by LARRY VAUGHT
Junior Brooklyn Deleye had another All-American season for Kentucky volleyball that helped the Wildcats reach the national championship game for only the second time in school history. She had 545 kills — 4.58 per set — along with 279 digs, 42 blocks and 22 service aces.
Not bad considering the 2024 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year tore her meniscus the first week of the season and played the rest of the year with the knee injury before finally having surgery last week.
“She’s suck a competitor and team player that it was all in, all the time for us this season,” coach Craig Skinner said.
The coach credited athletics trainer Katy Poole and strength coach John Spurlock for a “really good job of managing” Delete’s injury and status all season. They managed it so well that news of her injury did not get out until just before UK played in the Final Four.
“She was in a good amount of pain in September, then was really feeling good for six or seven weeks and then it started to really bother her again at the end of the season,” Skinner said. “You can play through the pain but we had to be cautious and not go 100 miles per hour all the time in practice with her.”
Skinner said the first piece to DeLeye being able to play was the “physical piece” of dealing with the pain.
“The second hurdle is the psychological piece to it, but there was absolutely no way that Brooklyn wasn’t going to be on the floor for us,” the Kentucky coach said. “She was in a lot of pain at times, but the doctors did a really good job of minimizing that and then Katy Poole and John Spurlock did a great job of monitoring everything that she did.”
Skinner said DeLeye, a quarterfinalist for national player of the year despite playing with the injury, will “be fine” for the 2026 season.
“She was still right at the top of the league in points per set this year and her defensive play was a big reason we beat Wisconsin (in the Final Four) and she was on her knees a lot during that match,” Skinner said. “She’ll be practicing with us at some point during the spring and probably will get going hopefully before spring break, but if not, maybe a little bit after. But she will definitely be back for next season and she will definitely be motivated to get back to full strength.”
