KU Jayhawks volleyball’s core as it prepares for Sweet 16? Players from Kansas
Kansas volleyball sophomore Caroline Crawford maybe didn’t see this NCAA Tournament run coming — with a pair of upsets over Oregon and Creighton pushing KU to the Sweet 16 — but she certainly believed postseason success was going to be possible during her college career.
That’s because Crawford — a Lansing, Kansas, native — was familiar with the characters who were going to be around her. She had faith in KU’s coaching staff, and knew club teammate Caroline Bien from Overland Park was going to be a Jayhawk too. She also had played previously with KU teammate Kim Whetstone (from Kansas City, Kansas) and went to high school with Karli Schmidt and Kennedy Farris.
“I’m really excited for the next few years,” Crawford said. “I think people are going to be shocked by how well we’re going to do, in my opinion. And they are now.”
KU volleyball’s unexpected run to the Sweet 16 — the unseeded Jayhawks will play No. 3 Pittsburgh at noon Central time Thursday at Fitzgerald Field House in Pittsburgh in a match streamed on ESPN+ — has featured standout performances from players whose hometowns span the country.
It’s still hard to miss, though, just how important hometown kids have been to this KU uptick, led by Kansas natives like Bien, Crawford and also Topekan Camryn Turner.
The familiarity with each other began even before college. Turner, in particular, said she remembered club games against Bien when the thought crossed her mind, “I want to play with her instead of against her.”
That transition has gone just as well as the freshman setter could’ve hoped. Bien was chosen the Big 12’s freshman of the year, and just this week, she also earned the first AVCA Regional Freshman of the Year honor for a Jayhawk since 2013.
“I just know I can get to the ball anywhere in the window, and she can put the ball away,” Turner said. “And so that’s just been amazing.”
KU’s offense also has progressed with Turner’s late-season ascendance. Bechard’s switch to make her the primary setter appears to be one of the main contributors to the team’s November surge, as the Jayhawks have won six straight matches after starting the season 12-11.
KU’s offense, in particular, has picked up. Bechard noted that in the Jayhawks’ NCAA Round of 32 upset over defensive-minded Creighton, they posted an attack percentage of .302.
Before that, no opponent had hit better than .300 against the Bluejays this season.
“Our offense has definitely taken a big leap,” Bien said.
It’ll need to continue if KU wants any chance at pulling a third straight shocker.
Pittsburgh, which made the Elite Eight a year ago, is 28-3 and advanced to this point after a 3-0 win over UMBC and a 3-1 triumph against Penn State.
Bechard notes that Pittsburgh is an excellent serving team, saying KU will need to be ready for that.
More than anything, though, the 24th-year Jayhawks coach has learned from previous NCAA Tournament experience to keep things simple. On Tuesday, the team practiced for 90 minutes like normal, while also going through a standard 30-minute scouting report prep.
There can be a tendency this time of year, Bechard said, to over-prepare. That has the potential to backfire.
“I think consistency in our players’ minds creates confidence,” Bechard said.
KU is one of only two unseeded teams — along with Illinois — in the Sweet 16. Bechard said he’d had a recent conversation with men’s basketball coach Bill Self about this typically being the spot in the NCAA Tournament where the spotlight gets a bit brighter.
“You’re playing second weekend, and there’s not a ton of other teams doing that,” Bechard said. “So that I think creates a pretty good buzz, certainly around the country about Kansas volleyball.”
Regardless of Thursday’s result, KU’s future outlook appears encouraging.
Crawford is a sophomore, while Turner and Bien are freshmen. A main core of KU’s group, then, will be getting NCAA Tournament experience that could benefit them in future years as well.
“What we have now,” Bechard said, “is what we feel like can be sustainable over time.”
If KU wins, it would advance to face the winner of sixth-seeded Purdue and 11th-seeded BYU at 3 p.m. Central time Saturday at Fitzgerald Field House. That match would be for a berth in the Final Four in Columbus, Ohio.
