Trinity Ward (1) came off the bench to serve and closed out the win at Missouri. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Thanks to a late service run by freshman Trinity Ward in the fourth set, No. 3 Kentucky was able to push past Missouri in a tightly-contested 3-1 (25-19, 18-25, 25-23, 25-20) win Thursday night in Hearnes Arena. The match for Kentucky caps off a perfect 7-0 season on the road in SEC play for 2025.
With the win, Kentucky is now 12-0 in Southeastern Conference play and remains perfect in league action this season with Thursday night’s result. Kentucky is now in first place with three matches to play with all three remaining inside Historic Memorial Coliseum beginning Sunday at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN with a BLUE OUT. Over 4,000 tickets have been sold, and fans are asked to purchase tickets ahead of time with the largest home crowd of the season expected inside HMC Sunday afternoon.
Eva Hudson and Brooklyn DeLeye both went over 20 kills Thursday night as Hudson logged 21 kills and DeLeye recorded 20 on the stat sheet, marking the second time this season that Kentucky has had two different players record 20-plus kills in the same match. UK hit .444 in the fourth set and .331 for the match with 60 kills to only 16 errors thanks to the tune of 46 assists from freshman Kassie O’Brien who also had eight blocks.
Lizzie Carr and the UK defense had 15 blocks in the match with Carr having 10 for the night as UK held the Tigers to .237 hitting for the match with Molly Tuozzo collecting 16 digs and assisting on eight balls with two service aces thrown in.
Kentucky is now 19-2 on the season and 12-0 in the SEC.
Set 1
Kentucky took the first set by winning the opener, 25-19. The Wildcats hit .400 as a team led by six kills from junior Brooklyn DeLeye and three kills each from Lizzie Carr and Eva Hudson. Missouri jumped out to the early lead with a 7-4 advantage before Ava Sarafa brought the Wildcats back into things with a 4-0 service run and DeLeye’s second kill of the match gave UK its first two-point lead of the set at 10-8. UK led by four at the media timeout, 15-11 before a 2-0 run out of the timeout by the Wildcats pushed the lead to six points and Missouri was pushed into its first timeout of the set. Craig Skinner won his first challenge of the match on a non-block touch and Kentucky was then up for the remainder of the set as Mizzou burned its final timeout after a DeLeye kill at 23-18 and DeLeye’s sixth kill of the set closed the book on a 25-19 opening set win. UK had 14 kills to just two errors in the opening frame with five stuff blocks as a team, led by three each from Kassie O’Brien and Lizzie Carr. Mizzou hit .079 for the set with 11 kills and eight errors in the opener on 38 swings.
Set 2
Missouri led from wire to wire in the second set and tied things up with a 25-18 win in the frame. The Wildcats were uncharacteristically poor offensively in the set with only 11 kills and five hitting errors to hit .154 for the frame while the Tigers stepped things up with a .351 set and 13 kills as opposed to just five errors. Kentucky took what was a 13-9 Mizzou lead and clawed back to within one thanks to a 3-0 service run by Molly Tuozzo with an ace thrown in at 13-12, but Mizzou then closed the set on a 4-0 run after UK closed to within three at 21-18 and won the set, 25-18 to square the set. Through two sets, Kentucky was hitting .261 as a team with DeLeye’s nine kills leading the way for the Wildcats followed by Hudson’s six kills to just one error on 15 swings and Kassie O’Brien had 20 assists on 25 of UK’s kills. Eva Hudson had nine digs to lead all UK players through the set and Lizzie Carr joined O’Brien with five blocks each to pace UK .
Set 3
Kentucky took a tightly-contested third set, 25-23 as UK ended the set on a 2-0 run thanks to Eva Hudson who recorded the final two points of the set and the last swing on a transition attack after a great block touch on Mizzou’s sideout attempt. The Wildcats led the frame from wire-to-wire with the lead growing to three early on at 6-3 thanks to a 3-0 run by Molly Tuozzo at the service line. That was followed by a 3-0 run by the Tigers, who tied the set up at six all and that would set the tone for the set. Kentucky had a swing for 15-11 at the media timeout, but it was blocked and things went to the timeout at 15-13 in favor of UK. Mizzou tied things up at 16 all as Kentucky then responded with two points including a second-successful challenge to make things 19-16 and the Tigers took their first timeout. Kennedy Washington stuffed a ball at the net to make things 21-16 as the five-point lead was UK’s largest of the set which was followed by a 4-0 Mizzou run to cut into the lead and eventually tie things up at 22 all. With things tied 23-23, Eva Hudson sided out on the left pin and then closed the set after Mizzou’s final timeout with her 15th kill of the match. UK hit .302 for the set with 20 kills to six errors and O’Brien had 18 assists in the frame. Mizzou hit a respectable .303 for the set with 14 kills and four errors to the Tigers credit. Kentucky took a two sets to one lead at that point in the match.
Set 4
Set four was like set three with a tightly-contested frame going to the wire. Kentucky won its third challenge of the match to make things 5-4 early on, but fell behind 10-6 and had to use an early timeout. UK climbed back and took the lead on a kill from Lizzie Carr at 16-15 and Mizzou called its first timeout. Kentucky then leveled on a two-point lead to the finish as the Tigers pulled to within 20-19 but freshman Trinity Ward rattled off four winning-point serves, including an ace to close out the match as Kentucky took the set, 25-20.
