No. 1-ranked Texas rallies from 2-0 deficit to trip Kansas Jayhawks in volleyball, 3-2
It took 2 hours, 41 minutes and a career-high 29 kills from national player of the year candidate Logan Eggleston for undefeated and No. 1-ranked Texas to edge unranked Kansas 3-2 in a thrilling college volleyball match Wednesday night before a sold out crowd of 1,914 fans at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena.
“That’s 40 minutes longer than we’ve played all year,” KU coach Ray Bechard said after his Jayhawks fell to 10-3 overall and 0-1 in the Big 12. Texas improved to 9-0 (1-0 Big 12).
“Even in that moment, you’ve still got to be good 2 hours in, 2 hours 15 minutes in, 2 hours 30 minutes in you’ve got to be good against the best team in the country at this point,” Bechard said.
The Jayhawks, who also lost to Texas in five sets in Lawrence a year ago, won the first two sets by identical 25-23 scores. KU lost the third set 25-18, lost the fourth set 25-22 (after the match was tied 20-20) and lost the tiebreaking fifth set, 15-9.
Asked what it says about his own team to play the country’s No. 1 team that tough, Bechard, now in his 25th year as KU coach said: “I don’t know what it does (say). You are up 2-0 … the clock never runs out in volleyball. Even if you’ve got the lead, you’ve got to start again.
“You think, ‘Oh you can win one of the next three (sets).’ If you get in that mentality, no, you’ve got to win the next point.”
Sophomore Madisen Skinner contributed 19 kills for the Longhorns. KU had four players with nine or more kills. Ayah Elnady had 15 kills, Rachel Langs and Caroline Bien 11 kills and London Davis nine.
“Obviously there are things to be happy about. We can go back and think of all those really good plays first and second set,” said sophomore hitter Bien, a graduate of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Overland Park.
“We really brought it. We were right there but there are some things we can (do better). I mean they are a good team. They fought really hard. So did we,” Bien said.
Bien, who had nine digs, credited the 6-foot-2 Eggleston for a fantastic match. Eggleston had eight digs, three blocks and one service ace to go with 29 kills.
“She’s national player of the year material,” Bien said. “So good, really consistent.”
Of the atmosphere on Wednesday, Bien said: “I mean the environment was just crazy. It was awesome. Those good plays (KU had) are just the best. There’s nothing like it. A sold-out Horejsi ... it was super fun. It would have been more fun if we’d won.”
Kansas next will meet Kansas State at 4 p.m. Saturday in Manhattan.
“We’ll be disappointed until we meet tomorrow then we’ll move on,” Bechard, whose team was ranked earlier in the season, said. “We can wrap our minds around a lot of good things that happened too. We’re going to be in a lot of five-set matches this year. How are we going to respond?”
This story was originally published September 22, 2022 at 9:48 AM.
