🏐 Kansas Headed East to Face West Virginia

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas Volleyball (12-9, 4-6 Big 12) hits the road to Morgantown, West Virginia, this week for a two-game set against the Mountaineers on Nov. 4-5.

Both matches will be broadcast live on ESPNU, with first serve set for 5 p.m. CT on Thursday, Nov. 4, before a 2 p.m. CT start time on Friday afternoon. The matches against WVU will be the third and fourth times this season that Kansas has appeared on ESPNU, following a home match against No. 1 Texas (Oct. 10) and a road game at No. 11 Baylor (Oct. 15).

Sophomore middle blocker Caroline Crawford was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week on Tuesday for her play during the Oklahoma series last weekend. Crawford led the Jayhawks in blocks during both matches, with nine on Friday, Oct. 29, before matching a career-high with 10 blocks in the win on Saturday, Oct. 30. Crawford is now a five-time Big 12 Weekly Award winner in her career, with three Freshman of the Week honors from last season along with two Defensive Player of the Week recognitions. She previously won the defensive award on March 17, 2021.

The Jayhawks set a new single-game school record with 24 blocks during Friday’s five-set match against Oklahoma. KU had eight solo blocks, including three from Jenny Mosser, in addition to 16 block assists to eclipse the previous school record of 20.5, which also took place against OU during the 2014 season.

Four Kansas players set or tied career highs against Oklahoma, starting with Lacey Angello grabbing 27 digs on Friday. The personal bests continued on Saturday, when Caroline Crawford notched 10 blocks, London Davis hit 11 kills and Camryn Turner picked up 27 assists.

Kansas has the third-highest hitting percentage among Big 12 teams during league play, hitting .200 with 493 kills to their credit against 208 attack errors in 1,428 swings. The Jayhawks are also ranked fifth in the conference in blocking with 108.0 total blocks during league play for an average of 2.65 per set.

West Virginia has an identical conference record to the Jayhawks. The two teams are currently tied with Oklahoma for fifth place in the Big 12 standings. WVU is coming off a series split at Iowa State last weekend and they enter the weekend with an overall record of 14-7, with a 4-3 record at the WVU Coliseum. The Mountaineers lead the Big 12 with 707 digs during conference play, which is an average of 17.68 per set, and they have five players with 175 or more digs to their credit.

Kansas leads the all-time series 16-4 over West Virginia, with meetings between the two programs dating back to 1999. The Jayhawks won matches over WVU in the 1999 and 2000 seasons, but those are the only times the two teams met prior to West Virginia’s arrival in the Big 12 Conference. Since that time, KU has won 14-of-18 matchups against the Mountaineers, including the first 11 meetings from 2012-17.

Kansas Volleyball has their final bye week of the regular season next weekend before returning home for Senior Weekend on Nov. 19-20 against TCU.