Despite 17 kills off the arm of sophomore winger Brooklyn DeLeye and a home crowd of 3,838, it wasn’t enough for the No. 11 Kentucky volleyball team as No. 4 Louisville defeated the Cats in four sets (21-25, 18-25, 25-20, 16-25) on Wednesday night at Memorial Coliseum.

Offensively, Kentucky struggled mightily to stop the ball, as only DeLeye and freshman middle blocker Brooke Bultema reached double figures and hit above .000. DeLeye had her 17 kills at a .204 clip and Bultema had her 11 kills at a .381 clip. Megan Wilson finished with seven kills, Erin Lamb had four and Jordyn Dailey had three.

The Cats continued to impress behind the service line, however, as they racked up nine service aces on the night. Molly Tuozzo finished with four, Lamb and DeLeye each had a pair, and Wilson had one.

After the match, Louisville head coach Dani Busboom Kelly was impressed with her team’s ability to defeat Kentucky’s service game and had high praise for the Cats for that part of their game.

“I think they are the team with the best service in the country and I was very concerned about that going into this match.”

Defensively, Tuozzo continued to impress in the libero jersey as she notched a team-high 17 digs, followed by Eleanor Beavin adding 13, Emma Grome nine and Wilson adding six.

Despite the loss, British coach Craig Skinner was disappointed with the result but was encouraged by his team’s positive performance against yet another Top 5 team.

“You get better or worse and our job is to perform at a higher pace and put our energy into the areas that we need to improve,” Skinner said. “We’ve had a lot of growth.”

With the loss, Kentucky drops to 6-4 on the year. They next travel to Palo Alto, California to take on No. 2 Stanford. First serve against the Cardinal is scheduled for 10:30 p.m. ET and will be televised live on ESPN2.