The 15th-ranked Kansas volleyball team finished off its sweep of the Sunflower Showdown Friday night with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-20) win over Kansas State at Allen Fieldhouse.
The win is KU’s first in Allen Fieldhouse since Dec. 7, 2013, against Creighton, and this one came in front of a record crowd of 8,058 fans that saw the Jayhawks (15-5, 7-2) take control early and never really let Kansas State (10-8, 2-8) get any sustained momentum.
“Not a chance,” said Kansas head coach Matt Ulmer when asked if he mentioned last season’s match at Allen Fieldhouse, when Kansas State came back from a 2-1 deficit to win in five sets, to his team prior to Friday’s third set. “We just (lost a two-set lead) two weeks ago against Arizona State, so it’s still fresh. We’re trying to be consistent and have good habits and the wins and losses will take care of themselves. Generally, when we focus on just having good habits, good things happen for us. I do like this result better, though.”
Kansas used a 5-1 run in the opening set to build a 9-4 lead and the Wildcats were unable to get any closer than three points the rest of the way as the Jayhawks slowly extended their lead before taking Set 1, 25-17. Kansas hit .367 in Set 1, with 13 kills and 2 errors on 30 attacks, as Taylor Stanley led the offensive attack with six kills.
The second set was more back-and-forth, as neither team was able to generate much consistency on offense. KU finally took control with a 7-3 burst to go from leading 14-12 to being up 21-15. However, Kansas State then scored four straight points to get to within 21-19, prompting Ulmer to call a timeout. The Jayhawks responded and after the teams traded points twice, KU got a service error and a kill by Grace Nelson to close out Set 2, 25-21.
“There were a lot of play stoppages in the second set,” Ulmer said. “It felt like a much slower set and it seemed to bother us from the service line. I think we made a handful of service errors off of those breaks. So, I’d like for us to be tougher between the ears when we have those and execute a little better in the rotation.”
Kansas put its foot on the gas in Set 3, racing out to a 13-5 lead and holding a 23-13 advantage before the Wildcats scored five straight points to get to within 23-18 in an attempt to extend the match. However, KU was able to get the final two points it needed to take the set, 25-20, and close out the sweep.
“I thought our block overall was pretty disciplined and we got a lot of people involved,” Ulmer said. “Our serve and pass game overall was steady for us. It puts a lot of pressure on the other side.”
Nelson led the Kansas offensive attack with 10 kills and no errors on 25 attacks, adding eight digs and two service aces as the Jayhawks finished the match with eight aces. Reese Ptacek had nine kills, three digs and two blocks; Stanley added nine kills, four blocks and three digs, Aisha Aiono had five kills and six blocks; Reese Messer – the current Big 12 Setter of the Week – handed out 24 assists along with seven digs and two blocks; and libero Olivia Hasbrook had 15 digs and four assists for KU in the win. For the match, the Jayhawks hit .309 with 37 kills against eight errors on 94 attacks, adding eight blocks and a total of 46 digs.
Meanwhile, Kansas State was held to a .150 attack percentage (34 kills, 19 digs on 100 attacks) and never hit better than .172 in a set. The Wildcats’ leading hitter, Addison Massey, had 11 kills – along with 10 errors – on 40 attacks to finish with a .025 attack percentage in the loss.
Kansas next travels to Ames, Iowa, to take on Iowa State (13-8, 7-3) in a Sunday matinee. First serve at Hilton Coliseum is scheduled for noon and the match will be broadcast on ESPN+.
Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World
