SEC Championship Complete! Kentucky Rallies to Reverse Sweep No. 3 Texas and Capture the SEC Tournament Title.

There aren't many things in the world of sports harder than trying to pull off a reverse sweep in the game of volleyball. The nature of what it takes - winning three-straight sets against a team who's already beaten you in two of them - requires not only an elite physical and athletic performance, but a mental grit and fight that is often no longer really present in most teams after losing the two sets prior.

Enter the Kentucky Wildcats.

Despite dropping the first two sets, the second of which came after they held 21-16 and 23-20 leads late in the frame, the No. 2 Kentucky volleyball team stormed back to down No. 3 Texas in a five-set thriller (19-25, 26-28, 26-24, 25-22, 15-9) inside Enmarket Arena in Savannah, Georgia to capture the first SEC Tournament Championship in twenty years.

Everything that Kentucky did well against the Longhorns in Austin during the matchup in the regular season failed them early Tuesday, as Texas handled the ball beautifully in serve receive and attacked the Cats efficiently at every position along the net. Through the first two sets of play, Texas totaled 20 team kills in each frame as their offense blasted through any defense the Cats tried to show them. 

It wasn't just Texas' offense, though, that proved to be the problem. The Longhorns made a conscious and successful effort to frustrate All American Brooklyn DeLeye on the offensive end, putting up double blocks every time she touched the ball and targeting her early and often with the serve. Through the first two sets, DeLeye was hitting .000 without any offensive rhythm whatsoever.

And staring at a 19-23 deficit in the third just two points away from being swept in the title game, UK head coach Craig Skinner called his final timeout of the frame to throw one last Hail Mary. Interestingly, though, it appeared to be one of Kentucky's juniors, Molly Tuozzo, who took the reigns early in the timeout in a moment the television caught on camera.

As the SEC Network crew tossed to the mics and cameras that were often covering timeouts throughout the tournament, Tuozzo could clearly be heard inspiring her teammates with a message saying it was going to take all fourteen of them, from those on the court to those on the bench, as well as the coaches to get back in the match. 

The Cats were on the mat and appeared to be knocked out, but Tuozzo and the rest of Skinner's Wildcats weren't don't fighting just yet. 

Out of that timeout, Kentucky stormed back into the match by rattling off a 7-1 lead, fighting off two match points in the process to force a fourth set culminating in a monster swing from sophomore right side Asia Thigpen. And that set victory proved to be the nail in Texas' coffin.

As the Cats have demonstrated all season long, their grit and fight - initially modeled in lone senior Eva Hudson but now present in every member of the team - just doesn't quit. And despite how well the Longhorns were playing, the Cats wanted to make some history.

With DeLeye unable to find the floor with any kind of regularity, Skinner and company made a concerted effort to get the middles and the right pin involved in the offense every time they were available. The offensive shift proved to be the game-winning decision, as Lizzie Carr, Brooke Bultema, and Asia Thigpen each had outstanding nights that will undoubtedly go down in Kentucky volleyball lore.

Texas had zero answer for Carr's size at the net, as she finished the match with 13 kills on a blistering .414 clip with only one error. Coming in off the bench for the second time in as many matches, Bultema provided a spark of energy that Kentucky desperately needed and found the floor with eight kills on a .400 clip. And Asia Thigpen, the Cats' undersized but fiery right side attacker, channeled that energy into having the best match in her young Wildcat career. Thigpen finished with 10 kills on twenty swings with no errors, good for a .500 attacking clip. Her fearless ability to swing, even in tight moments when Kentucky absolutely had to have the point, proved to one of the biggest reasons the Cats were able to climb out of the hole.

As excellent as that trio was, though, it was Eva Hudson who led the offense yet again as she totaled 25 kills on 70 swings with only four errors to hit at a .300 clip. With DeLeye struggling, the 2025 SEC Player of the Year took the bulk of the swings to give DeLeye a break and terminated almost every time her team needed her. 

True freshman Kassie O'Brien put a bow on a terrific SEC Freshman of the Year campaign as she dished out a career high 56 assists to go along with three blocks and a trio of kills. Her ability to set the middles and the right side as the Cats mounted the comeback proved critical to Kentucky leaving Savannah with the victory.

Defensively, Kentucky never really managed to slow the Longhorns down as they finished the night with 77 total kills on a .301 clip. But while the Cats weren't able to stop them overall, they found ways to come up with huge stops in critical moments, led by Carr's physical presence at the net. Carr totaled a whopping 9.0 blocks on the evening, including a solo stuff in the fifth and final set. Thigpen added 4.0 blocks of her own, O'Brien had 3.0, and Hudson and Bultema each had two. 

As much as DeLeye struggled offensively, finding the floor with only 13 kills with 11 errors on a .047 clip, the junior never disengaged from the match and found other ways to contribute to the winning cause. DeLeye tied with Tuozzo for the team lead in digs, picking up 16 on the back line to keep Kentucky alive in long rallies and give them a chance to score. Along with Tuozzo's 16, O'Brien and Hudson each added 11 digs of their own and Molly Berezowitz had six. 

Once the Cats pushed the match to a fifth set, they allowed their momentum and sparked energy to carry them forward, jumping out to a 6-3 lead to put Texas on their heels. However, the Longhorns managed to tie the match at 9-9 as they appeared to have one final comeback up their sleeve. Fittingly though, it was Brooklyn DeLeye behind the service line who helped the Cats rattle off a 6-0 run to win the match.

Following the victory, Molly Tuozzo, Brooklyn DeLeye, and Eva Hudson were named to the Allstate SEC Tournament Team with Tuozzo being named the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament. The win marks the second SEC Title the Cats have capture this season as they completed a perfect run through both the SEC regular season and SEC Tournament. Kentucky improves to 25-2 on the season and now awaits its path to a potential National Championship with Selection Sunday scheduled for Sunday night. The Cats are projected as the two seed after picking up two more Top 25 wins in the tournament over No. 17 Tennessee and No. 3 Texas. The NCAA Volleyball Selection Show will be held Sunday, November 30 at 6:00 pm ET and will be broadcast live on ESPN.