| LEXINGTON – September 27, 2026 |
| Junior Asia Thigpen’s 15 kills were the difference Sunday afternoon as the No. 3 Kentucky Volleyball team swept No. 7 Texas 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-21) in three sets inside Historic Memorial Coliseum. The largest crowd of the season, 6,147, saw the Wildcats win a critical conference match without star opposite Morgan Gaerte, who missed the match with an eye injury and is considered day-to-day. Thigpen was one of two Wildcats who were in double figures scoring with Brooklyn DeLeye also adding in 11 kills on 28 swings for UK, who hit .269 as a team, some 100 points higher than Texas’ .188 for the match. The win for Kentucky puts UK at 10-2 on the season and a perfect 2-0 start in Southeastern Conference play for the second time in the last two years. The Wildcats will next play Friday night at Auburn at 7 p.m. ET live on SEC Network+ and the ESPN app. Kassie O’Brien had 37 assists for UK with four coming from Molly Tuozzo and two from Trinity Ward. The Wildcats had one player reach double-figure digs with Tuozzo’s 12 as well as her recording the only ace of the afternoon for UK. Texas is now 5-5 on the season and 1-1 in the SEC with Sunday’s result. The Wildcats have now won three-straight matches over Texas and 28-straight SEC matches overall in a streak that dates back to 2024. Set One Asia Thigpen took control of the first set for Kentucky as she had six kills on 11 swings with only a pair of errors and three digs to rescue a 4-0 Texas start and turn things in UK’s favor down the stretch. Texas led 4-0 and then UK slowly chipped away to make things 10-9 as the Wildcats collected their first lead on a swing from Brookyln DeLeye to make things swing in UK’s favor. Texas led by a point at 15-14 in the first media timeout and then four kills from Brooklyn DeLeye later, the Wildcats led 23-22 to force the Texas Longhorns into a timeout and then at 24-23, a DeLeye served pushed the Longhorns off the net and Thigpen sealed the frame with her sixth kill of the match. UK as a team hit .231 after being in then negatives at the media break and Texas hit .270 with only one error on 37 swings. Set Two Kentucky led from the get-go in the second set as a sideout by Asia Thigpen for her seventh kill of the match was the first point for the Wildcats and UK was off and running from there. Brooklyn DeLeye took to the service line with a tied set at 11 all and when she left, she had forced the Horns out of system for five-straight swings and Kentucky led 16-11 after a stuff by Lizzie Carr to push things to the media timeout with UK ahead by five, a set high. Down the stretch, UK sided out efficiently with Thigpen and DeLeye shouldering most of the offensive load to make things swing into UK’s favor as the Wildcats arrived at set point leading 24-19 and closed the book on the set on a Texas serving error, their seventh of the match to that point. Set Three The Longhorns started fast with three-straight points out of the timeout to push the Wildcats into an early hole. UK fought back to take its first lead at 11-10 and then the Horns won five in a row to make things 15-11 at the media timeout. Kentucky rallied again to take the lead with four in a row at 18-15 and that pushed Texas into a timeout. UK arrived at set point leading 24-21 and closed out the match on a Texas error. |