Kentucky VB sweeps Creighton, advances to program's second Final Four

by: Zack Geoghegan4 hours agoZGeogheganKSR

Kentucky volleyball has advanced to the program’s second-ever Final Four.

On Saturday night in Memorial Coliseum, the 1-seeded Wildcats won the Lexington Regional with a clean sweep of the 3-seeded Creighton Bluejays (25-19, 25-13, 25-18). Kentucky hit .263 as a squad, led by a match-high 18 kills from Brooklyn DeLeye. Eva Hudson wasn’t far behind with 13 kills of her own, while Molly Tuozzo paced the ‘Cats with 17 digs. Star freshman Kassie O’Brien chipped in 40 assists for good measure.

Kentucky is the first team to reach the Final Four of this year’s NCAA Tournament. UK will face the winner of Texas-Wisconsin next week (Thursday, Dec. 18) in Kansas City. The ‘Cats have already beaten Texas twice this season, most recently in the SEC Tournament championship that saw Kentucky reverse sweep the Longhorns.

Through four NCAA Tournament matches, all held at home, Kentucky has dropped just one set. UK swept Wofford in the opener, beat UCLA 3-1 in the second round, and swept Cal Poly on Thursday before doing the same to Creighton on Saturday. Only two more wins separate Craig Skinner’s squad from a second national championship.

The first set was a back-and-forth affair, with Creighton even taking the lead a handful of times until we reached the media timeout. Holding a 15-14 lead, Kentucky scored six straight points to take a commanding 21-15 advantage. The ‘Cats would go on to win the first set 25-19. UK received 13 combined kills from DeLeye and Hudson while holding Creighton to a .091 hitting percentage.

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Kentucky could smell blood in the water going into the second set, jumping in front 4-0 in the blink of an eye. Thanks to more heat from the swings of DeLeye and Hudson, UK’s lead would extend to 10-3 before Creighton was forced to call a timeout. The Bluejays had to take another timeout with Kentucky up 20-12, but it didn’t slow down the Cats, which racked up four straight points out of the break before ultimately taking the set 25-13.

The third set opened up much like the first. Neither team could balloon a lead beyond a couple of points. A Kennedy Washington kill going into the media timeout had Kentucky in front 15-14. A long rally capped off by a Hudson kill made it 17-14 in favor of the ‘Cats, sending the Memorial crowd into a frenzy. The run would continue, Kentucky soon controlling all the momentum with a 20-14 edge. UK would go on to polish off the sweep with a 25-18 third-set win, securing the first spot in this year’s Final Four.

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