Kansas University’s volleyball team was swept eight times last season.
This year, the Jayhawks can point to five five-game setbacks, but they have fallen 3-0 only once.
Yet that one sweep — an insulting loss to Kansas State to open the Big 12 Conference season Sept. 17 in Manhattan — has lingered in KU players’ minds.
“There’s a lot of desire for us to really show them that three-game loss wasn’t us, that we can play harder than that,” KU junior Ashley Michaels said.
The Jayhawks (14-8 overall, 6-5 Big 12) will get another shot tonight against the Wildcats (20-3, 10-1), this time at 7 p.m. in the Horejsi Center.
While KU has adjusted since the 30-20, 30-24, 30-25 loss to K-State, the Wildcats are better, too — and KSU was ranked No. 10 in the nation that first meeting.
“I don’t know if we played our very best, but K-State was very good that night,” KU coach Ray Bechard said. “They’re playing really well, and they have a great chance to win the conference.”
Kansas State has won eight straight and 20 of 21 — including a 3-0 win over Baylor, the Bears’ only conference loss. The Wildcats have their highest-ever national ranking at No. 6 in Volleyball Magazine.
The Wildcats are ranked seventh this week in the American Volleyball Coaches Assn. Top 25, and feature Lauren Goehring — who leads the Big 12 and is ninth in the nation in hitting percentage at .402.
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“I’m sure they’re thinking that they can’t stub their toe tonight,” Bechard said of the Wildcats. “But we’re going to do everything we can to make it that way for them.”
The last time Kansas knocked off K-State was Nov. 16, 1994, under former coach Karen Schonewise. The Jayhawks won at home, 3-2, with a 15-13 win in the decisive fifth game.
Despite the Wildcats holding a 48-31 lead in the Sunflower Series, Michaels, a Wathena native, said the Jayhawks would shrug off this year’s early season loss.
“I don’t know if it was intimidation factor,” Michaels said. “It could have been (that) going down to K-State is a hard venue to play at. Maybe we were just off that night. That’s no excuse, we know we can play a lot harder tonight.”
