No. 3 Kentucky opened Southeastern Conference play with a 3-1 (21-25, 25-17, 25-19, 25-19) win over previously unbeaten Vanderbilt.
Morgan Gaerte and Brooklyn DeLeye both had 21 kills to lead the Wildcats to victory.
Here is a match recap from UK Athletics:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Morgan Gaerte and Brooklyn DeLeye both had 21 kills Wednesday night as No. 3 Kentucky opened Southeastern Conference play with a 3-1 (21-25, 25-17, 25-19, 25-19) win over the previously unbeaten Vanderbilt Commodores in Memorial Gymnasium.
Kentucky dropped the first set with five attack errors and then played the next two sets only with two attack errors combined, including zero in the third set’s entirety as the Wildcats won their 27th-straight SEC match to open league play.
Kassie O’Brien had 54 assists on the night and paced the Wildcats to .444 hitting for the evening with .400 and above for the UK offense in the final three sets of the night. In addition to DeLeye and Gaerte both notching 21 kills, Lizzie Carr and Asia Thigpen both also had eight for UK on the evening.
The UK defense was strong Wednesday as it had 12 blocks to the Commodores two with Lizzie Carr notching seven to lead all players in the match. Vandy had two stuff blocks in the first set and did not record a block against UK in the final combined three sets.
Kentucky is now 9-2 on the year and will play host to No. 7 Texas on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET in Historic Memorial Coliseum. The match is nearing a sellout and will be televised on ESPN with Eric Frede and Mary Wise on the call from HMC.
Set One
After the opening two points went the way of Kentucky thanks to a kill from Asia Thigpen and a stuff by Morgan Gaerte, the rest of the set all went Vanderbilt’s way as they opening the match with a 25-21 first set victory. The Wildcats only managed 14 kills in the first set and had five errors with five service errors, as well to hand the Dores 10 of the 25 points. The Wildcats hit just .250 in the set with Morgan Gaerte’s five kills leading the way for UK. VU led 15-12 at the media timeout on a 3-0 run and took a 21-16 lead as Kentucky was forced into its final timeout. VU got to the red zone at 20-16 and carried that four-point cushion to arrive at set point leading 24-19. After the Wildcats got two point in a row, Vandy called its first timeout and a service error by UK ended the set with Vandy taking a 1-0 lead in the match.
Set Two
Kentucky evened the match with a 25-17 second-set win as the Wildcats hit .500 and held the Commodores to .226 for the set. Trinity Ward went on a 9-0 scoring run at the service line for Kentucky as she took to the line with UK ahead by one at 8-7 and left with UK holding a commanding 17-8 lead as it shifted the momentum the way of the Wildcats in the second set. Again, UK started out strong, winning the opening three points before VU responded with three in a row of its own to keep the opening part of the set a tug-o-war battle. Morgan Gaerte had nine kills at the end of the second set, hitting .412 for the match to that point and Brooklyn DeLeye having eight kills on 18 swings to hit .412, as well.
Set Three
Kentucky won the third set 25-19 to take its first lead in the match as the efficient Wildcats hit .680 in the set and had 17 kills to zero hitting errors in the set with an ace sprinkled in to make things tilt UK’s favor. Kentucky led 7-3 and then took a 12-6 lead as Kassie O’Brien took control of an over pass and sent it out to Morgan Gaerte for Garete’s 14th kill of the match that send the Commodores into their first timeout of the set. Three sideout exchanges later, the media timeout came with UK ahead 15-9 and three points later, UK whistled for its first timeout after a 3-0 Commodore run to make things 15-12, the tightest things had been since it was 6-3. Kentucky then slowly laid the bricks down to its lead as Brooklyn DeLeye’s solo stuff and a second ace of the night from Trinity Ward made things 21-17 and VU called its final timeout. Lizzie Carr terminated her sixth kill of the match to end the set as UK served at 24-19 to close out the frame and hand the Wildcats a 2-1 lead in the match overall for the first time Wednesday night.
Set Four
Kentucky raced out to a 4-0 lead in the fourth set and never trailed as it capped off the match with a 25-21 final-set victory. UK led by two at the media timeout at 15-13 and then when things got tied up at 17-17, Kassie O’Brien stepped to the service line and won four points in a row for the Cats to put UK ahead of the Dores 21-17 and push VU into back-to-back timeouts. Kentucky then capped off the match with a kill from Morgan Gaerte for her 21st of the match to end the night.
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