Lamb, DeLeye Lead No. 13 Kentucky Past Georgia in Three

Three Wildcats eclipsed double figures and the Cats hit .410 as a team en route to a 3-0 sweep (25-13, 25-23, 25-20) over visiting Georgia Sunday inside Rupp Arena to push Kentucky’s winning streak to 12-straight.

Junior setter Emma Grome did a terrific job quarterbacking the offense against the Bulldogs, as the Cats totaled 52 kills and only 11 errors through three sets of play, good for a .410 hitting clip. Grome dished out 43 assists as Kentucky saw five Wildcats total five or more kills, led by freshman Brooklyn DeLeye. 

DeLeye recorded 16 kills in the match and made up half of one of Kentucky’s most complete performances on the left side all season. Her counterpart, Erin Lamb, finished with 14 terminations on a .480 clip. The two outsides totaled just five errors on 53 combined swings and out-killed the entire Georgia team 30-28. 

Reagan Rutherford finished the day with 11 kills, Azhani Tealer had six, and Elise Goetzinger registered five. 

After the game, Grome harped on her team’s balance as a key reason she’s been able to have so much success this season. 

“It’s a lot of fun,” Grome said. “What’s cool about that is if I have every option it just allows me to be deceptive, get into a flow and I can kind of be creative with things. So I think it’s really awesome that I can trust any one of my options at any time.”

Kentucky’s defense stifled Georgia through three sets of play, allowing only 28 total kills and forcing 18 hitting errors. Only one Bulldog managed to reach double figures- former Wildcat Sophie Fischer, who finished the day with 10 kills. Georgia hit only. 105 as a team and had a side out percentage of only 49%. 

UK head coach Craig Skinner cited his team’s improved defensive instincts as a key reason the defense has taken such a big leap of late. 

“Early on in the season, I think we were running around too much on defense,” Skinner said. “Now, we’re just trusting our reads and making plays.”  

At the net, Tealer registered a match-high seven blocks. Rutherford added four and Grome, Goetzinger, and Lamb each had one. Eleanor Beavin led the charge on the back line once again, picking up a match-high nine digs. Molly Tuozzo added eight, DeLeye and Grome each had seven, and Audrey Whitworth had four.

With the win, Kentucky improves to 15-7 overall and 13-1 in Southeastern Conference play. The victory also marked the sixth top-50 RPI win and fourth-straight for the Cats. They’ll be back in action Thursday against Texas A&M inside Rupp Arena. First serve is set for 7:00 pm and will be broadcast live on SEC Network+.