The 18th-ranked Kansas volleyball team snapped losing streaks of five straight five-set matches and four straight ranked matches when it beat No. 15 Baylor, 3-2 (19-25, 25-19, 25-13, 25-27, 15-13) in dramatic fashion at the Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas, on Friday night.
“I am really happy for our group. We executed at a high level in a lot of different phases of the game,” KU coach Matt Ulmer said in a press release. “Baylor is a great team and raised its level in both the fourth and fifth sets. That was an excellent team win for us.”
After the Jayhawks had let five separate potential match-point opportunities fall by the wayside across the fourth and fifth sets, setter Katie Dalton finished the Bears off at last, finding the floor with a left-handed attack for a surprise final point and the 15-13 result.
Dalton, a senior from Parker, Colorado, who has split time this season at setter with Cristin Cline, finished the night with 44 assists, 12 digs, six kills and five blocks.
KU opposite hitter Jovana Zelenović led all players with 16 kills; middle blocker Reese Ptacek added 14 to go with nine blocks, while outside hitter Rhian Swanson tallied 13 and six. On the whole, KU recorded 17 blocks as a team to Baylor’s five.
The Bears mounted a dramatic comeback after trailing as late as 23-18 in the fourth set, using a pair of attack errors by the Jayhawks and three kills from Ksenia Rakhmanchik to finish the game on a 9-2 run and force KU into its seventh five-set match of the year (in just 18 total matches).
Baylor appeared to have all the momentum, and Manuela Bibinbe and Victoria Davis recorded two early kills each as the Bears grabbed a 6-3 lead in the final frame, but following a timeout by Ulmer, the Jayhawks went on an 8-1 run. Baylor got sloppy, with a pair of bad sets during KU’s run and then two service errors as it was looking to draw closer late.
The Bears did cut their deficit to one point on a pair of occasions, but Dalton set up Zelenović for the penultimate point and then did it herself to seal the deal.
Davis and Rakhmanchik had 14 kills each for the Bears, with Rakhmanchik adding 11 digs for a double-double. Baylor hit just .176 as a team to KU’s .316.
The Bears suffered their first conference loss, while KU improved to 2-2 in league play. The Jayhawks are 11-7 overall on the year and will return home to host Texas Tech at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
