No. 13 Kansas Dismantles No. 24 Marquette in First Ranked Win of 2024

Friday, September 6

Milwaukee, Wisc.

6 PM

University of Kansas

5-0,0-0Big 12

#24 Marquette

1-2,0-0Big East

Kansas

Marquette

No. 13 Kansas Dismantles No. 24 Marquette in First Ranked Win of 2024

9/6/2024 7:43:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score Highlights

MILWAUKEE, Wis. - The No. 13 Kansas Jayhawks downed No. 24 Marquette in a huge 3-1 victory on Friday night to begin their second non-conference tournament of the season. With the win, Kansas collected their first ranked win of the 2024 season.

"I thought they got off to a really good start, but we didn't go away from who we are," said Kansas Head Coach Ray Bechard. "I thought we served better, and we had great defense. We had great offensive balance and that was the difference tonight. Seven aces to five errors is a great number as well."

The Golden Eagles came out strong, giving the Jayhawks a bit of a fast start up 7-3, but Kansas remained calm despite the rowdy fans in Al McGuire, tying things up at 11-11 in no time. Marquette got rolling a little again, but Kansas brought things back to even at 13's. Marquette looked collected on their home court, pushing the score back up to 18-15 in their favor.

A Jayhawk timeout led to a Caroline Bien kill, her fourth of the match, and things became closer once again. At 21-18, Kansas used their second timeout, but back-to-back points to then make it 22-21 pushed the Golden Eagles to use a timeout of their own, feeling the Jayhawk pressure a bit. That stoppage of play worked, however, with Marquette coming out on top 25-21 in the first.

Things were even up through the second, with Kansas holding a narrow lead this time up through 10-8, seemingly rattling the Golden Eagles a bit. At 14-10, with the Jayhawks on a 4-0 scoring run, Marquette exercised their first timeout in hopes of flipping the script back in their favor. Bien remained at the line for seven-consecutive serves, and back-to-back aces by the senior to make it 17-10 for the Jayhawks was enough for another Marquette timeout.

London Davis really started heating up here, recording five kills late in the set to bring her total to seven on the match. Bryn McGehe also got in on the action, recording an ace to make it 21-13. Marquette tried to claw their way back, but the deficit was too large, and freshman Zoey Burgess called game with a huge kill to make it 25-16 to end the second.

A Raegan Burns serving run, which included an ace, triggered an early Golden Eagle timeout to start set three. The Jayhawks led 5-2 at this point with no appearance of slowing down. Marquette didn't go down without a fight, though, able to tie things back up at 8's. Back-to-back kills for Kansas put them ahead once again, but then came 10-9.

There was no sweat off the Jayhawks' back, however, as they were able to regain the momentum and pull away as far as 17-12. Kills came from Toyosi Onabanjo, Bien, Davis and Ayah Elnady, showcasing the Jayhawks' balanced attack. Marquette kept digging though, and closed in with some gritty defense to make things closer at 20-17. Kansas called a timeout, but still it got closer at 20-18.

The block by Onabanjo and Camryn Turner to make it 21-18 gave Kansas a bit of relief, but a service error would follow. 22-19 came off a huge Burgess kill, but Marquette answered with two more points for a second Jayhawk timeout. The true play of the game came to put Kansas up 24-22, with a long rally ending with a block by Burgess and Davis. The momentum shifted, and Kansas took set three 25-22.

The fourth set began relatively evenly, until a 7-0 run by Kansas to get up 13-7 pushed the flustered Golden Eagles to call a timeout. The Jayhawks answered with another point, however, off a huge Davis kill. Marquette squeaked one more point in before Kansas pushed it to 17-8 and got the home side to use their second timeout. It would be smooth sailing from there despite multiple last-ditch efforts from Marquette, as the Jayhawks would roll to a 25-15 victory in the end.

Elnady led the way in the attack with 14 kills, hitting .308 in the process. She also added eight digs, two aces and two block assists to her impressive stat line. Raegan Burns anchored the Kansas defense with a season-high 20 total digs while adding nine assists and two aces as well.

Turner rounded things out with an impressive night at the net, racking up 44 assists, 13 digs and four block assists, while also notching four total kills throughout. Onabanjo was strong on the block with six total to lead the way.

"I think that should build a little competitive confidence for us as we move through this pre-conference play," said Bechard. "We have a difficult task ahead of us tomorrow, so we need to flip the switch here and be ready to go here tomorrow."

Up next, the Jayhawks will turn around and play Western Michigan in Al McGuire at 1 p.m. CT to wrap up their Marquette Tournament run. The match will be broadcasted on FloSports (Subscription Required) and live stats, which can be found here.