KU Jayhawks volleyball trips High Point, wins battle of bands in Round 1 of NCAAs
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas absorbed High Point’s visiting pep band, overcame noise and won 3-0.
- Balanced offense featured Zelenovic, Aiono and Ptacek, driving KU to 25-20,25-15,25-18.
- Kansas advances to face Miami in Round of 32; Miami enters 27-5 and favored.
Matt Ulmer and his Kansas volleyball players were a bit surprised — and also fired up — after learning High Point University brought its pep band from North Carolina to Lawrence for Thursday night’s first-round NCAA Tournament match at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena.
The presence of the band members — and noise they produced — were signs that the unranked Big South Conference champs came ready to give the No. 4-seeded and No. 16-ranked Jayhawks quite a battle in this round-of-64 postseason contest.
“I thought High Point bringing the band was a cool touch for them. I thought they (band members) gave them some confidence and made it feel weird in our gym to have that many people cheering against us with loud instruments,” first-year KU coach Ulmer said after the Jayhawks’ 3-0 victory, attained before a crowd of 1,607 fans.
“I thought we handled it well and I liked a couple of our aces when they (Jayhawk players) looked at the band, too. I thought that was pretty good. It just brought out maybe a little bit more of our fight, which was good.”
The victory, by a convincing score of 25-20, 25-15, 25-18, qualified Kansas for Friday’s 6 p.m. round-of-32 match against Miami, a 3-1 winner over Tulsa in Thursday’s earlier match at Horejsi.
“Having them here shows High Point’s investment in athletics and our volleyball program,” High Point coach Ryan Meek said of the band after his Panthers fell to 18-10 overall. KU improved to 23-10.
“Usually at the end of these (matches) we go to sing and dance with them,” Meek added of the band members. “We didn’t get to tonight. We love having them at our home matches and loved having them here. It’s been awesome.”
Of the visitors, Ulmer said: “I thought they gave us a great fight. I thought they served tough, played great defense, so I’m happy with our team for putting up a good fight and getting a good win.”
Of course, KU also had its own lively pep band on hand. And perhaps that helped the Jayhawks overcome some first-round jitters.
“I feel like with us, normally, we have some nerves to start the match, and for most of our team, that’s their first NCAA Tournament match that they’ve played meaningful minutes in,” Ulmer said. “So you’ve got to get through some of that. And luckily, we’re able to do that with a win and then kind of get our bearings, and then we were able to get it going.”
KU showed a balanced attack. Freshman Jovana Zelenovic had eight kills, three service aces and three blocks. Junior Aisha Aiono, who hails from Liberty, had seven kills and five blocks. Sophomore Reese Ptacek had seven kills and two blocks. Senior Ryan White had 14 digs.
Addison Freeland and Elodie Lalonde had six kills apiece to lead High Point.
“We talked about elite competitiveness and that’s what we were doing,” Ulmer said. “Something I said to the group is, ‘This time of year, it’s not going to be pretty, right? You’re not going to have clean offense all the time and it’s just not going to feel good all the time. It’s going to be stressful. So how do you handle that stress?’ I thought for us we responded well after the first set and we just kept grinding away and find ways to get points.”
On the issue of first-round jitters, junior Katie Dalton (three kills, 20 assists, five digs) said: “I would definitely say it’s a lot of nerves. I mean it’s the NCAA Tournament and it’s basically 0-0 for everyone. So you’re definitely a little nervous at the beginning and you want to do really well, but I think we stayed super steady, especially after that first set. We got into a rhythm.”
Aiono noted: “I would say that we know that everybody’s going to bring their best shot, so that means that everybody’s going to come in fighting, and we know that we have to bring the fight too.”
Friday’s round-of-32 opponent for KU, Miami, will enter the match with a 27-5 record (17-4 ACC).
Senior Flormarie Heredia Colon, a 6-foot senior from he Dominican Republic, had 33 kills in Thursday’s 25-22, 13-25, 25-22, 25-20 Hurricanes victory. Tulsa fell to 25-7.
