PREPS

Three future Division I players are among the first and second teams

Swingers, blockers, diggers and facilitators. The Journal’s 2025 All-Metro volleyball team has it all.

The Journal’s choices include three future Division I players among the top 12 (six first-team choices, six more on the second team).

Cleveland’s Azlynn Tittmann, who has signed with Boise State, is one of this season’s three first-team hitters. 

The 6-foot-1 senior registered 332 kills, an average of 4.6 kills per set.

Joining Tittmann as hitters on the first team are La Cueva junior Jula Utash and St. Pius senior Alyssa Bendinskas.

The 5-8 Bendinskas had nearly 300 kills for the Class 4A state champion Sartans, plus 49 aces and 251 digs. She is headed to Austin Peay to play beach volleyball at the next level.

Utash is the latest in a long line of dynamic hitters to put on the La Cueva colors. The junior powered her way to 370 kills last season as the Bears reached the Class 5A state championship game.

Bendinskas was not the only St. Pius Sartan to make the first team. Senior Maya Perea is generally regarded as the top libero in New Mexico, and she makes a return appearance on the Journal’s All-Metro group following a season in which she dug 331 balls.

And Utash was one of two Bears to make the first team. Her setter, freshman Charlie Ferguson, is the first-team choice this season. Ferguson did a brilliant job of feeding her hitters in the La Cueva attack, averaging over 9 assists per set. She finished with an impressive 758 assists for the season.

The first team is rounded out by Albuquerque Academy middle Kiara Brown. The sophomore was a six-rotation player for the Chargers, and finished the year with 341 kills, 223 digs and 60 blocks.

The third of the D1 signees this season is Albuquerque High hitter Kaelynn Ashley, who also is headed for Austin Peay in Tennessee, but to play on the hard courts. Her younger sister, Ayva, is the second-team setter.

Rounding out the second team are sophomore outside hitters Avery Steele from Hope Christian and Rowan Jaime from Academy, plus senior middle Aaliyah Simpson from Cleveland, and La Cueva libero Embrey Eisele, also a sophomore.

ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL
2025 ALL-METRO VOLLEYBALL TEAMS

FIRST TEAM

• Jula Utash, 5-8, jr., OH, La Cueva
• Azlynn Tittmann, 6-1, sr., OH, Cleveland
• Alyssa Bendinskas, 5-8, sr., OH, St. Pius
• Kiara Brown, 6-0, soph., MB, Albuquerque Academy
• Maya Perea, 5-5, sr., libero, St. Pius
• Charlie Ferguson, 5-9, fresh., setter, La Cueva

SECOND TEAM

• Kaelynn Ashley, 5-10, sr., OH, Albuquerque High
• Avery Steele, 5-9, soph., OH, Hope Christian
• Rowan Jaime, 5-10, soph., OH, Albuquerque Academy
• Aaliyah Simpson, 5-11, sr., MB, Cleveland 
• Embrey Eisele, 5-4, soph., libero, La Cueva
• Ayva Ashley, 5-9, jr., setter, Albuquerque High

The Kentucky Wildcats volleyball team won their 26th straight match on Saturday, and none are bigger than this one. The Wildcats are on their way to the Final Four after beating Creighton 3-0 (25-19, 25-13, 25-18).

Brooklyn DeLeye and SEC Player of the Year Eva Hudson were fantastic once again for Kentucky. Both had some huge kills at key moments in the match. DeLeye totaled 18 kills and 12 digs, while Hudson added 13 kills of her own.

The rest of the Wildcats roster was huge as well. Molly Tuozzo had a plethora of big-time digs that kept rallies going. Kassie O’Brien had a big day as well, setting up her teammates.

The Kentucky volleyball team  used service pressure to beat Creighton on Saturday to advance to the Final Four. While serving is the first part of the equation, being able to get set defensively is the second part, and the Cats did that extremely well against the Blue Jays.

UK had 62 digs in the match and eight total blocks. After the match, UK head coach Craig Skinner praised his team’s defensive effort.

“To hold a team like that to .066 is a lot to do with your defense, and you know, it’s a mentality,” Skinner said. “We have to establish a defensive mentality in practice.  We hammer balls at them all the time, they’re flying all over the gym, making plays. We have a couple rules, we’ll reason why you don’t go for the ball; that would be out of bounds, hear the whistle, or some sort of danger is in the way. Outside of that, you better go for the ball. But it’s just, you have to set that in practice, and we’ve spent a lot of time this year, just hammering that into our team, and it’s, man, it’s fun to watch, too.”

Kentucky senior outside hitter Eva Hudson thought she and her teammates responded to the coaching staff’s challenge.

“Craig asked us to be relentless all evening,” Hudson said. “That sort of defense is so frustrating, one of your best shots and it being dug up. That was our mindset every time.”

Junior outside hitter Brooklyn DeLeye also thought that the coaches did a great job of putting together an effective game plan for Saturday’s match.

“Props to the staff, I mean they really had a good game plan going into the match and I think we just executed that at a high level,” DeLeye said. “Even if Creighton was making changes throughout the match, they were still telling us every single time we were at the net what to do.”

Creighton head coach Brian Rosen said after the match that Kentucky’s defense made it very difficult on his team.

“I just thought their defense tonight was the difference,” Rosen said. “They were an arm and ball back up. We ended up with nine blocks. I thought we could have had 18 tonight. They covered so well, just kept plays alive long enough for their outsides to terminate eventually. And so again, I just I give them a lot of credit for that.”

Defense wins championships, and on Saturday, that was true for Kentucky.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – In front of a sellout crowd at Historic Memorial Coliseum, the Kentucky Volleyball team punched its ticket into the 2025 NCAA Volleyball Final Four on Saturday afternoon as it swept Creighton 3-0 (25-19, 25-13, 25-18), advancing into the program’s second Final Four.

In the Final Four, Kentucky will play the winner of Sunday’s match between (1) Texas and (3) Wisconsin. The 2025 NCAA Volleyball Final Four will be contested in Kansas City, Missouri at the T-Mobile Center. The match will be played Thursday night at a time to be announced on ESPN. The match time will be announced by the NCAA and ESPN on Sunday night at the conclusion of regional play in Austin.

UK never trailed by more than two points in any set at any point all evening long, and the Wildcats never allowed the Bluejays to get to 20 points in any of the sets, either. Kentucky held Creighton to a .066 hitting percentage for the match with eight blocks and a .000 hitting percentage in the second set alone. UK as a team hit .263 for the match, with 47 kills on 118 swings and only 16 errors. The Wildcats pegged the Bluejays for a pair of aces in the match and outdug Creighton, 62-47. Kentucky sided out at a mountainous 75 percent for the match, while holding the Bluejays to a 50.7% sideout ratio.

Kentucky’s two-headed monster of Brooklyn DeLeye and Eva Hudson were elite Saturday, accounting for 32 of the team’s 47 kills as DeLeye hit .326 with 18 kills on 43 swings and Hudson hammered home 13 kills on 33 swings with 15 digs for yet another double-double on the season. Asia Thigpen had eight kills for UK with a .429 hitting percentage and only two errors.

Defensively, Kentucky had three players with 10-plus digs led by Molly Tuozzo’s 17, who also led all players in the match. Tuozzo was joined in the 10-plus digs category with Brooklyn DeLeye and Eva Hudson who had 12 and 15 digs respectfully. Lizzie Carr led Kentucky’s net defense with five blocks as she was one of four UK players with multiple blocks.

Kentucky placed four players on the NCAA Lexington Regional All-Region Team with Brooklyn DeLeye named the most outstanding player. DeLeye was joined by Lizzie Carr, Eva Hudson and Molly Tuouzzo on the all-region team. Ava Martin and Sydney Breissinger from Creighton made the team along with Arizona State’s Noemie Glover.

Set 1

Kentucky took the 1-0 lead in the match thanks to a 25-19 opening set that swung the Wildcats way thanks to a strong 5-0 Trinity Ward service run midway through the stanza that took at 14-14 tie into the media timeout into a 19-14 lead in favor of the Wildcats. Creighton then had to use its second timeout when the Bluejays committed one of their six attack errors in the set off a block from Lizzie Carr to give UK the 23-16 lead and put the Wildcats two points away from the set. Creighton put together a 3-0 run thanks to a sideout and a pair of aces but a kill from Asia Thigpen and a Bluejay attack error on the following two successive points handed the Wildcats the set and a 1-0 lead in the match. Kentucky hit .282 for the opening set, while holding Creighton to .091 in the set. Both Eva Hudson and Brooklyn DeLeye had six kills each in the opening set with Hudson hitting .500 on her 10 attacks with only one error to speak of. Kassie O’Brien had 15 assists on 17 of UK’s kills and O’Brien led the UK defense with four digs alongside Molly Tuozzo and Molly Berezowitz who each bucketed three in the first set.

Set 2

It was a Kentucky blitz in the second set as Kentucky took the second set 25-13, holding Creighton to a .000 hitting percentage in the frame and closing the set on a 6-1 run after jumping out to a 10-3 lead to begin the set. Creighton called timeout down 10-3 and Kentucky leading by a then set-high number of seven points. The teams traded sideouts for the middle part of the set with UK then going on a 3-0 run thanks to the strong serving of Molly Berezowitz who got the Bluejays out of system on three-straight points to push the lead to 20-12 and CU called its final timeout of the set. With UK ahead by eight, the Wildcats closed things out winning five of the last six points out of the Bluejay timeout to make the 25-13 mark. Kentucky hit .289 with 16 kills in the second set and Creighton had eight kills and eight attack errors in the frame to hit zero. Fourteen of the 16 kills for UK were assisted on by Kassie O’Brien, who upped her total to 28 for the match through the first two sets. Eva Hudson had 10 digs to lead the UK backline with Molly Tuozzo logging nine, one behind Hudson to lead the match.

Set 3

The Wildcats and Bluejays were neck and neck in the early parts of the third stanza with the Bluejays collecting a two-point lead at 11-9. The Wildcats were able to make things 15-14 in their favor at the media timeout thanks to a huge stuff block by Kennedy Washington and Asia Thigpen on the left side to give UK the momentum. Creighton then had to call for time in the set two points later as Kentucky roofed the Bluejays again, this time being an Eva Hudson solo stuff to make things 17-14. UK won the next three points as Trinity Ward’s serve again caused havoc on the Creighton side of the net to make things 20-14 and UK sat just five points from a spot in the Final Four. Kentucky sided out the next five opportunities to make things 24-18 and kill by Brooklyn DeLeye sent UK into the Final Four for the second time in program history.

For the latest on UK Volleyball, follow the Wildcats on Twitter and Instagram at @KentuckyVB.

Kentucky Postgame Quotes

Kentucky Head Coach Craig Skinner

Opening Statement…

“I’m just really proud of our team and the performance that they had this weekend was impressive, and we asked our team to be relentless and we were relentless all evening and you can’t thank our players for giving themselves to this team and this program enough. They have done it all year long and can’t thank our administration enough for giving us the resources to build a special program. So, it takes a collective effort, a lot of people to get to this point and want our players to build and experience a Final Four, which we’ve got that chance to do. It’s awesome. But our job isn’t finished and we’ve got to get ready to play some good volleyball in Kansas City, so magical season needs to continue.”

On what it means to coach in Memorial Coliseum for the tournament…

“A lot, magical stuff. It’s just it’s hard to do. It takes a collective effort and administrators, coaches, people, players, staff, managers, all of that. I’ve been there before, done it, and obviously I can’t wait to do it again, but I just want our players to be able to feel what it’s like to be at that level, because it’s a really cool experience, and I don’t worry about the effort we’re going to give on Thursday night, so I just I want to make sure we can enjoy the opportunity and anything happens in the Final Four.”

On the crowd …

“It’s a dream to do that, and it’s hard to convince people by just saying it and talking about it and I just felt like I had to do something that would get the attention to people that don’t pay attention to volleyball. And so now that they’ve come, they’re hooked, and they’re gonna be hooked for a while, it just is an exciting brand of sports and, you know, a rising tide lifts all boats, and the more we can do for the University of Kentucky, and the other teams in this department, it makes us all better. We can’t do that without the help of administration to see the value in volleyball.”

On the effort the entire team puts into defense…

“One hundred percent. To hold a team like that to .066 is a lot to do with your defense, and you know, it’s a mentality. We have to establish a defensive mentality in practice.  We hammer balls at them all the time, they’re flying all over the gym, making plays. We have a couple rules, we’ll reason why you don’t go for the ball; that would be out of bounds, hear the whistle, or some sort of danger is in the way. Outside of that, you better go for the ball. But it’s just, you have to set that in practice, and we’ve spent a lot of time this year, just hammering that into our team, and it’s, man, it’s fun to watch, too.”

On what Eva Hudson has contributed to the team this year…

“Yeah, I just thank Eva for giving Kentucky a chance the third time, twice striking out to get her here and I think she saw something in this program that could bring something out of her. But I think everybody in the stand sees the level of competitor that she is, and there is zero that will fear her in the eyes of competition. It’s fun to be a part of people like that, and when you have people like these two at the table and others that are just competitors every single day, they’re going to win in life and Eva is, there’s no doubt about that. She’s going to win in life because she’s relentless in what she does, and I think people want to watch her play all the time.”

Kentucky Student-Athletes

#7 Eva Hudson, OH

On her last game in HMC …

“I mean it was absolutely magical. Every time they exceed expectations our whole team has for them. There was a time there at the end when I just looked around when it got really chaotic and it was a really cool experience and I just can’t thank them enough for an amazing year.”

On the team’s defense …
“Craig asked us to be relentless all evening. That sort of defense is so frustrating, one of your best shots and it being dug up. That was our mindset every time.”

On flipping the switch to another level in the second half …
“In the first, especially the first few points of the first set it was hard to find the rhythm with a game with so much pressure and a lot of high expectations, but I think in the second and third, we really found groove, our flow state, and we just capitalized on it.”

#17 Brooklyn DeLeye

On the team’s defense …

“Also props to the staff, I mean they really had a good game plan going into the match and I think we just executed that at a high level. Even if Creighton was making changes throughout the match, they were still telling us every single time we were at the net what to do.”

On Trinity’s play …
“You know she’s just one of the hardest workers out there, and I know when she got her shot to come in to serve she was going to make the most out of it. So, I mean, just props to her and just the person she is, because she was just a huge momentum shift whether that was her serving or just her presence out there, she will be your biggest hype man.”

Creighton Postgame Quotes

Creighton Head Coach Brian Rosen

On Kentucky’s serving…

“I thought our service did a nice shot. We had them under a 2 for most of the match. So I thought we did a decent job there. They shot well, their outsides were obviously really good, and even when we defended some of the balls, we just couldn’t find a way to win some of those long rallies. I just thought their defense tonight was the difference. They were an arm and ball back up. We ended up with nine blocks. I thought we could have had 18 tonight. They covered so well, just kept plays alive long enough for their outsides to terminate eventually. And so again, I just I give them a lot of credit for that. We fought as long as we could and just couldn’t find those stretches late in the first and the third when I thought we had chances.”

On Ava and Kiara …

“They’re like the two people that I knew the most and met when I took this job as an assistant a long time ago. Ava played on the same club team as a player I had just committed at a previous stop. I was the head coach at Nova Southeastern University before I got here, and committed a kid named Taylor Stockman to that program, and Ava was on the same team. And so I knew her really well when I came here, and then Chiara was the only athlete that I met when I was on my visit. They are just two really special individuals, getting Ciara to come back for the sixth year, allowed us to have the run that we had, her play is really, really good, and I think she’s one of the best middles in the country. But what she does beyond that is so much more important to our program. She’s the best leader, and the best teammate and does everything the right way, and then she jokes about being the team mom, and she really is. Even in her six years, making sure everyone has the right jerseys and spandex and all those kinds of things, but also brings so much joy. And Ava, the way she plays and competes is a pleasure to watch. I mean, sometimes in practices and film, the amount of times like my mouth drops watching her play is just remarkable. This is her last college game. I’m excited that she was able to go on this run, excited to watch her play at the next level. She’s earned this opportunity to play in the pro leagues and have a great career. She’s just special good and always shows up in the big moments and the two of them, the mark that they’ve left on our program, I know Kiara will be the winningest player to ever play at Creighton and it’s going to be hard for anyone to beat that. Ava, I believe, like just set the postseason record for kills. She’ll finish top three in her career and maybe cement herself as the best player to ever play at Creighton, and we have a pretty good list of players so it says a lot about who she is.”

On crowd atmosphere…

“I think volleyball has been booming for years now. It started with the woman behind you. I see Kathy DeBoer back there, putting volleyball on her back and trying to grow it as much as she could. When I was at Nova, she called me to start a beach team once. It’s grown and grown and grown since I started getting into it and starting watching it, and so I love that moments like this are now on ESPN. We got to get the first and second rounds on ESPN too. So I love that it’s on TV more. I know tonight there was a Kentucky men’s basketball game I heard down the street and still sold this place out tonight, which says a lot about a place that I know at one point was a basketball school. Maybe they’re a volleyball school now. We like to joke that we’re volleyball school too. And so I think so many fans and communities are seeing like how special this sport is. I think it’s the most spectator friendly sport there is. It’s so fast paced, it’s so athletic, it’s physical, it’s gritty, it’s fun. And so I’m just so grateful that all these fans are getting to see this in person, and people are able to see it at home, and I hope even though it didn’t go the way we wanted, I hope the match was fun for viewers to see, and they come back and watch more next time.”

On the message to the team in the locker room after the loss…

“I love them. I said that before but just that I love them. I’m so grateful to them. Again, back in April, when Coach Booth stepped down, every single one of them could have left. You know, even (Ava) Martin could have got a lot of money to go to a lot of places and chose to stay here and fight and wear that Creighton blue. And Kiara could have said, you know, never mind on the sixth year, but all of them stayed committed to represent Creighton, to play for me and for this staff. And so the biggest thing I told them was that I love them and how grateful I am to them for not just sticking with me, but showing up every day and fighting like crazy, not just for me, but for the people next to them. And, you know, the two things that I talked about in my first press conference was I’m gonna fight to keep the culture, and we’re gonna keep the same goals of going to a final four. These two and everyone else in that locker room are our culture. And they did everything they could to protect it this season. And obviously, we fell a few sets short of going to a final four this year, but I’m so proud of the fight they had. I don’t know how many people anywhere put us in an elite eight this season with losing 4 all Americans and all the things we did. But I know they did. And so just grateful for them and for all they did this season for our Creighton community.”

Creighton Student-Athletes

#8 Ava Martin, OH

On making adjustments…

“It’s always frustrating when things aren’t going your way. Their swings, I feel like they would just have little things that nothing really seemed to go our way. It happens, and I think it stinks and obviously we’re trying to make adjustments throughout the game, but our main goal was just to keep going for it.”

On playing for Creighton’s and what it means to her…

“I just have so much love for Creighton volleyball. Oh, I mean, even with Booth leaving I think all of us had it down our mind that we would stay just because of what we have here, and culture is so special and so amazing, and even the people that transfer in, they really let us know how lucky we are to have what we do. And our big thing is playing with joy, and I really hope other people can do that because we just have so much fun out there playing together, and that’s what we really want to show. We’ve had a good time and we love each other, and we want other people be able to see that as well. I think that’s just what makes us so hard is because we just love each other so much and we love the sport and volleyball and we’re just happy to be out there playing. Obviously we have big goals, final four and all those things, so that stinks, but I think one of the main things is just, you know, our time, together being done. It’s just really hard. And I’m just so thankful for Creighton. It’s just had very special place.”

On the program moving forward…

“It’s something we talk about every year. Obviously, it stings, and I wish we had another chance to get it back. The team next year is going to want to keep working for that too. I think it’s just an expectation here at Creighton now, to keep building off that and keep getting better. And yeah, obviously this hurts, but they’re going to get back in the gym this offseason and they’re going to continue to keep working toward that goal.”

#5 Kiara Reinhardt, MB

On Creighton’s play tonight…

“I mean I thought our serve receive was pretty strong all throughout the match. We were in system a lot and our defense, especially in the third set, we were scrapping, unfortunately, offensively. I think we weren’t where we wanted to be tonight. Again, cuddos to Kentucky’s defense they did great. I think defense and serve receive we were really good at tonight. I think there were, especially those small hard tough rallies that were just kind of a lot of junk kind of being thrown around. I mean, we were in a lot of those, and there were so many of them tonight, I feel like. So, I hope those showed a little bit of good tonight.”

On going through the last postseason run and showing the new players the ropes…

“It’s been a joy. I’ll remember you all, especially since you’re seniors just below me. I’m so thankful for the time I got to spend here. A lot of people said, ‘Wow, you really got them all, you’re so lucky,’ and it truly has been an honor and a privilege. They’ve kept me young and they’ve kept me laughing, and honestly, I got a lot more out of this than I expected by coming back for another year. It was really special to be able to connect with some of the younger girls I hadn’t spent much time with before, and to get to know them better. They’re such a sweet and special group, and I’m really so grateful.”