Kansas volleyball slotted 18th in season’s first RPI rankings

By Matt Tait     Oct 4, 2021

Photo courtesy Missy Minear/Kansas Athletics
The Jayhawks huddle together during their victory over Albany on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021.

A 10-1 September and a 3-1 start in Big 12 Conference play landed the Kansas volleyball team back in the national rankings.

KU, which moved to 11-4 on the season after a split with Iowa State over the weekend, is ranked No. 18 in the country in the first RPI rankings of the 2021 season.

The Jayhawks have yet to crack the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s top 25, but the next couple of weeks could change that.

KU plays host to No. 1 Texas, which received all 64 first-place votes in this week’s AVCA poll, for two matches this weekend. And the Jayhawks will follow that up with a trip to Waco, Texas, for two matches with No. 12 Baylor the following weekend.

The unbeaten Longhorns (11-0) checked in at No. 2 in the season’s first RPI rankings. Baylor (8-4) was No. 6 in the RPI rankings.

After KU’s four-set victory over Iowa State last Friday, Kansas coach Ray Bechard said he was pleased about his team’s approach to their nine-game winning streak that followed a 2-3 start to the season.

“It feels like momentum (is building),” Bechard said. “That trip (to Texas Tech to open Big 12 play) really did a lot.”

Now, Bechard said, the goal is to keep the good results coming.

“October’s really a grind-it-out kind of month in college volleyball and so that’s what we’re going to have to do,” he said. “We just talk about being intentional one point at a time.”

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.