No. 2 Kentucky VB reverse sweeps Oklahoma to secure share of ninth straight SEC title

Kentucky volleyball sure didn’t make it easy on themselves Friday night.

The No. 2-ranked Wildcats went down early against the Oklahoma Sooners inside Memorial Coliseum, uncharacteristically dropping the first two sets. It was just the second match against an SEC team all season long that Kentucky allowed an opponent to take two sets off them.

But Craig Skinner’s squad proved why this is a national title contender, winning the final three sets to complete the reverse sweep, beating Oklahoma 3-2 (18-25, 21-25, 28-26, 25-19, 15-12). It was UK’s first reverse sweep since doing the same to Kansas back in 2018.

That’s not even the best part, though. With the win, Kentucky officially secured a share of its ninth straight SEC championship. UK, which holds an overall record of 21-2 (14-0 SEC), can win the league outright on Sunday — and complete a perfect conference season — with a win over Arkansas back at home for Senior Day.

Freshman setter Kassie O’Brien posted a new career-high 54 assists against the Sooners, the second time in her career she’s hit the 50-assist mark. Molly Tuozzo and O’Brien both had 13 digs in the match to lead the Wildcats on the defensive end. Eva Hudson (19 kills), Brooklyn DeLeye (16), and Lizzie Carr (11) paced a Kentucky offense that ended the match hitting .252. Hudson also surpassed 2,000 career college kills on Friday, making her the only active DI player in the country with at least 2k kills.

8️⃣ was great, so we made it 9️⃣ STRAIGHT🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

The Wildcats have clinched a share of the 2025 SEC Regular Season title!😼#WeAreUK x #BBN pic.twitter.com/iSKG33XvxL

— Kentucky Volleyball (@KentuckyVB) November 15, 2025

Early on against the Sooners, Kentucky looked all out of sorts. Hudson, who was cleared to play after suffering an ankle injury during UK’s previous match on Sunday, was able to tough it out and take the floor. But the Wildcats’ defense (combined with far too many mental mistakes on offense) struggled with Arkansas’ high-powered attack in the first two sets. The Sooners hit .481 in the first set and .393 in the second set, while Kentucky racked up a total of 14 errors across the opening two sets.

But with their backs against the wall, Kentucky flipped the script from then on. The ‘Cats were able to take the third set off a fourth set point, 28-26, hitting .341 with 18 kills to just four errors. Hudson won the set for UK thanks to her 16th kill of the night. Moving on to the fourth set, a pair of 6-0 runs from Kentucky allowed them to eventually tie the match 2-2 as we went into a decisive fifth set.

Riding all the momentum, Kentucky quickly took a 7-3 lead in the final set. With the match winner only needing to reach 15 points to take the match, the ‘Cats were in a terrific position to complete the comeback. That lead grew to 9-4, forcing Oklahoma to use its final timeout. After going down 11-4, the Sooners would fight back and make it 13-10, but back-to-back kills from Jordyn Dailey and Hudson pushed Kentucky across the finish line.

Going back to the second match of the regular season, Kentucky was on the receiving end of a reverse sweep against top-ranked Nebraska. But in the second-to-last match of the regular season, UK was able to experience what it’s like to be the one doing the comeback.

Now, the only thing standing between Kentucky and a perfect SEC season is Arkansas, currently the worst team in the conference at 5-20 overall (1-13 SEC). That Senior Day match on Sunday will begin at 1:00 p.m. ET on the SEC Network+. Senior Day ceremonies will begin at 12:50 p.m. ET.

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