Jayhawks sweep American to open Kansas Invitational
LAWRENCE, Kan. – The KU volleyball team started the Kansas Invitational strong with a 3-0 (25-13, 26-24, 25-19) win over American University inside Horejsi Family Athletics Center on Friday afternoon.
In the first set, the Jayhawks (4-2) took the lead behind junior Zoe Hill took, who recorded five of her ten kills in the opening set to help KU cruise to a 25-13 first-set win over the Eagles. Junior Allie Nelson recorded an ace during a 5-0 KU run as the Jayhawks closed the first set on a 11-3 run.
In just her second start for Kansas, freshman Camryn Ennis led the team with 13 digs and tallied 11 assists for her third-straight double-double. Another freshman standout, Lacey Angello, led the Jayhawks with three of the team’s six aces, two of which came in the close second set.
American (4-5) jumped out to leads of 7-4 and 15-11 to start the third set, but the Jayhawks closed the match with a dominating 14-4 run to clinch the victory. KU recorded a .429 hitting percentage in the final set, led by four kills each from Gabby Simpson and Jada Burse. Three of Simpson’s six kills on the day came during KU’s 6-0 run to end the match.
This is the second all-time meeting between the Jayhawks and the Eagles and Kansas now leads the series 2-0.
QUOTES
KU head coach Ray Bechard
On KU’s first three-set win of the season …
“As a team, we have talked about what a 3-0 win would feel like. It was needed, especially, with what we have coming up. We need to settle down our serving game a little bit. Six aces are great, but nine errors is quite a few. We were a little disappointed we let the set go into a deuce game, but we did a good job finishing that.”
On the close second set …
“We have been in that situation a lot this year. The tempo will pick up tonight and into tomorrow. We still have two really good teams, but a 3-0 win is a great way to get things started.”
NOTABLES
- Freshman Lacey Angello recorded a new career high of three aces. Angello has two other aces on the year, her first coming against Arkansas (Aug. 24) and one coming against College of Charleston (Aug. 31).
- Senior Gabby Simpson ended the afternoon with 24 assists, her second most assists in a match this season.
- With 13 digs on the day, Freshman Camryn Ennis breaks her previous career high of 12 digs against College of Charleston (Aug. 31)
UP NEXT
The Jayhawks return to Horejsi Family Athletics Center on Friday night to face Auburn at 7 p.m. The Kansas Invitational will conclude on Saturday at 1 p.m. when Kansas plays host to Loyola Marymount.
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