Wildcats beat Florida 3-2 in five sets
LEXINGTON, Ky. – October 19, 2025
Thanks to 21 kills from Eva Hudson and 20 terminations from Brooklyn DeLeye, the No. 3 Kentucky Volleyball team kept its undefeated conference record alive Sunday with a 3-2 (25-16, 21-25, 25-19, 25-21, 15-6) five-set thrilling win over the Florida Gators inside Historic Memorial Coliseum in Lexington.
Hudson and DeLeye both had 20-plus kills Sunday afternoon, marking the second time this season that the Wildcats tandem has gone for 20-plus kills each, as it joins the five-set win vs. No. 3 Louisville last month in the Derby City. Kentucky as a team hit .201 for the match with 57 kills and held the Gators to .120 hitting for the match with only one Florida player having more than 15 kills for the five-set afternoon.
The 2025 NCAA Volleyball selection committee before the match Sunday announced its top-16 seeded teams if the season ended this week and Kentucky was slotted in the No. 4 national seed position, meaning if seeds hold, UK would be in position to host up to the NCAA Final Four in Kansas City. Sunday’s win is Kentucky eighth quad one win, with Florida sitting at No. 25 in the NCAA RPI.
Kassie O’Brien had 42 assists Sunday afternoon in front of a season-high crowd of 4,394 inside HMC with four stuff blocks to go alongside. Molly Tuozzo and Molly Berezowitz had incredible matches with five players for UK recording 10+ digs as Tuozzo led the way with 19 digs, and Berezowitz logged 15 as O’Brien, Hudson and DeLeye all also had 10+ digs with three players recording double-doubles in the match.
Kentucky is now 14-2 overall on the season and sits tied with Texas atop the Southeastern Conference standings with a 7-0 league record. UK will next play a two-match road trip weekend to Starkville, Miss., and Tuscaloosa, Ala., this coming weekend as it faces Mississippi State on Friday night at 7 p.m. ET on SEC Network+ followed by a 3 p.m. ET Sunday match at Alabama in Foster Auditorium. Florida falls to 10-7 for the year and is 5-3 in the SEC.
Set 1
Kentucky and Florida were relatively even through the opening part of the first set before a 7-0 run for the Wildcats fueled by Florida hitting errors and a strong block unit that pushed Kentucky out to a 19-11 lead. Kentucky and Florida traded sideouts all the way through the end of the set as the Wildcats ballooned the lead to 24-16 and a stuff block by Jordyn Dailey and Brooke Bultema ended the set on the right pin to hand UK a 1-0 lead in the match thanks to a 25-16 opening set victory. UK hit .241 in the set, holding the Gators to .000 for the frame with 10 kills and 10 errors for Florida as Eva Hudson led the Kentucky offense with five kills on 11 swings and three kills for junior Brooklyn DeLeye. Kassie O’Brien pushed the tempo for the UK offense with nine assists in the frame as Kentucky jumped out to the early advantage.
Set 2
Kentucky led 4-1 and Florida took an early timeout in the second set, and that ignited a 7-2 Gator run that would eventually decide the set as Kentucky closed the gap from what was a six-point lead to a two-point lead at 17-15, but Florida took the set, 25-21. Kentucky had six hitting errors in the set with only 12 kills and were held to a .140 hitting efficiency with Florida siding out over 65 percent in the frame and hitting .170 with 15 kills to even the match at one set all through two.
Set 3
Florida took a 2-1 lead in the match after taking the second set, 25-19. Florida became the first team to hit over .200 in a set with a .201 hitting efficiency in the third set as UF garnered the lead. Florida jumped out to a 7-2 lead and with a five-point deficit facing UK, the Wildcats called timeout. The lead for Florida grew to seven at 13-6 and the Gators ran away and hid for the rest of the set as they closed out the frame on one of Kentucky’s six attack errors in the set to win, 25-19.
Set 4
Kentucky won the fourth set with a late flurry of points thanks to the terminal kills of Brooklyn DeLeye and Eva Hudson as the Wildcats evened the match at two sets all to send things to the fifth. The set was tight from the start to the finish with neither team garnering more than a four-point lead until the final point of the frame on a kill from Brooklyn DeLeye for her 17th of the match. UK hit .364 in the set, by far the highest hitting percentage of any team in the match in any single set with UK logging 17 kills to just five errors.
Set 5
Kentucky was lethal offensively in the fifth set to catapult itself to the five-set win, 15-6. In the fifth, UK sided out at over 70 percent, while the Gators converted just four of their 14 attempts to sideout as Kentucky hit .250 and held Florida to negative hitting at -.130 in the fifth with three stuffs and one of them coming from Kennedy Washington. The Wildcats jumped out to the 4-1 lead and an ace by Kassie O’Brien sent the Gators into an early timeout trailing by three. Later in the set, Kentucky’s lead was four before Brooklyn DeLeye hammered her second kill of the set to the floor to give UK the 10-5 edge and UF whistled its final timeout down five. An ace for Kentucky pushed the Wildcats to set point and an attack error by the Gators ended the match as UK pulled out the five setter, 3-2 overall, and 15-6 in the fifth.
