The Big 12 Conference’s coaches don’t expect the Kansas volleyball program to take a step back in its first season under head coach Matt Ulmer.
KU was picked to finish second in the league’s preseason coaches’ poll on Wednesday, matching its position from last year’s final conference standings, despite a significant offseason roster overhaul under its new coaching staff.
The Jayhawks received four first-place votes and trailed only BYU, which garnered six. KU came in just ahead of Arizona State, Utah and TCU, which rounded out the top five teams. In addition, three KU players were named to the preseason all-conference team, matching the league’s second-highest total.
“I think any time you get awards, that’s nice, but for sure, we haven’t done anything to earn that at this moment,” Ulmer said during a Big 12 season preview livestream on Wednesday. “So we’re going to try to keep getting better each and every day. Our goal is to play deep into December. That’s what we’re trying to do. I think we have a lot of good pieces to get there, and so if we work hard and we trust our process and we show up every day, we’ll have a chance.”
Sophomore middle blocker Reese Ptacek earned an all-conference honor as a unanimous selection, the only underclassman among the conference’s six unanimous picks. She was the league’s freshman of the year last season, as she averaged 1.81 kills per set on .307 hitting. The 6-foot-3 native of Prescott, Wis., also led the Jayhawks with 1.26 blocks per set.
Fellow underclassmen Cristin Cline, a setter who followed Ulmer from Oregon, and Jovana Zelenović, a 6-foot-7 outside hitter from Serbia who is the only freshman on the preseason team, also made the cut.
Cline, a 5-foot-11 sophomore from Stanfield, N.C., is actually in her third year of collegiate volleyball as she redshirted in 2023. As a redshirt freshman, she posted 10.26 assists per set for the Ducks and was named to the Big Ten’s all-freshman team after finishing the season with four consecutive double-doubles.
Zelenović is the most recent addition to KU’s roster, as the Jayhawks officially announced her signing on June 20. Though she is a freshman, she recently turned 21 and has competed with the Serbian national team. Zelenović was one of a trio of European players Ulmer and his staff added following the conclusion of the spring, along with outside hitter Selena Leban from Slovenia and middle blocker Aurora Papac from Croatia.
All are expected to play key roles on this year’s squad, which also features returnees such as libero Raegan Burns and pin hitter Rhian Swanson as well as newcomers Logan Bell (a highly touted freshman from Beech Grove, Ind.), Ryan White (a libero who played at Oregon State) and Audra Wilmes (a pin from Washington). KU, which also received a No. 14 national ranking in the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s poll on Wednesday, will open its season against Vanderbilt in Lincoln, Neb., on Aug. 23.
