Kansas Jayhawks volleyball team back in NCAA tourney for 4th consecutive season
Thanks in large part to an exceedingly difficult schedule, the University of Kansas’ No. 12-ranked volleyball team appears to be as battle-tested as possible entering the 64-team NCAA Tournament.
“Seven of the 10 teams we played in our pre-conference schedule are in the NCAAs: Purdue, Creighton, Marquette, Western Michigan, Colgate, Wichita State and South Carolina,” KU coach Ray Bechard said earlier this week. “Playing those type of folks led us to a competitive confidence (heading) into our league which is a very good league.
“We’ve seen a lot of different teams from a lot of different regions. In my mind it prepares us for what lies ahead.”
Bechard is about to lead the Jayhawks into their 13th NCAA Tournament in his 27 seasons as coach.
The NCAA rewarded the Jayhawks (24-4, 15-3) with a No. 3 seed in recognition of a 9-1 nonconference campaign topped by a 15-3 record and second-place finish in the Big 12 Conference. The Jayhawks, who finished two games behind (17-1) Arizona State in the league standings, have five wins over ranked teams and eight victories over teams that made the 2024 NCAAs.
Other Big 12 teams joining the No. 3 seed Jayhawks and No. 3 seed Sun Devils in the tourney: No. 4 seeds Baylor and Utah and No. 5 seeds BYU and TCU.
KU, which was one of 16 schools named a host site for first- and second-round NCAA Tournament play, will meet unseeded Patriot League champion Colgate (19-10) approximately 6:30 p.m. on Friday at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena.
Florida (21-7) will take on North Carolina State (16-12) at 4 p.m. in the other first round match to be played at the Horejsi arena. First-round winners will play there for a spot in the Sweet 16 at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
“We’ll try to keep our routine as consistent as possible,” Bechard said, “but it’s different, feels different. The first serve will feel different. The NCAA Tournament always does.”
“I think we are excited to host. It speaks to the type of year that this team has had (opening the season 20-1) and the amount of work that the staff has put in. I don’t think it (hosting) has quite the allure it had last year since we hadn’t hosted in a few years.”
KU, which earned host site status in 2023 after a seven-year hiatus, defeated Omaha in the first round, then fell to Penn State in five sets in a second-round match in Lawrence.
“Now I think it’s more about, ‘How can we get out of the first weekend?’” Bechard said. “’How can we put a good effort together on Friday, and if we’re fortunate enough to move to Saturday, create an opportunity there to play up to our seed?’”
The Jayhawks, who have qualified for their fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament, defeated Colgate 25-19, 25-17, 25-15 on Sept. 1 in Durham, North Carolina. It was the third match of the season for both teams.
Six Jayhawks this week were named All-Big 12, including first-team selections Camryn Turner, Toyosi Onabanjo, Ayah Elnady and Reese Ptacek, the league’s feshman of the year. Caroline Bien and London Davis were second-team all-conference. Bien, a graduate of Saint Thomas Aquinas High School, was Big 12 scholar-athlete of the year.
Bien averaged 3.22 digs per set and 2.54 kills per set during the regular season. She was one of four Jayhawks to appear in all 100 regular-season sets.
Ptacek ranked third in the Big 12 in blocks per set (1.27). The Prescott, Wisconsin freshman had the highest hitting percentage in a regular-season league match this season: .813 against Cincinnati on Oct. 12. Ptacek’s 11 blocks against K-State on Oct. 17 tied for the second most by a Big 12 player in a match this season.
Turner, the Big 12’s assists-per-set leader, ranks No. 3 in the country in assists per set (11.4). The senior from Topeka is an AVCA national player of the year semifinalist for the first time in her career.
Onabanjo, a senior from Houston, ranks third in the Big 12 in hitting percentage (.399). She ranks fourth in the league in blocks per set (1.21).
Elnady, a senior from Egypt, leads the Jayhawks in kills per set (3.24). She enters the NCAAs with nine straight double-doubles.
“When you look at the Camryn Turners and London Davises and Biens and Ayahs, this is their fourth-straight trip (to postseason tourney),” Bechard said. “I’d think they’d have a lot of good advice to share with somebody maybe experiencing this for the first time.”
The KU coach noted that Overland Park native Bien, “from a local perspective, made it cool to come to Kansas (and compete in four straight NCAAs).”
Bechard, a five-time Big 12 coach of the year, said the Jayhawks “are excited” about what’s ahead starting on Friday.
“Only 16 teams get this opportunity, this privilege (to host),” he said. “You’ve still got to compete against some good teams. Colgate … this is not going to overwhelm them. This is their fourth straight NCAA Tournament. There’s two other quality teams as well, but we’ll certainly have all our attention focused on Colgate and be ready to go.”
If KU wins Friday and Saturday the Jayhawks would travel to Louisville for the Sweet 16. Louisville is the top seed and Stanford is No. 2. KU is No. 3, followed by Purdue (4), BYU (5), Florida (6) and Loyola Marymount (7). Unseeded teams in the regional are Chicago State, Northern Iowa, Illinois, Loyola Chicago, Western Michigan, Colgate, N.C. State, Washington and Sacramento State.
During the Bechard era, KU has reached three Sweet 16s and one Final Four (2015). The Jayhawks won the Big 12 title in 2016.
“I’m proud of the seniors, proud of the group. They’ve been great ambassadors,” Bechard said. “I know they’d like to extend this season as far as possible because we enjoy getting together, spending time together, training together and competing together.”
