DeLeye, Hudson Lead No. 2 Kentucky Past UCLA and Into Sweet Sixteen

Thanks to an outstanding performance from Kentucky's stellar outside duo of Eva Hudson and Brooklyn DeLeye, the No. 2 Kentucky volleyball team downed UCLA in four sets (30-28, 25-16, 28-30, 25-17) Friday night inside Historic Memorial Coliseum to advance into the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament. 

As they've done to teams all season long, Hudson and DeLeye terrorized the Bruins' defense all evening, combining for a whopping 57 of Kentucky's 77 total kills. DeLeye matched her career high with 30 kills on a .397 clip and Hudson finished with 27 kills on 54 swings with only two errors, good for an incredible .463 hitting clip. 

Kentucky actually held a pair of match points in the third set while holding a 24-22 lead before the Bruins rattled off a run to tie it and eventually take the lead. While trailing 28-29 with an opportunity to tie it, DeLeye elected to tip the ball while facing a fully-formed block in front of her. As a result, the Bruins easily dug it and pushed it to the left side to pick up the kill and take the third set 30-28 and extend the match.

Following last night's game, UK head coach Craig Skinner expressed a desire to see his team continue to swing at the ball and not get conservative when the match gets tight. After taking the conservative route late in that third set, DeLeye responded with a renewed mentality in the fourth. 

"That was just a mistake on my part and I knew I kind of let my team down in that moment," DeLeye said. "So I just knew that going into that fourth set we were just not going to lose that one." 

In the fourth set, DeLeye and Hudson combined for an incredible 16 of Kentucky's 19 team kills. Following the match, Hudson described that fourth set performance and what it feels like when Kentucky's dynamic duo gets into that kind of offensive rhythm. 

"We like to call it a 'flow state,'" Hudson said. "It just feels like everything you do kind of just goes right and when you see the other one going off then you're like, 'Oh well that seems fun.' That's kind of my mentality. And also our back row has really consistently been giving us shots, calling them out. So when I can't see the block I trust them and most of the time it works out."

While the offense wasn't nearly as balanced as it has been of late, the Cats still got solid production elsewhere as Asia Thigpen picked up eight kills on 13 swings with no errors and Lizzie Carr finished with seven terminations on a .312 clip. Freshman setter Kassie O'Brien continued to shine in her first season in Lexington as she dished out a career-high 60 assists, just five shy of the school record of assists in four sets. The Cats hit .400 as a team and totaled only 15 errors through four sets of play against a physical UCLA team that boasts one of the best middle blockers in the country. 

Molly Tuozzo led the effort defensively with 15 digs and ten assists of her own, good for the first double-double of her Wildcat career. O'Brien added 14 digs of her own, Molly Berezowitz had 12 digs, Hudson added ten, and DeLeye had eight. Thigpen and Carr each had four blocks to lead the defensive effort at the net and O'Brien and Kennedy Washington both had two. 

Skinner was pleased with his team's ability to respond to the challenge the Bruins presented the Cats and how important it will be moving forward through the tournament. 

"I think if we would have swept this match 3-0 it would have been a little bit different focus in practice this week," Skinner said. "So the fact that we got pushed to the limits in two of those sets is really important because it heightens your attention to detail and intentionality in practice. So whoever wins this next match will certainly bring it like UCLA did."

With the win, Kentucky improves to 27-2 on the season and advances into the Sweet Sixteen. Next up, they'll take on the winner of (4)USC/Cal Poly in the Regional Semifinals next weekend inside Historic Memorial Coliseum. The Cats will play on either the Thursday/Saturday or Friday/Sunday schedule, with the dates and times of the matches set to be released Saturday night following the completion of all of the second round games. 

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