SEC Tournament MVP Molly Tuozzo with the UK volleyball team's wolf.
By LARRY VAUGHT
Kentucky was in deep trouble against Texas in the Southeastern Conference Tournament title match.
Texas won the first two sets and led 23-19 in set 3 when UK coach Craig Skinner called timeout. That gave junior libero Molly Tuozzo — the eventual tourney MVP — a chance to encourage her teammates. That’s something that seemed a bit out of character for the normally quiet Tuozzo.
Freshman defensive specialist Trinity Ward said Tuozzo has been a leader all season but has “stepped up” her vocal leadership based on what others and even Tuozzo have said.
“She’s become a team captain, which is a big role. I feel like in those l crucial moments, especially in the timeouts, whenever she speaks up everyone has so much respect for her that we’re listening. We’re bought into her,” Ward said on WLAP Sunday Morning Sports Talk.
“I feel like that was just her time to shine and we were all just ready for what she was going to say.”
Whatever she said, it worked because Kentucky rallied to win the match in five sets and hold off two match points in the third set after Tuuzzo’s comments.
Tuozzo said after the match that Kentucky was a “pack of wolves” and was seen during the match holding a small stuffed wolf.
Ward said the wolf is known to UK players as “Webby” and has been part of the team most of the season. Freshman setter Kassie O’Brien named the miniature wolf.
“It’s kind of our symbol. Obviously we have a wildcat, but it’s just something extra for us,” Ward said. “After every game we had out the wolf to whoever has worked the hardest or has shown the best culture of Kentucky volleyball.
“You hand it off every game, but during the game we hold on to it and put it either on the whiteboard or someone is holding it. It’s just to show that we’re all one team and that we are representing a lot more than just ourselves. Webby is our symbol and who we play for.”
Whoever receives the wolf takes care of it until the next match and even travels with the wolf in their possession.
Associate head coach Meredith Jewell Frey had a friend who made a 3D print of a “wolf kind of things” early in the season that the players put their names on and the name plates were switched out depending on who won the award each game.
“I think it was the first weekend of the year in Nashville (when UK played Nashville) and (coach) Craig (Skinner) said that we were a pack of wolves because we stuck together and we’re a pack. That’s kind of where it started,” Ward said. “And then we got Meredith’s wolf and it just kept going from there.
