Vicky Graff Photo
Kentucky picked a great time for its first Southeastern Conference sweep.
Coach Craig Skinner’s team got 12 kills from sophomore outside hitter Brooklyn DeLeye and 10 more kills from senior Megan Wilson in its 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-21) sweep of visiting Missouri Sunday.
The Cats are now 3-1 in SEC play after blowing a 2-0 lead and falling at Auburn to open conference play. The Cats got a huge win at Florida, rated No. 2 in the SEC preseason poll above No. 3 UK, and then outlasted Oklahoma 3-2 before Sunday’s win.
Now No. 13 Kentucky will host two-time defending national champion Texas Sunday before going to Tennessee. Texas is 4-0 in conference play and Tennessee 2-2.
Kentucky has won or shared seven straight SEC regular-season titles and Texas is probably a must-win for the Cats to hope to do that again. This will be the only meeting between the two teams.
Texas lost three non-conference games — Minnesota, Miami and Stanford. However, in SEC play Texas has lost only one set in four matches. It won 3-1 at rival Texas A&M to start conference play, swept LSU and Florida on the road and swept South Carolina at home.
Two former Wildcats — Madi Skinner and Reagan Rutherford — will make their return to Memorial Coliseum with Texas and are two of the Longhorns key players,
Kentucky had five non-conference losses — Nebraska, Penn State, Purdue, Louisville and Stanford.
Kentucky hit .303 against Missouri, a season-high in SEC play. All-American setter Emma Grome had 32 assists on 39 of Kentucky kills and UK had 12 hitting errors in the match while holding Missouri to a .103 hitting mark.
Sophomore libero Molly Tuozzo continued her impressive play with 12 digs, two assists and an ace. Eleanor Beavin had six dozen digs while Grome got four.
Wilson and Brooke Bultema each had four blocks. DeLeye and Jordyn Dailey each had two blocks — Dailey also had six kills.
UK-Mizzou Volleyball
Photos by Vicky Graff
