No. 6 Kentucky didn’t leave much room for drama in Columbia.
The Wildcats rolled past South Carolina in straight sets Friday night, handling the Gamecocks 25-14, 25-17, 25-16 for another sweep and another clean night at the office. Kentucky’s attack was relentless from the start, and by the end the Cats had piled up 52 kills in three sets - well above their season average of 14.5 kills per set entering the match, which ranked third in Division 1.
Morgan Gaerte kept her recent surge rolling after moving to the left side. She finished with a match-high 13 kills, giving her 42 kills over her last three matches.
Brooklyn DeLeye added 12, while Lizzie Carr, Georgia Watson and Gracison Saylors combined for 24 more. Kentucky’s efficiency was just as striking as its volume: no Wildcat had more than two attack errors, and the team hit .462 overall for its fourth straight sweep, its second-best hitting mark of the season.
South Carolina, meanwhile, managed just a .044 hitting percentage and only posted a positive mark in the opening set.
Kentucky set the tone immediately. A 5-0 burst, fueled by three straight Carr kills, was followed by another 4-0 run that pushed the lead to seven.
By the technical timeout, the Wildcats had 11 errorless kills and were ahead 15-6. Five different Cats had already contributed at least two kills, and the team was hitting .484 at that point.
Gaerte did plenty of damage in the opening set with six kills and an ace.
The second set took a little longer to settle in, with a couple of early challenges slowing the rhythm. Kentucky still found a 4-0 run to grab control, though South Carolina hung around longer than it had in the first. The Gamecocks were helped by Kentucky’s rough patch at the service line, as the Wildcats committed five service errors in the set up to that point.
Once Kentucky cleaned that up, the match tilted hard again. The Cats ripped off a 6-0 run to stretch the margin to 19-11 and never let go, finishing the set 25-17.
Through two sets, Kentucky had 34 kills and only five errors, with four players already at six kills or more. South Carolina was stuck at a -.028 hitting rate in the frame.
The third set followed the same script. Kentucky kept pressing on both sides of the ball, though service errors again gave South Carolina a few extra points.
Even so, the Wildcats used another 6-0 run after the technical timeout to blow the set open and close the door on the sweep. O’Brien’s setter dump finished it off at 25-16.
Kentucky closes the regular season Sunday afternoon in Athens against Georgia at 2 p.m. on SEC Network+. The Wildcats are now 19-5 overall and 11-3 in SEC play, and they’ve already clinched a double-bye in the SEC tournament.
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