanced Effort to Sweep Past SMU

Thanks to a terrific all-around team effort, the No. 10 Kentucky volleyball team picked up its most impressive win of the young season Friday night, sweeping aside SMU in straight sets (25-23, 26-24, 25-21) in the first match of the SMU Doubletree Invitational. 

Prior to Friday night’s game, the Mustangs had already shocked the volleyball world this season with a pair of incredibly impressive sweeps over Top 25 opponents. Just ten days ago SMU swept aside No. 2 Nebraska at home before traveling to No. 18 Baylor a week later and dispatching the Bears in straight sets. 

But the Cats refused to be the third ranked team to fall to the Mustangs and jumped on SMU early to prevent them from settling into any kind of rhythm. Through the first 20 points of the match, Kentucky raced out to a 13-7 lead in large part because of some impressive play from behind the service line. Three of the Cats’ first eight points came off aces, a trend that continued for much of the night.

Kentucky finished the match with nine service aces, led by senior outside hitter Erin Lamb who totaled three. Brooklyn DeLeye, Brooke Bultema, and Eleanor Beavin each added a pair of aces in the winning effort as well.

Offensively setter Emma Grome dished out a match-high 38 assists. DeLeye led all players with 15 kills, Megan Wilson finished with 10 on a .409 clip, Lamb had nine, Bultema had six, and Grome and Jordyn Dailey each totaled four. 

Defensively Dailey and Wilson proved to be a thorn in the side of the Mustangs at the net all night long as they racked up 7.0 and 4.0 blocks respectively. At libero, Molly Tuozzo finished with 11 digs, DeLeye had six, Grome had five, and Beavin finished with three.

With the win, Kentucky improves to 6-2 on the season and will wrap up the weekend tomorrow with yet another Top 10 showdown as they take on No. 7 Purdue. First serve against the Boilermakers is set for 3:00 pm.