‘14 strong.’ Gritty Kentucky volleyball faces program’s second-ever Final Four
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky volleyball reached its second-ever Final Four after a 2025 SEC run.
- Team features four AVCA All-Americans and SEC Player of the Year, driven by grit.
- Kentucky emphasizes versatility and scouting ahead of Final Four clash with Wisconsin.
This season’s Kentucky volleyball team has reached heights only one prior has achieved.
The No. 1 Wildcats are one of 24 rosters in school history to feature at least one AVCA All-American, one of 14 rosters to win an SEC championship — while extending the current conference-title streak to nine consecutive — one of eight rosters to boast the SEC Player of the Year and one of six UK rosters to win the SEC Tournament, which returned in 2025 for the first time since 2005.
But only one other Kentucky team — the 2020-21 national-champion squad which dealt with a pandemic-altered season — has reached the Final Four.
Apart from head coach Craig Skinner and Director of Volleyball Operations Kristen Sanford Vicini, there are no holdovers from the national title team. Though Skinner’s hard-fought culture, building since UK hired him in 2004, shines through, he said the 2025 group, “No question,” is very different from the Wildcats’ lone national championship squad.
“I think it’s our job as a staff to figure out what were the things that we can be elite at as a group and take advantage of those,” Skinner said Wednesday. “This team’s way of playing is different than that team’s. We’ve found ways to win offensively. We’ve found ways to win defensively. We’ve found ways to win with our serve. If we only had to rely on one of those aspects, it would be tough to get to where we are. We have to be adaptable, tough, resilient.”
Toughness isn’t lacking in this group. Neither is adaptability or resilience. First-Team All-America outside hitter and SEC Player of the Year Eva Hudson summed up the magical season with the word “Grit,” highlighting the group’s unyielding desire to improve.
“We’ve had a few amazing wins, a few sad losses,” Hudson said. “But we’ve just learned so much through the ups and downs of the season. Just to see, no matter a win or a loss, the team come in the next day at practice wanting to get better, I think it just shows how much grit we have.”
Kentucky has suffered only two losses this season, both of which came early in the usual grind of Skinner’s brutal nonconference slate; the Wildcats found themselves on the wrong side of a reverse sweep to season-long top-ranked team Nebraska on Aug. 31 in Nashville, Tenn. and suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Pittsburgh — a fellow Final Four participant — on Sept. 10 in Fort Worth, Texas.
In each loss, UK responded with subsequent victories over top-10 teams. Skinner said the grit exemplified by the national championship team shows up in this season’s Wildcats, too.
“The fighting spirit that that team had in 2021 was very evident with the people in that team,” Skinner said. “I think you’ve seen that with this group, too. You have a group of individuals that will do anything and everything to be successful. They will let go of how they’re doing personally and focus on what they can do for the people next to them.”
It goes without saying, however, that this group is showered with individual accolades.
Wednesday morning, the Final Four media room was abuzz with the announcement of this year’s AVCA All-America Teams.
Among the national semifinalists, the Wildcats led the way with four selections: Hudson and fellow outside hitter Brooklyn DeLeye were named to the first team, true freshman setter Kassie O’Brien was named to the second team and junior libero Molly Tuozzo was named to the third team.
DeLeye said the recognition is a testament to the idea that “we just love each other and have a great time playing together.”
“I think we were just so happy for each other,” DeLeye said. “I mean, it truly is just a team sport. None of us would have gotten that award without every one of our teammates. We were truly 14 strong. Yes, some girls got it and some did not, unfortunately. I mean, we seriously would not have done it without any of those girls. I think it just shows that everybody is in it for each other. Every day in practice we are just working to make each other better.”
This season’s Kentucky team has won time and time again with its versatility. DeLeye acknowledged outsiders’ tendency to focus on the flashier performances of the offensive players but said that the offense has only grown into what it’s become because of the influence of the defense.
“Us offensive players, we couldn’t do it without the people surrounding us,” DeLeye said. “Like Molly Tuozzo, Molly Berezowitz, Trinity Ward, all the (defensive specialists). I mean, they’re just so good with their craft. We wouldn’t be able to put the ball away if they don’t get it up. It truly makes us want to work harder for them, make those plays for them because, I mean, they’re behind us every single point. They’re even telling us what shots to hit. Truly they may go unnoticed, but not to us.”
Every part of the team will be necessary in Thursday night’s match against No. 3 Wisconsin, which upset No. 1 Texas on its home floor in the Elite Eight.
“They’re just a really physical team,” Hudson said. “I mean, coming from the Big Ten, I’ve played against them a few times. That block is absolutely massive. Just having the confidence that people are going to cover us so we can take big swings. That’s not a problem with this team at all.”
The battle-tested Badgers have two All-Americans, first-teamer Mimi Colyer, a senior outside hitter, and third-teamer Carter Booth, a senior middle blocker.
Because the Big Ten does not currently have a conference tournament, each of Wisconsin’s four losses came in the regular season. The Badgers were swept at home by Texas on Aug. 31 during nonconference play, swept at Penn State on Oct. 10, lost 3-1 at home to Southern California on Oct. 19 and were swept at home by Nebraska on Halloween.
Before its Elite Eight revenge match against the Longhorns, Wisconsin swept Eastern Illinois and North Carolina, and defeated No. 2 Stanford 3-1 to advance in the NCAA Tournament.
The Badgers have hit a whopping .325 this season, while holding their opponents to just .184. They’ve also totaled 257.5 blocks on the year. For comparison, Kentucky has hit .295 this season, while holding opponents to .180, and recorded 274.5 blocks.
Regardless, the Wildcats’ approach to scouting their next opponent remains the same.
“Because the margins are so thin at the Final Four, every team is really good,” Skinner said. “You’ve got to find nooks and crannies of things that maybe we can exploit with Wisconsin. Are we doing extra or way more than we have before? No, because I think that would just put undue pressure on us and our team.”
This will mark the first meeting between the programs since Sept. 9, 2022, when the Badgers swept the Wildcats in Memorial Coliseum. The all-time series is tied at 4-4, with the first match being played on Sept. 23, 1978. The last time Kentucky defeated Wisconsin was Sept. 11, 1992.
“We have to perform and execute,” Skinner said. “I think it’s more about how we can be in a good frame of mind when the match starts tomorrow night.”
