Kentucky swept No. 18 North Carolina 3-0 (25-11, 25-19, 25-18) at Historic Memorial Coliseum last night in the SEC/ACC Challenge.
Junior Morgan Gaerte led the way with 17 kills on 34 swings for the No. 3 Wildcats.
The win gave the SEC a 7-4 lead in the challenge series.
Here is a recap from UK Athletics:
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Junior opposite Morgan Gaerte had her best offensive match in a Kentucky uniform Wednesday night, notching 17 kills on 34 swings to hit .382 and lead No. 3 Kentucky past No. 18 North Carolina 3-0 (25-11, 25-19, 25-18) in three sets inside Historic Memorial Coliseum.
The win puts a point on the board for the Southeastern Conference and pushes the SEC into a 7-4 lead in the Shriner’s Children’s ACC/SEC Challenge with four matches still to play this evening.
Gaerte was one of two Wildcats in double-figure scoring as Brooklyn DeLeye had 15 kills on 32 swings to hit .312 with eight digs. Gaerte had her first double-double Wednesday night, collecting a new season-high 11 digs to couple with her 17 kills in the match. Offensively, Lizzie Carr added in eight kills and Kassie O’Brien had a sensational 44 assists on 49 Kentucky kills in just a three-set match as UK hit .284 for the match, including over .600 in the first set.
Defense won the game for UK, who held UNC to .152 for the night on a whole and saw Kentucky sideout at over 90 percent through the opening set and a half. Molly Tuozzo had 13 digs to keep her streak alive of 10+ digs in every match this season and Kennedy Washington led UK with three blocks.
Kentucky is now 3-1 against the top-25, as UK has knocked off No. 6 Wisconsin, No. 12 Penn State and No. 18 North Carolina as the Wildcats now sit 6-1 on the season. Wednesday night was UNC’s first loss of the year as the Tar Heels fall to 4-1.
UK will now make the trip to Nassau to compete in the 2026 Paradise Invitational at BahaMar Resort in the Bahamas. Kentucky opens with No. 8 SMU on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN+. Anne Marie Anderson and Emily Ehman will have the call. Depending on the result of Saturday’s game, UK will either play at 1 or 5 p.m. ET on Sunday against the winner or loser of No. 14 Purdue and Houston.
Set One
Kentucky won the opening two points of the match with a pair of kills from Brooklyn DeLeye to make things in the Wildcats favor early before a 4-0 service run by Molly Tuozzo created the first degree of large separation in the set with Kentucky taking a 13-7 lead and pushing North Carolina into an early timeout. The Wildcats continued to climb the lead as the set entered its middle stages with Morgan Gaerte taking over offensively on eight kills to 11 swings to hit .636 in the opening set. UK closed the set on a 6-0 scoring run to cap off a 25-11 opening-set win and take a 1-0 lead in the match. As a team Kentucky hit .412 and held the Tar Heels to .040 with only eight kills for UNC and 18 for UK. Gaerte’s eight terminations led all Wildcats with Brooklyn DeLeye scoring five points on seven swings with a pair of digs. Kassie O’Brien logged 17 assists on the 18 UK kills in the set and had two stuff blocks for the UK defense paced by four Molly Tuozzo digs.
Set Two
Kentucky took the second set 25-19 with a .250 hitting percentage and holding the Tar Heels to just .156 as a team in the frame. The second set was much tighter than the first with Kentucky leading 4-1 to start but UNC slowly closing the gap and making things 12-12 for the first tie of the night in either set 24 points into the set. UNC took its first lead at 13-12, but UK then won three of the next four points with Gaerte exploding from the back line to give UK the 15-14 edge at the media timeout. The key stanza of the set came after the media timeout as the Wildcats ran off three in a row to lead 19-17 and then extended the run to 22-17 to lead by a set-high five points after a service ace from Kassie O’Brien. UK closed in on a 2-0 lead with a kill from Gaerte, her 14th of the match, and then won the set on a Tar Heel service error to book a two sets to none lead through two in HMC.
Set Three
UNC led early in the third, but a nice string of extended points leading into the media timeout handed Kentucky a 15-14 lead at the first official stoppage in what was to that point the most competitive set of the match. After things were knotted up at 17-17, Kentucky then turned on the jets in transition, getting kills from Gaerte and DeLeye to close the match on a 6-1 run and cap off a 25-18 final set win that pushed the Wildcats over the finish line. UK hit .214 in the third, the only set in which UNC outhit the Wildcats, but key digs by Molly Tuozzo saved the day for UK.
For the latest on UK Volleyball, follow the Wildcats on Twitter and Instagram at @KentuckyVB.
