Mike YoderIt began with joyous smiles, fun flashbacks and the unveiling of the program’s first Final Four banner and quickly transformed into the kind of cut-throat volleyball we’ve come to expect from Ray Bechard’s program.
If anyone was worried that the Kansas volleyball team would enter the 2016 season a little fat and happy over its magical run to the Final Four, a 30-3 record and No. 4 national ranking a year ago, the intensity on display on Saturday at Horejsi Family Athletics Center, where the Crimson team defeated the Blue in three sets, 14-25, 25-16, 25-22, likely quieted all concerns.
Playing in front of a loud and proud crowd at their nearly full home arena, the Jayhawks scrambled, scratched and scraped their way through an hour of volleyball that featured everything from grimaces and frustration to trash talk and celebration. In short, it was exactly the kind of performance that the team puts on most nights in Horejsi and it surprised nobody.
“I did,” said KU coach Ray Bechard when asked if he expected to see so much intensity during the intrasquad scrimmage. “I thought they would be excited to play. They’d much rather do that than practice. But that’s part of who we are and the culture we’ve tried to develop. We told ’em, if one person shows up today or 500 we’re gonna play the same way.”
Added junior setter Anise Havili: “It’s kind of a given. Even our newcomers know how they should be.”
Mike YoderSplit up evenly at the start, Bechard assistants Todd Chamberlain and Bird Kuhn coached the rest of the match with juggled lineups. Initially, 2015 All-Americans Havili an Kelsie Payne were on separate teams. Payne’s Blue squad got the better of Havili’s crimson cronies in Set One. But the two then teamed together for the next two sets, including the decisive third set which featured rotation regulars Cassie Wait, Madison Rigdon and Tayler Soucie joining Havili and Payne in knocking off KU’s second unit in the closest set of the match.
Saturday’s statistics carried less meaning than the experience of playing in front of a live crowd and all of the distractions that come with a typical game night.
“Quite a few unforced errors,” said Bechard, the consummate head coach. “But it was the first time out there for four of ’em, well, six of ’em really, so it was good to get them out there.
As for that Final Four banner, which now hangs on the west wall on its own, 50 feet from the six other NCAA Tournament banners that celebrate KU’s past success, Bechard made sure to point out that the crimson and blue on the new banner were inverted and that the Final Four version includes gold piping along the bottom.
“It’s very subtle,” he said. “But, at the same time, there’s a little something different to it.”
The banner officially became a part of the Horejsi setting just before the match when every member of the 2016 team grabbed part of the rope and yanked down the curtain that was hiding it.
“This was our first time (seeing it),” said junior defensive specialist Addie Barry, who celebrated her golden, 20th birthday on Saturday. “They did a really good job hiding it from us.”
Although the memories of last year’s run are forever etched in the minds of these Jayhawks, the appreciation for that new banner stirred up all kinds of wonderful emotions.
“We pulled it down hard, and it came flying. It was great,” Havili said. “I stared at it for a couple seconds longer. It’s surreal having it actually up there in writing. It gives me chills.”
Added Bechard: “It was cool for the girls to do that, but now we’ve gotta move on and create some more opportunities and more memories in 2016.”
