Kentucky rallies for five-set win over Texas in SEC Tournament final

The No. 3 seed Texas Longhorn (23-3, 13-3) went the distance in the 2025 SEC Tourmanent final against the No. 1 seed Kentucky Wildcats (25-2, 16-0) in Savannah on Tuesday, coming up short in a reverse sweep five-set thriller, keeping Texas head coach Jerritt Elliott’s program from winning his 16th conference title and from avenging the Kentucky sweep in Austin earlier this month.

In the first set, both teams came out swinging, but the Longhorns jumped out to an early 7-3 lead, spreading the ball around the court with true freshman outside hitter Abby Vander Wal. Texas stood out working in unison on defense forcing Wildcat attacking errors to maintain a 11-5 lead. The Longhorns progressed to show their offensive strength with their outside hitters combining for 10 kills while sophomore middle blocker Ayden Ames was a force defensively at the net to close out the opening set, 25-19.

In a tight second set, the No. 1 Wildcats jumped to an early 3-0 lead with back-to-back aces from junior libero Molly Tuozzo. The Longhorns kept it close with redshirt sophomore middle blocker Nya Bunton making noise at the net in gathering a couple of kills while Kentucky maintained a 7-4 lead. The Longhorns were able to cut the Wildcat lead down 13-10 with aid of sophomore setter Rella Binney handing out a couple assists to Ames and Stafford. The Wildcats defense kept the strong at the net to manage the lead at 21-17. The Longhorn offense then rallied, overtaking the lead from the Cats at 24-23 with Stafford collecting five kills while Swindle distributed eight assists to help close out the second set, 28-26, thanks to a kill by Vander Wal and a block assist from Swindle and Ames.

In the third set, the Longhorns came out strong, forcing attacking errors to go up early, 3-0. Texas increased their lead to 7-3, holding strong at the net with the help of freshman Cari Spears and Ames gathering kills. The Kentucky offense was not quiet with redshirt middle blocker Lizzie Carr recording a kill to close down the lead, 10-7. Senior libero Emma Halter kept Texas alive on the black line until the Kentucky offense gained momentum to close the lead down to 21-18 while forcing four Longhorn errors. Texas had two match points, but couldn’t convert as Kentucky finished the set on a 4-0 run behind a kill by outsider hitter Eva Hudson, an attacking error by Ames, a bad set by Swindle, and a kill by outside hitter Asia Thigpen.

With Texas having failed to put the match away, Kentucky took hold of the momentum and never let go.

In the fourth set, the Wildcats went on an early 4-0 run with Hudson at the helm recording two kills. The Texas attack continued to operate at a high level with a .351 hitting percentage, led by Stafford’s eight kills, but Kentucky was more efficient at .378, just enough to edge past in a close set that the Cats led from wire to wire.

Entering the fifth set, the mental fortitude of Texas wasn’t enough to make it competitive in a 15-9 defeat in which Kentucky recovered from an initial 2-0 deficit and held the Horns to a .042 hitting percentage by forcing seven attacking errors spread out across five Texas players.

Hudson was a dominant force in the match, recording 25 kills as the 28 kills by Stafford were not enough to overcome the Wildcats. Spears and Vander Wal added 15 kills apiece for Texas as Swindled notched 47 assists in the losing effort.

Texas now turns its attention to the NCAA Tournament and Selection Sunday. Matches begin with the first round on Thursday, Dec. 4 and continue through the national championship on Sunday, Dec. 21, with a 64-team bracket made up of 31 automatic qualifying teams and 33 at-large selections as projections still feature Texas as a No. 1 seed.