No. 4 Louisville Downs No. 11 Kentucky in Four in Annual Bluegrass Battle

Despite 17 kills off the arm of sophomore outside hitter Brooklyn DeLeye and a home crowd of 3,838, it wasn’t enough for the No. 11 Kentucky volleyball team as No. 4 Louisville downed the Cats in four sets (21-25, 18-25, 25-20, 16-25) on Wednesday night inside Memorial Coliseum.

Offensively, Kentucky struggled mightily to terminate the ball, as only DeLeye and freshman middle blocker Brooke Bultema eclipsed double figures and hit above .000. DeLeye totaled her 17 kills on a .204 clip and Bultema totaled 11 kills on a .381 clip. Megan Wilson finished with seven kills, Erin Lamb had four, and Jordyn Dailey totaled three.

The Cats continued to impress from behind the service line, however, as they racked up nine service aces on the evening. Molly Tuozzo finished with four, Lamb and DeLeye each had a pair, and Wilson had one. 

Following the match, Louisville head coach Dani Busboom Kelly was impressed with her team’s ability to side out against Kentucky’s service game and had high praise for the Cats regarding that part of their game.

“I think they’re the best serving team in the country and I was very concerned about that coming into this match.”

Defensively, Tuozzo continued to impress in the libero jersey as she picked up a team-high 17 digs. Eleanor Beavin added 13, Emma Grome had nine, and Wilson added 6. 

Despite the loss, while UK head coach Craig Skinner was disappointed with the result, he was encouraged by the positives his team showed against yet another Top 5 team. 

“You’re either getting better or you’re getting worse and our job is to execute at a higher clip to put our energy into what are the areas of improvement that we need,” Skinner said. “We’ve made a lot of growth.”

With the loss, Kentucky falls to 6-4 on the year. Next up, they’ll travel to Palo Alto, California to take on No. 2 Stanford. First serve against the Cardinal is set for 10:30 pm ET and will be broadcast live on ESPN2.