DeLeye’s Career Night Powers No. 22 Kentucky Past LSU

Despite not having senior right side hitter Reagan Rutherford available due to injury, No. 22 Kentucky picked up its first win of Southeastern Conference play Friday night, downing the LSU Tigers in four sets (23-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-13) inside Rupp Arena.

Ahead of the match, Kentucky announced that Rutherford, who leads the Cats this season in kills per set, would not play against the Tigers due to an eye injury suffered in practice earlier this week. But despite her absence, Kentucky found offense from every other position at the net, led by freshman outside hitter Brooklyn DeLeye. DeLeye totaled a career-high 19 kills with just three errors and hit on a career-high .444 clip. 

But it wasn’t just DeLeye that found success offensively for Kentucky Friday night, as four Wildcats tallied double digit terminations. Senior middle blocker Elise Goetzinger added 12 kills of her own, Megan Wilson had 11, Azhani Tealer had ten on the right side, and Jordyn Williams added eight.

Emma Grome did a masterful job directing the Kentucky attack, picking up a match-high 51 assists while adding four kills of her own. The Cats totaled 64 team kills and hit .336 on the evening. 

Defensively, Kentucky held the Tigers to just 40 total kills through four sets of play and a hitting clip of only .135. LSU freshman Jurnee Robinson, who ranked second in the conference with 4.30 kills per set, totaled only 13 kills and was forced into 9 errors. 

Goetzinger proved to be a thorn in the side of the LSU Tigers all night long, as the senior tallied a team-high six rejections. Tealer added four blocks of her own, Wilson had two, and DeLeye, Williams, and Grome each had one. 

On the back line Kentucky was led by junior libero Eleanor Beavin, who picked up a match-high 19 digs. DeLeye, Whitworth, and Tuozzo each added seven, Grome had five, and Wilson had four. 

With the win, Kentucky improves to 3-6 on the season and 1-0 in SEC play. The victory snapped a three-match losing streak for the Cats and sets up a border battle clash against No. 14 Tennessee on Sunday. First serve against the Volunteers is set for 3 p.m. ET and will be broadcast live on ESPN.