No. 9 Kansas Dominates No. 21 Utah for 3-0 Victory

Saturday, October 26

Lawrence, Kan.

1 PM

University of Kansas

18-1,9-0Big 12

#21 Utah

16-4,6-3Big 12

Utah

Kansas

No. 9 Kansas Dominates No. 21 Utah for 3-0 Victory

10/26/2024 2:57:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

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LAWRENCE, Kan. - No. 9 Kansas Volleyball defeated No. 21 Utah, 3-0, for its third ranked win of the season at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena Saturday afternoon to improve to 18-1 on the season and 8-0 in Big 12 play.

The victory was Kansas' ninth in a row as the Jayhawks improved to 18-1 and remained perfect in Big 12 play at 9-0. Utah dropped to 16-4 overall and 6-3 in Big 12 play.

"You've got a ranked team like that that's coming in focused and ready to go, and we certainly responded well in the first set," said Kansas Head Coach Ray Bechard. "I think we were on point offensively to start the match, and that's what really got us off to a good start."

After missing out on the Jayhawks' last two games, senior Toyosi Onabanjo returned in a huge way for Kansas in the first set, but not specifically from her normal middle blocking position. Onabanjo served a majority of the 7-0 Kansas stretch while executing stellar back row play with five digs and an assist to help the Jayhawks to an early 10-5 lead.

Kansas continued to stack up points behind an array of kills from seniors Caroline Bien, London Davis, Onabajo and Reese Ptacek while senior Ayah Elnady added an ace forcing Utah to call its final timeout of the set at 19-11.

The Jayhawks continued to trade point-for-point up until 24-14 before a Utah kill and ace shortened the gap down to single digits. A Camryn Turner dump into the center of the court sealed the first set as Kansas snatched it in a commanding 25-16 fashion.

Building off her 16 kill and 18 dig performance from the Iowa State win on Wednesday, Elnady tacked on another ace and a back row kill while Turner followed suit with her own ace and Onabanjo and Bien with kills to create a 11-6 second set advantage that featured five straight points.

Utah cut the KU edge down to 13-12 and fought tightly in the top-25 matchup but the Jayhawks managed to widen its advantage to six points without giving up its lead. Ptacek earned to block assists first by teaming up with Davis then Bien to bring Kansas up to 22-16. Two Davis and an Elnady kill secured a two set Jayhawk lead as they took it 25-11.

As with the previous sets, Kansas managed to create an early steady lead from four Davis kills with her last one being succeeded by a Raegan Burns ace as Utah exercised its first timeout of the third set at 12-8.

More offensive firepower from Elnady and Onabanjo doubled Kansas' four point lead to 19-11. The Utes slowly crept their way back into the match, cutting their deficit down to three points with the Jayhawks still holding the upper-hand at 22-19. Back-to-back Utah errors ensured setting up match point for Kansas but a Utah kill, block and ace narrowed it to 24-22. Another big swing by Elnady ended the Saturday matinee with a clean Jayhawk sweep.

Davis ended the match with 11 kills, hitting .429 and also adding three blocks to her stat line. Ptacek also notched three blocks, tying Davis for the top spot on the leaderboard. Elnady added nine kills to her season total, while Onabanjo and Bien each had seven kills.

Burns and Bien anchored the defense with a team-leading 12 digs a piece, while Turner was also in double-digits with 10 total digs. Turner racked up 32 assists as well.

Up next, Kansas will head to Lubbock, Texas on Wednesday, October 30 for a 6 p.m. first serve. The match will be streamed on ESPN+, as well as live stats on StatBroadcast and Kansas Volleyball social media platforms.