Kentucky Volleyball Sweeps Cal Poly to Advance to Elite Eight

Kentucky will now play Creighton on Saturday in the 2025 Lexington Regional Final for a spot in the Final Four. The match time will be announced late Thursday night by ESPN. The match will be televised by ESPN2. Tickets can be purchased at UKathletics.com/tickets. Creighton beat second-seeded Arizona State 3-1 on Thursday in the opening match of the regional.

UK had seven players who had multiple kills in the match Thursday as Carr led the way with 11 and Eva Hudson having nine in the match without an error on 24 swings for a .375 hitting percentage. Brooklyn DeLeye had eight kills Thursday night with eight digs, as well as the Kentucky offense was firing on all cylinders during the match.

UK’s defense was the main story Thursday as the Wildcats held Cal Poly to a .114 hitting percentage for the afternoon, including a -.083 mark for the third set alone. Cal Poly was forced into 19 hitting errors during the match and Kentucky had nine stuff blocks as a team, including four in the third set alone as UK cruised to a 25-7 third-set sealing mark.

Kennedy Washington was errorless Thursday afternoon with seven kills on 10 swings to hit .700 and she also threw in three blocks as Carr’s six blocks led the way for UK’s defense. Between Carr and Washington, they combined for 18 kills and only one error in the match along with nine blocks in what ended up determining the difference in the outcome.

Kassie O’Brien ran the Kentucky offense to a .419 hitting percentage with 31 assists in the match. Molly Tuozzo had nine digs to lead the Wildcats in the floor defense category and Tuozzo also added in five assists to her stat line, as well.

Set 1
Kentucky hit .464 in the first set and took the opener, 25-18 over the Mustangs to grab a 1-0 lead in the match. UK jumped out to the quick 4-1 lead on two kills each by Lizzie Carr and Brooklyn DeLeye to put the Mustangs under immediate pressure. Cal Poly pushed back and pulled to within one at 4-3 but Kentucky then raced out to another three-point lead at 9-6 and never looked back. The Wildcats took a 15-12 lead into the media break following a Mustang blocking error and then after UK won two of the next three points out of the media timeout, they called one of their own, their first, at 17-13. A stuff by Kennedy Washington pushed Kentucky in front 21-17 and Cal Poly burned its final timeout. Kentucky arrived at set point leading 24-18 and an ace from Trinity Ward sealed the first set as UK won it, 25-18. Lizzie Carr had a team-best five kills in the first set, on five swings to hit 1.000 as Kentucky hit .464 as a team. Kassie O’Brien had 10 assists on 15 of UK’s kills with Kentucky logging 15 kills to two errors in the frame. UK never trailed in the first set.

Set 2
UK held Cal Poly to .079 hitting in the second set and claimed a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-19 second-set victory. The Wildcats hit .257 for the frame and had 17 digs en route to taking the set. Kentucky trailed early at 5-2 but a 5-0 Trinity Ward serving run pushed Kentucky in front for the first time all set and the lead grew to multiple points on a kill from Eva Hudson on the left side to make things 7-5. Kentucky’s lead became four at 11-7 and at the media timeout, an extended-rally kill by Lizzie Carr pushed UK to 15-12 at the break. Cal Poly used its first timeout when it trailed 9-4 and then a pipe by Brooklyn DeLeye made things 20-14 as UK took the six-point lead for the first time all day. Cal Poly burned its final halt to play at 22-16 and a service ace ended the second set, just as it did the first, as Molly Tuozzo pushed across her first ace of the day to close the book on the second set with a 25-19 frame. Kentucky had 14 kills in the set and Kassie O’Brien had 21 assists through the opening two sets of play.