🏐 No. 17 Kansas Falls in Three Sets at No. 8 Texas
AUSTIN, Texas – The No. 17 Kansas volleyball team was swept (16-25, 15-25, 18-25) by the No. 8 Texas Longhorns on Friday night in Austin in the final match of a two-match swing at Gregory Gym.
With the loss, Kansas is now 12-4 overall and 3-3 in Big 12 Conference play, while Texas improved to 11-3 overall and 6-0 in the league.
The Longhorns opened the match hot with a five-point unanswered run. Toyosi Onabanjo would be the first to put the Jayhawks on the board at 1-5. Texas scored four more times before the Jayhawks were able to get another point, which came off a block from Reagan Cooper and Mykayla Myers. The Longhorns held onto their comfortable lead through the middle of the set, running up the score despite various Jayhawks getting into the mix, including freshman Aisha Aiono recording a monster block with junior London Davis to get Kansas’ 14th point. The deficit proved to be too large for the Jayhawks, however, with Texas taking the set in the end, 25-16.
Aiono stayed hot, starting off the second set with the Jayhawks’ first two points on a solo block and kill respectively. The Longhorns pulled away slightly, up 2-4, but the Jayhawks tied it back up at 4-4. The match would go 5-5, then 6-6, but Texas went on a three-point run to create distance once again. KU kept rolling, however, closing back in at 8-11. This is when the Longhorns would really start to heat up, however, pulling away as far as 12-22 at one point.
Set three began in a point-for-point fashion, tying four times until the Jayhawks gained an 8-5 lead and pushed Texas to call its first timeout of the match. The timeout seemed to work, however, despite KU showing some grit at crucial moments in the set. Texas ran up the score as far as 14-23, forcing multiple Jayhawk errors to get there. KU went on a 3-0 run late in the set, however, fighting back and closing the gap to 17-23. At game point, Cooper knocked down a kill to make it 18-24, but the Longhorns would get the next one, completing the sweep in the end.
Onabanjo and Cooper split the leaderboard in the kills category with a team-high eight a piece, while Camryn Turner and Raegan Burns tag-teamed the digs column with seven each. Aiono recorded a season and career high four total blocks to take the top spot in that statistical category, while Turner added the most assists once again with 19.
UP NEXT
Kansas will return home to the Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena in Lawrence for a single match against Oklahoma on Saturday, October 14th at 1:00 p.m. CT.
