The Kansas volleyball program dropped its season opener in four sets on Saturday, falling to Loyola Marymount 17-25, 23-25, 25-23, 24-26 at the Reamer Club Xtra Special Premier at Purdue University.
The loss dropped the Jayhawks to 0-1 for the first time since 2013.
“You had three straight games where it was 23-all and whoever makes the most aggressive volleyball-savvy plays wins the match,” KU head coach Ray Bechard said after the match. “We can certainly learn some lessons from what we call in-game or red zone, where there were times they were a little bit more aggressive than we were. Though disappointing, there is a lot of opportunity to learn from this.”
After a slow start in the opening set led to an eight-point loss, the Jayhawks rallied and played virtually even with Loyola Marymount the rest of the way.
Neither team led by more than three points in the second set and Kansas had opportunities to win all three sets that closed out the match.
After winning the third set to stay alive, the Jayhawks built an 11-5 lead in the fourth set and appeared as if they might be ready to fourth a fifth set. But Loyola Marymount ripped off a 9-1 run midway through the set to reclaim the momentum. That run pushed LMU over the top in the decisive points late in the set.
“Overall, we felt like we could have been cleaner and more aggressive late in sets and therein lies the difference,” Bechard said.
Senior Jenny Mosser led the Kansas offense with 11 kills. She also tallied five digs. Freshman Caroline Bien added nine kills, while redshirt senior Anezka Szabo and sophomore Caroline Crawford had eight kills apiece.
Senior Rachel Langs posted eight total blocks for the match, including two solo, and Szabo added five block assists. KU went with a two-setter system in the match, with sophomore Elise McGhie leading the team with 24 assists and senior Sara Nielsen recording 12 assists.
Kansas will return to action in the round-robin style tournament at 1 p.m. Sunday against host school and No. 8-ranked Purdue.
“We felt like this team needed to be challenged early and that’s why we set this up,” Bechard said of playing in the event. “Loyola Marymount and Purdue are high-level opponents. The opportunity to see growth will be more apparent when you play teams at this level. We’ll stick our nose in there and compete hard tomorrow.”
