“She would tell you early in the fall she did not feel very sure of herself. Even as staff we were not sure who the starting setter would be,” Luongo said.
Redshirt sophomore Ava Sarafa got the starting nod but in UK’s third game at Penn State things changed when O’Brien got her chance. She played so well that she earned the starting spot soon after that.
“Confidence comes from experiencing success. Her moment came at Penn State when they were celebrating winning the national championship and she came in and changed the match,” Luongo said.
She went over the 1,000 mark in digs during UK’s win over Texas in the SEC title match and has 1,019 this season — an average of 10.13 per set. The versatile setter also has 42 kills, 192 digs and 77 blocks — the second best total of the team behind Lizzie Carr’s 118.
O’Brien dominated SEC Freshman of the Week honors and was named the SEC Freshman of the Year. She could also be in line for national freshman of the year honors with the way No. 2 UK has played.
“In a good way we were trying to tell Kassie to do a little less early in the year. Just trust what she could do and trust her hitters. Get her mind on doing less things and being great at three or four things instead of just good with seven or eight things,” Luongo said.
“Moving forward then we kept pushing what she could do and adding wrinkles to the offense. The real beauty of this being her first year is even as good as she has been, there is still a lot of meat left on the bone with what we can do. She is just scratching the surface of what she can do.”
Luongo is not worried about O’Brien being overwhelmed in NCAA Tournament play even with Kentucky being one of the four No. 1 seeds.
“She has always had that competitive drive. It’s very rare for her to have her tail between her legs,” the Kentucky assistant coach said. “A setter can feel the pressure and be timid. She has not been that kind of person and she won’t be in tournament play, either.”
