Freshman Molly Tuozzo enjoyed the SEC championship celebration after Saturday's win over Florida. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Freshman Molly Tuozzo says it is a “great feeling” to be part of Kentucky’s Southeastern Conference championship team as she prepares to play in her first NCAA Tournament Thursday in Rupp Arena.
Kentucky is on a 16-match win streak going into Thursday’s 7:30 p.m. first-round matchup with Wofford and will play the James Madison-Baylor winner Friday night if it wins.
“We work really hard every day and it has definitely paid off for us. It is an indescribable feeling for everyone,” said Tuozzo after UK swept Florida Saturday.
Tuozzo admits the season “started out rough” when UK went 3-7 against a brutal schedule loaded with ranked opponents.
“Even then we knew the potential of this team was incredible. We finally showed out what we can do,” the freshman from Texas said.
Tuozzo has helped solidify UK’s back line and is averaging 2.30 digs per set and is second on the team with 19 service aces. She was named to the SEC all-freshman team.
“She is a special player. She has made a lot of big-time defensive plays for us,” UK coach Craig Skinner said. “She is a crazy athlete. She can touch the basketball rim even though she is only 5-7. She has a lot of speed and reads the game so well.
“She has great composure. Teams have tried to come at her with serve and break her down and she has never broken.”
Tuozzo was part of UK’s No. 1 ranked recruiting class but knew she would “have to fight” for a spot at Kentucky because of the talent on the team.
“But it is very exciting that I am even getting to play here. It’s an awesome program,” she said.
It’s easy to tell she enjoys being part of the program because she’s always smiling on and off the court.
“Yeah that is pretty much me. Just a bubbly personality. I think it helps me with my positive attitude to make my teammates happy, cheering them up, making them better,” she said.
Tuozzo definitely enjoyed the celebration after the Florida win when UK clinched the SEC title. She was one of several players making “snow angels” in the confetti that covered the floor.
“No, I have not done that before. Some of them (older players) told me what it would be like after the match, so we kind of knew. But I had never done one of those (snow angels) before,” she said.
She has “no doubt” UK is good enough to win the national championship. The Wildcats are the No. 8 overall seed and are in the same bracket with No. 1 overall seed Nebraska and No. 3 Arkansas, a SEC team UK beat twice this season.
“We definitely had a rough start playing a bunch of great teams. I think that has prepared us for the tournament. It sucks that we lost but it has given us the opportunity to play super hard teams and know what to expect,” Tuozzo said.
“We have talked about (winning the championship). We know we can beat any team. I think that is our mindset every game. I think we were tired of losing and knew what potential this team had.
“We knew what we could do. We had nothing to lose. We just turned it around and were fighting for every single point. It’s definitely worked out for us and we’re not going to change that in the tournament.”
