UNIVERSITY RELEASE — Originally published by Ole Miss Athletics, Oct. 11, 2026.
Ole Miss took a set off the fourth-ranked team in the country on Sunday afternoon at Historic Memorial Coliseum in Lexington and could not take a second, falling 3-1 to Kentucky to close a two-match road trip. The Rebels drop to 8-8 overall and 2-3 in the SEC; Kentucky moves to 13-3 and 5-1.
Set Scores
Kentucky 3, Ole Miss 1 — 25-14, 25-20, 22-25, 25-19
Who Did It
- Melia Johnson — a season-high 17 kills on .333 hitting, with seven digs
- Jorda Crook — 12 kills and a block
- Shayla Meyer — 10 kills, two aces and four blocks
- Bella Bonanno — a career-high 17 digs
- Keirstyn Carlton — five blocks
The Margins
The error columns were nearly even — 19 for Ole Miss, 18 for Kentucky — and the match still went four sets, which says the gap was in volume rather than sloppiness. Kentucky put down 56 kills to the Rebels’ 42 and hit .302 against .197, and the Wildcats turned that into 50 assists to Ole Miss’s 39.
The serve was the clearest separator: nine Kentucky aces against three for Ole Miss. The one category the Rebels won was the net, where they finished with seven team blocks to Kentucky’s three, with Carlton and Meyer doing most of the work there.
The third set is the one to keep. Down two sets, Ole Miss held on to take it 25-22 behind Johnson’s best afternoon of the season, then went out 25-19 in the fourth.
Up Next
Ole Miss returns home to host Georgia on Friday, Oct. 16. First serve is 6 p.m. CT on SEC Network Plus.
📄 Read the full university release: Volleyball’s Rally at No. 4 Kentucky Falls Short → (OleMissSports.com)