Kentucky Volleyball's Grome named Player of the Week; Cats climbing Top 25

Make it three straight SEC Setter of the Week awards for Kentucky’s Emma Grome. This week, she adds SEC Player of the Week to her trophy case, too.

Kentucky Volleyball‘s junior setter took both awards when the Southeastern Conference named its Player of the Week award winners on Monday. Grome’s teammates, Brooklyn DeLeye and Eleanor Beavin, were also recognized, earning the league’s SEC Freshman of the Week and Defensive Player of the Week honors. 

SEC Volleyball Weekly Honors – Week 9

Offensive	Jordan Iliff, Missouri
Defensive	Eleanor Beavin, Kentucky
Setter	Emma Grome, Kentucky
Freshman	Brooklyn DeLeye, Kentucky

Grome led UK’s offense to a .315 hitting percentage and averaged 11.88 assists per set in wins over Mississippi State and No. 10 Arkansas. Against Mississippi State, she recorded a three-set high in assists with 43 assists in the match. Grome now averages 11.77 assists per set.

Beavin, a junior, set a new career high Sunday afternoon with a 30-dig performance in the five-set win over the Razorbacks, bringing her average for the week to 5.13 digs per set.

DeLeye, an outside hitter, is the SEC Freshman of the Week for a third straight week. She averaged 3.00 kills per set on the weekend with 17 kills to lead all Wildcats in the upset of Arkansas. The freshman from Topeka, Kansas, now has 10+ kills in seven of the nine SEC matches of the season.

Kentucky moving up in the rankings

With those two key SEC wins, Kentucky climbed five spots to No. 15 in this week’s American Volleyball Coaches’ Association Top 25. The Wildcats were the biggest movers in the poll, and Kentucky now sits in a tie for first in the SEC with a 7-1 league record.

	CONF	OVERALL
Arkansas	8-1	18-3
Kentucky	8-1	10-7
Tennessee	7-2	16-3
Florida	5-3	13-4
Texas A&M	6-4	14-6
Auburn	5-4	15-5
Missouri	4-5	12-8
Georgia	4-4	13-7
LSU	3-5	8-10
Mississippi St	3-6	10-9
South Carolina	2-7	8-10
Ole Miss	3-7	9-12
Alabama	0-9	10-10

Kentucky plays at LSU on Friday night at 9 p.m. ET live on SEC Network.