No. 6 Kentucky volleyball (6-2) secured its second top-five road win, beating No. 3 Louisville (7-2) at the KFC Yum! Center in a five-set thriller 3-2 (21-25.25-21,24-26,25-12,15-7).
The win gave the Cats their first victory over Louisville since 2019, ending a six-game losing streak.
“Yeah, I did say I’ve never beaten them. So this is just an amazing opportunity, and it just kind of shows we’re not done yet,” Brooklyn DeLeye said. “It’s still early in the season; we still have a lot to work on.”
Kentucky started off the first set slowly on both sides, letting Louisville hit at a .300 clip in the first set and getting blocked six times.
In the second set, Kentucky responded defensively, holding Louisville to a -.048 clip. The Wildcats had seven blocks in this set, with Brooke Bultema leading the team with four blocks in the second set alone. Behind the improved defensive wall, Kentucky evened the match at one set apiece.
The third set is where Kentucky’s depth started to get going. Jordyn Dailey had a great third set as she accumulated three kills, which tied for the highest kills in the third set with Eva Hudson.
The Wildcats pushed the Cardinals deep into the set, but with the score tied at 24-24, setter Kassie O’Brien cramped up and came out of the game, giving Kentucky no true setter since Ava Sarafa was already used as a serve specialist earlier in the set. Louisville capitalized, taking the next two points to claim the set 26-24 and a 2-1 lead in the match.
In the fourth set, Sarafa stayed in the game as Kentucky’s setter and got the offense going quickly, finding a rhythm. With the score 6-4 in the third set, coach Craig Skinner used another member of his bench, bringing in Asia Thigpen to serve, and got Kentucky six straight points with her serve, making the score 12-5.
“The thing that people know in our program about Asia is there’s nobody that puts more time after and before practice than Asia Thigpen,” Skinner said.
Sarafa dished out 14 assists in the fourth set, and the defense held the Cardinals to another negative hitting percentage of -.054.
“Just getting that ball fast out there so the block isn’t formed,” Sarafa said was the key to her success.
In the deciding fifth set, Kentucky dominated from start to finish, winning the match on a Hudson kill.
Kentucky held the Cards to the lowest hitting percentage of their season so far at a .072 clip.
“To hold a team like Louisville to 47 kills in a five-set match is pretty impressive,” Skinner said. “Then people like Ava coming off the bench make a huge difference in the match when we needed our bench.”
Kentucky will next be in action on Saturday, Sept. 20, as it takes on Washington at Historic Memorial Coliseum in its last non-conference game of the regular season with first serve set for 1 p.m. ET.
