The new-look 15th-ranked Kansas volleyball team got to experience a match shorter than five sets for the first time, and a favorable outcome for the second time.
The Jayhawks took down Bowling Green in four sets — 25-18, 25-20, 25-27, 25-14 — on Wednesday afternoon at Holloway Gymnasium in West Lafayette, Indiana, and improved to 2-3 on the season.
The match featured one of the top performances in the career of senior outside hitter Rhian Swanson, who totaled a career-best 20 kills on .421 hitting with just four errors. Sophomore middle blocker Reese Ptacek added 12 on .381 hitting, and setter Cristin Cline tallied 43 assists.
Lauryn Hovey led the way with 12 kills and 13 digs for Bowling Green, which came back from 17-11 and 24-21 deficits to force a fifth set, but hit just .121 as a team to KU’s .276.
Two Jayhawks made their season debuts: pin hitter Audra Wilmes, a veteran transfer from Washington, who played in one set, and redshirt junior defensive specialist Molly McCarthy, who had six digs.
“Bowling Green is well-coached, serves aggressively, and runs a lot of different offensive patterns that gave us trouble,” KU coach Matt Ulmer said in a press release. “I’m proud of how we responded in the fourth set. We have great senior leadership, and we saw that today, particularly from Rhian Swanson and Molly McCarthy.”
The Falcons hung tough early in the first set but conceded three kills to Swanson and two service aces to Cline as part of a 6-1 run for the Jayhawks. KU didn’t close the game out immediately but got another kill by Swanson on its third set point to start strong in West Lafayette.
Bowling Green, which was a set away from the NIVC title last season, didn’t make it easy in the second game. Six straight points, including a pair of aces by Sydnie Hernandez, put the Falcons ahead 9-3. KU was able to battle back for five straight of its own, led by Swanson and Ptacek, who scored four of them and combined for a block on Hovey. Later, trailing 19-17, the Jayhawks benefited from a service error by Hernandez and then proceeded to score seven of the next eight points, mostly with McCarthy serving. Swanson provided the winner.
The Falcons reversed that late surge with their own performance in the third set. KU had gone ahead 17-11 when Cline set up Ptacek for a kill (aided by Ava Buddelmeyer’s block error), then recorded a kill of her own. The Falcons drew as close as two points away on three occasions, then even managed to tie the game at 21 on an attack error by Selena Leban. But Leban put the Jayhawks a point away at 24-21.
Bowling Green proceeded to score four straight when Wilmes got blocked by Buddelmeyer and Kendall Williams and then Buddelmeyer and Hovey recorded one kill each, before Hovey got an ace. Leban tied the score back at 25 for KU, but ultimately committed the decisive attack error for the 27-25 result.
There was no such drama in the final set, the most lopsided of the day. KU built a five-point cushion early and did not let the Falcons gain any ground. The Jayhawks closed out the 25-14 game on a kill by Jovana Zelenović and an attack error by Hovey, gaining their first four-set win of the year ahead of Thursday afternoon’s matchup with No. 23 Georgia Tech, also in West Lafayette. KU will look to claim its first win over a ranked foe after losing three such matches.
