Following a two-week road trip to begin the season, No. 22-ranked Kansas volleyball (2-3) began its home slate convincingly, defeating in-state rival Wichita State (25-9, 25-21, 25-14) on Tuesday in Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena.
The win comes following a heartbreaking five-set loss on Saturday against Florida State in Nashville, a match that head coach Matt Ulmer said was “just disappointing.”
“We watched a lot of film, we had a lot of deep conversations, a little gut check, and I really liked our response tonight,” he said. “I thought it was a much better team effort, much more disciplined.”
The match marked the first regular-season nonconference home match the Jayhawks have played in Ulmer’s tenure after every nonconference match in 2025 was played away from Lawrence.
“To get five of our next six matches here means a lot to us,” Ulmer said. “The Big 12 is doing great. There are so many good teams… It’s nice to get some home cooking, sleep in our own beds, get our crowd behind us, and get that winning feeling.”
Individually, freshman pin hitter Taylor Stanley led KU with 15 kills, while junior pin hitter Grace Nelson recorded nine. Sophomore setter Reese Messer dished out 36 assists as the Jayhawks hit .417 as a team.
The Jayhawks wasted little time stretching out a large lead in the first set, as a 10-0 scoring run with libero Olivia Hasbrook serving gave the Jayhawks a 14-3 lead. During the run, Hasbrook had two service aces, while Nelson recorded three kills.
“We have a lot of dangerous servers,” Ulmer said of the early scoring run. “We have to apply pressure with our serve. We’re going to miss some, but I want us to stay aggressive.”
The early run was all KU needed, taking the first set by a 25-9 score behind four kills apiece from Nelson and Stanley while the entire offense hit .458.
Defensively, the Jayhawks held the Shockers to a .000 hitting percentage (six kills, six errors) with four blocks and 14 digs in the first set.
Set two seemed to be a similar tale at first as KU opened up an 8-5 advantage before four consecutive points by Wichita State gave the visitors its first lead of the match. The teams traded points up to the media timeout, as a service ace allowed the Shockers to take a slim 15-14 lead.
Out of the timeout, Nelson notched a kill to tie the set at 15 before the Shockers took the lead back with a kill of their own, and an attack error by the Jayhawks made the score 17-15. After KU pulled within one point, two straight points by Wichita State forced a timeout.
The timeout came at a good time as a kill by Stanley sparked a scoring run of three straight and Wichita State used a timeout with the set knotted at 20. Messer gave KU a lead it would not lose again, with junior pin hitter Kenzie Dean ending the set with a kill to make the match score 2-0.
“I thought Wichita State made really good adjustments,” Ulmer said. “They went back to their 6-2 in the second set, which is probably a more comfortable lineup for them… I liked that we didn’t drop, you know, we didn’t get cautious with anything. We just kept going, and that’s kind of been our issue the last four matches.”
KU’s lead in the third set never grew larger than two points until a kill by Dean made the score 9-6. The lead stretched out to as many as five points on a kill from Reese Ptacek to force the media timeout at 15-10.
An attack error by the Shockers sparked a 5-1 Jayhawk run, which had KU leading 20-11 after the visitor’s second timeout of the set. Wichita State used back-to-back errors to cut the deficit to seven before the Jayhawks ended the match on another 5-1 scoring run, capped by an attack error by the Shockers.
The Jayhawks will remain at home this weekend, starting on Friday for the first match of the Kansas Invitational against South Dakota State at 1 p.m.
