FORT WORTH, Texas – The No. 14 Kansas volleyball team secured a four-set victory at TCU (18-25, 25-14, 25-16, 25-15) on Sunday afternoon in Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth.
With the win, the Jayhawks improved to 14-4, 5-3, while TCU dropped to 12-9, 5-5. This was Kansas’ first victory in Schollmaier Arena since the 2020-21 season.
TCU opened up the match aggressively, forcing KU to commit uncommon errors and running up an 8-3 lead at one point. The Jayhawks were unable to get into any kind of rhythm, using their second timeout while the Horned Frogs were up 17-8. From here, Kansas was able to get back-to-back points, but TCU cut KU’s scoring run short with two points of its own, pushing the score to 19-10. The Jayhawks showed a bit of life with Reagan Cooper starting to really get into the attack. At 21-16, TCU called its first timeout, and although Kansas attempted to flip the switch, the Horned Frogs would take the first set victory.
Cooper knocked down the first two kills of the second set to keep the Jayhawks in close range. Back-to-back TCU errors would give the Jayhawks a 4-2 lead, and Cooper held steady in her attack, along with Mykayla Myers, who looked comfortable on her old home court. At 9-4, TCU called its first timeout, and was able to nab a quick point right after. Kansas remained steadfast in its lead, going on a six-point run deep in the set to get up 20-10. From there, KU held the Horned Frogs to just four points, winning the set 25-14 with ease.
“We realized that we made a lot of unforced errors (in the first set), so we did things we could fix on our side,” Cooper said on the adjustment the Jayhawks made between the first two sets. “We looked to fix the unforced errors and give them (TCU) stronger serves, so they have a hard time siding out helped a lot in the second set.”
Kansas kept up the energy jumping out to a 3-0 lead to kick off the third set. The Horned Frogs had a tough time answering the much-cleaner Jayhawk offense. KU was extremely efficient for the duration of the set, holding TCU down to single digit points all the way through 17-9. Toward the end of the third, various errors from both sides would have to ball flip-flopping between each team for some time, and at 23-16 a TCU error and a big swing from Ayah Elnady would push the Jayhawks to their second victory of the match.
It was clear the Jayhawks were riding the momentum of the last two sets heading into the fourth, running up an easy four-point lead on the Horned Frogs to make it 5-1. KU kept a significant lead for the duration of the set, a lead that was even further extended when Raegan Burns stepped up to serve, recorded an ace and then helped Kansas go on a 5-0 scoring run to make it 15-3. TCU tried on multiple occasions to stay in the match, but to no avail, as the Jayhawks powerful offense and solid team defense would push them to their third-consecutive win of the match.
Four Jayhawks notched double-digit kills this match, including Cooper who recorded 14 total with no errors on 33 attempts for a .424 hitting clip. Elnady led the way with 16 kills, hitting .333 while Toyosi Onabanjo and London Davis each tallied 10 kills apiece, hitting .412 and .250 respectively. Elnady also tallied three services aces, while Caroline Bien had two for the match.
Burns anchored the defense with a team-leading 17 digs, while Elnady and Katie Dalton each added 11 a piece. Camryn Turner added to her 42 assists, five kill and five block stat line with 10 digs.
UP NEXT
The Jayhawks will host West Virginia October 26-27 in the Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena. Each match will kick off at 6:30 p.m., and will be broadcast on Big 12 Now ESPN+.
