Kansas Falls to No. 4 Pittsburgh in Season Opener

Friday, August 28

Pittsburgh, Pa.

5:30 p.m. CT

University of Kansas

0-1,0-0Big 12

Pittsburgh

3-0,0-0ACC

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Kansas	17	25	23	20	1
Pittsburgh	25	14	25	25	3

Kansas Falls to No. 4 Pittsburgh in Season Opener

8/28/2026 9:06:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

PITTSBURGH, Penn. — Kansas battled No. 4 Pittsburgh on the road Friday night, but the Jayhawks fell short in four sets. Taylor Stanley led the way with 15 kills, while Kenzie Dean added 12 and Grace Nelson chipped in nine. Setter Reese Messer ran the offense efficiently, totaling 33 assists to go with four blocks, and Olivia Hasbrook paced the Kansas defense with 12 digs.

Kansas opened the match with an ace from Hasbrook, but Pittsburgh settled in and pulled away behind a string of Jayhawk miscues, building an 11-7 lead that forced a Kansas timeout. Dean kept the Jayhawks within striking distance with a pair of kills, including a cross-court swing that stopped the 5-0 Panther run. Dean got through the block again out of the media timeout, and Nelson added a pair of back-row attacks to make it 13-18, but a net violation gave Pittsburgh a 21-15 lead out of the media timeout. A block from Reese Ptacek, followed by a block on Olivia Babcock from Ptacek and Logan Bell, cut the deficit to 23-17, but Pittsburgh closed out the opening set with an ace, 25-17.

The Jayhawks answered in the second set, opening with a Dean kill off a Messer assist to make it 1-0. A Ptacek-and-Stanley block tied it at 2-2, and Stanley worked through the block to make it 5-3. Kansas then tallied five straight points to build a 7-3 lead. A big-time block on the left from Nelson and Ptacek made it 8-4. The Jayhawk block came alive, led by Nelson and Ptacek, and Kansas' lead grew to 12-6, forcing a Pittsburgh timeout. Pittsburgh earned a point out of a challenge, but Aisha Aiono answered with a big swing out of the middle to push the lead to 15-9. Back-to-back points from Nelson forced another Panther timeout at 17-9, and the Kansas offense kept rolling. A Messer setter dump made it 20-12, and a triple block by Ptacek, Messer and Dean closed out the 25-14 set win.

The third set was tight from the start. Pittsburgh grabbed the first point, but Kansas answered with three straight, and a Stanley ace tied it at 3-3. An error by Babcock trimmed the Jayhawks' deficit to 7-5, and a block from Aiono and Messer pulled Kansas within one. Kansas strung together back-to-back points to make it 10-7 before a big block and a Stanley kill cut it to 10-9 out of a timeout. Nelson's ace tied the set at 11-11. Dean found a gap in the back court to make it 15-14 out of a timeout, and Ptacek added a kill to tie it again at 15-15. Serving errors on both sides pushed it to 20-18, and a Kansas back-row attack error tied it at 20-20. Pittsburgh won a challenge to go up 23-21, forcing a Jayhawk timeout. Kansas rallied to tie it at 23-23, but the Panthers closed out the set, 25-23.

Kansas pushed Pittsburgh again in the fourth. Kills from Stanley, plus a block from Aiono, Dean and Stanley, evened the set at 7-7. Stanley's 14th kill of the night trimmed a Panther lead to two at 9-11. Dean added a kill of her own, but four straight points from Pittsburgh forced a Kansas timeout, and the Panthers scored again out of the break to go up 16-10. A kill from Messer and back-to-back Pittsburgh errors cut the deficit to 17-14. Messer took over at the service line to pull Kansas within one, 17-18, and a Stanley kill made it 18-19 before another put the Jayhawks up 20-19. Pittsburgh answered out of a timeout with a 3-0 run to go up 23-19 and closed out the match, 25-20.