Kentucky will advance to the Sweet 16 next week to play Mizzou
2024 NCAA VOLLEYBALL LEXINGTON REGIONAL POSTGAME NEWS CONFERENCES
LEXINGTON – December 6, 2024
Senior setter Emma Grome broke the Kentucky Volleyball rally-scoring era for assists Friday night in Historic Memorial Coliseum as the third-seeded Wildcats beat sixth-seeded Minnesota 3-1 (25-11, 23-25, 25-22, 25-24) in four sets to punch their ticket to the regional semifinals of the 2024 NCAA Volleyball Championship.
Grome came into the match Friday night trailing Madison Lilley, a current assistant coach at Kentucky, by 50 assists and Grome recorded 51 assists in the match with her pass to Brooklyn DeLeye in the fourth set to break the school record as she now has 4,963 for her career.
With Friday night’s win, Kentucky advances into next weekend’s NCAA Regional Semifinals, which will be hosted by the highest-remaining seeded team in Kentucky’s quadrant of the bracket. If No. 1 overall seed Pittsburgh and No. 2 seeded SMU both lose this weekend, Kentucky would be the host institution next weekend.
The matches next weekend will either be Thursday and Saturday or Friday and Sunday. The NCAA and its television partners ABC and ESPN will announce the designations for which regionals are which day on Sunday once all the first and second round matches are completed.
Kentucky hit .324 in the match with three players reaching double-figure scoring led by Brooklyn DeLeye, who had 22 kills on 49 swings. DeLeye was joined by Erin Lamb, who had 13 kills on 28 swings and Megan Wilson trickled into double figures with 11 kills on 27 swings in the match. Both middles for Kentucky had solid nights with Jordyn Dailey going errorless on nine kills and Brooke Bultema logging eight terminations for the UK offense.
Brooke Bultema had a monster night on defense, going for a new career-high seven blocks including a key solo stuff in the middle of the third set. Bultema had a dig and was responsible for 12 points in the match as one of Kentucky’s best players on the night.
Kentucky is now into its seventh regional semifinal in the last eight seasons and 14th regional semifinal in program history. UK will play the winner of (7) Missouri and SMU in the next round.
Set One
Kentucky came out of the gates screaming to an 8-1 lead as Minnesota took an early timeout at 6-1 after three-straight overpass kills by Kentucky’s outside hitter, Brooklyn DeLeye. Kentucky’s lead of six then grew to seven on a kill by Jordyn Dailey out of the middle and that lead grew even more on Kentucky’s fourth block of the set from freshman Jordyn Dailey to make things 13-5 in the opening frame. Emma Grome’s second block of the night grew the lead to double digits at 15-5, its largest lead of the set to that point. The UK offensive avalanche kept coming, with UK taking a 23-8 lead on a kill from DeLeye and a kill by DeLeye on the next point gave Kentucky its first set point. DeLeye’s eighth kill of the match gave UK the set, 25-11 and 1-0 lead in the match. The Wildcats hit .516 for the set and held the Gophers to .040 hitting in the set with no player getting more than two kills for Minnesota. Emma Grome had 12 assists on 18 of Kentucky’s kills in the set.
Set Two
After the opening part of the second set was tight, Kentucky’s serving pressure began to take control as the Wildcats took its first deficit of the night at 10-8 and flipped it around with a 7-0 run than encompassed two timeouts and gave the Wildcats a 16-11 lead with the Gophers out of stoppages and Molly Tuozzo serving dynamic balls that kept Minnesota out of system the entire run. Minnesota called its second timeout down five at 16-11 and sided out the following point on a hitting error by UK, its third in the entire match to that point. A 3-0 Golden Gopher run, its biggest of the match to that point, pulled the lead back to one at 18-17 and Kentucky called its first timeout of the match and the set to talk things over. A service ace gave Minnesota another lead in the set after Kentucky settled the boat, and after yet another ace, Minnesota took a 21-19. A service error ended the set as Minnesota evened the match, 25-23.
Set Three
A 3-0 run on Emma Grome’s serve with a pair of Jordyn Dailey kills gave Kentucky a 10-5 lead hitting over .500 in the set and Minnesota called its first timeout 15 points into the set trailing by five. UK’s five-point lead at 14-9 was cut to two at 14-12 and the Wildcats called their first timeout of the set leading by a pair on Elise McGhie’s serve. Kentucky expanded its lead on a block by Brooke Bultema to make things 18-14 and Minnesota took its final stoppage to play. Minnesota closed the gap to two at 22-20, but a block by Grome and Jordyn Dailey ended the set at 25-22 as the Wildcats avoided the Golden Gophers comeback late in the frame to take a 2-1 lead.
Set Four
After a tight opening stanza, Kentucky got the first traction in the set with a 4-1 run thanks to Molly Tuozzo’s digs and a couple of chippy points by Erin Lamb tooling the block to make things 14-12 Wildcats and the Gophers called their first timeout. Out of the timeout, Brooklyn DeLeye placed her third service ace to the floor to balloon the lead and then Lamb’s 11th kill off an extended rally made things 16-12 as Kentucky took stranglehold of its largest lead of the set to that point. Minnesota then immediately responded with three in a row including an ace and with things 16-15 in UK’s favor, the Wildcats called their first timeout of the set with its lead trimmed to one. An attack error on the Golden Gophers ended the match and Kentucky took the final frame in extra points, 26-24.