No. 8 Kentucky Falls to No. 9 Arkansas in a Five Set Heartbreaker, Ends Season in Sweet Sixteen

Despite four Wildcats eclipsing double figures on the evening, No. 8 Kentucky couldn’t find enough of a consistent offensive rhythm to get past No. 9 Arkansas Thursday as they dropped a heartbreaker to the Razorbacks in five sets (25-22, 22-25, 15-25, 25-22, 10-15) inside the Bob Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln, Neb. in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament to end the 2023 season.

Just fifteen days ago, Kentucky traveled to Fayetteville and hit .271 as a team en route to a dominant sweep over the Razorbacks in the final week of the regular season. Thursday’s contest proved to be a different story, however, as the Cats totaled 31 hitting errors as a team and hit just .184 for the match. 

While the story of Kentucky’s offense for much of the season was the team’s balance, their Achilles heel against the Razorbacks this time around was their reliance on outside hitter Brooklyn DeLeye. While the freshman did finish with a team high 16 kills, the Cats set her a whopping 67 times, far and away the highest on the team. 

The bright spots of the Cats’ offense came on the arms of Erin Lamb and Azhani Tealer, who totaled 15 and 12 kills respectively. Lamb totaled only 5 errors on the evening and hit on a .312 clip and was one of two players for Kentucky to hit above .200 in the match. The other was Tealer, who tallied her 12 kills on 23 swings with only two errors, good for a .435 clip. In her final match as a Wildcat, the senior totaled six of her 12 kills in a must-win fourth set that Kentucky won to push the match to a fifth and final frame.  

Reagan Rutherford added 11 kills of her own, Elise Goetzinger had nine, and Emma Grome totaled two. Grome dished out a match-high 52 assists and added 15 digs and a pair of blocks as well.

Defensively, Kentucky’s back line was stellar once again, led by junior libero Eleanor Beavin. Beavin picked up a match-high 25 digs and added eight assists and a pair of service aces as well. Molly Tuozzo added 10 digs of her own, DeLeye and Rutherford each had eight, and Goetzinger and Audrey Whitworth both had six. 

At the net, Tealer sent back a match-high five rejections. Rutherford had four, Goetzinger had three, Grome and Lamb each had a pair, and DeLeye finished with one. 

With the loss, Kentucky bows out of the NCAA Tournament in the Sweet Sixteen for the second-consecutive season. The victory for the Razorbacks snapped Kentucky’s nation-best 18-match winning streak and marked the first victory for Arkansas over Kentucky since 2012. The Cats finish the season with a 21-8 overall record and a 17-1 mark in the SEC, an achievement that saw them capture the SEC Championship for the seventh-consecutive season.

While Tealer’s illustrious career in the blue and white officially comes to a close, Rutherford, Goetzinger, and fellow senior Riah Walker all have the option to return to Kentucky for a fifth year should they elect to do so. That senior class marks the final class that have an extra year of eligibility granted to them by the NCAA due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Decisions by each athlete have yet to be announced. 

Following the game, Hunter Mitchell and former Wildcat Leah Edmond recapped the match and wrapped up the 2023 season live on Point Kentucky. Click the link below to catch up on the podcast and recap another stellar season for the Kentucky volleyball team.