October93

Volleyball falls to No. 8 Texas

The Jayhawks avoided a sweep in Friday’s match against the No. 8 Texas Longhorns, but fell short of making a comeback as Texas took the match 3-1 in Austin. In their previous meeting, the Longhorns swept the Jayhawks 3-0 in Lawrence.

With three more matches to play, Kansas dropped to 16-13 overall, including 7-11 in Big 12 play. Texas extended its winnings streak to 13; including 24 straight Big 12 victories at home for a record of 21-5 and 16-2 in the Big 12.

Junior setter Nicole Tate said the difference in the match for the Jayhawks amounted many moments of play where the team fell short of making plays.

Despite a good overall offensive performance, the Jayhawks could not match the Longhorns pace of scoring or hitting efficiency.

Junior outside hitter Allison Mayfield led Kansas with 18 kills and a .341 hitting efficiency.

“She was definitely doing some damage against them,” Tate said of Mayfield. “And they were having a hard time defending against her.”

Senior outside hitters Jenna Kaiser and Karina Garlington followed with 17 and 11 kills, respectively. Tate helped Kansas maintain team attack percentages above .300 in each of the last three sets, recording 49 assists with three service aces and three blocks. Redshirt freshman Caroline Jarmoc led the blocking effort with six, including two solo rejections.

The Longhorns offense did better. Texas senior Juliann Faucette led the Longhorns with 26 kills and only five errors for a hitting efficiency of .396. Texas achieved attack percentages of .387 and .438 in the second and fourth set and out-blocked Kansas 11-10.

Despite jumping ahead in the first set to an 8-5 lead, the Jayhawks were overwhelmed by the Longhorns’ response and went down 25-16. In the second set, Kansas trailed from the beginning but made the set close with an improved .308 hitting efficiency and five kills from Kaiser. Jarmoc’s solo block put the Jayhawks within a point at 22-21 but the Longhorns came out ahead 25-23.

Garlington scored a kill at the opening of the third set and started an offensive run. Tate added a service ace and Mayfield contributed kills and a block together with sophomore Tayler Tolefree to give Kansas a four-point lead, which they maintained until the Longhorns tied the set at 20-20. Jarmoc made back-to-back blocks and Garlington scored two kills to win the set for the Jayhawks 26-24, pushing the contest to a fourth set.

“I think everyone just stepped up,” Tate said.

Kansas improved its offensive numbers in each successive set in the match. “We were competitive; wanted to beat Texas, but we fell short.”

Tolefree and Mayfield kept the momentum going into the fourth set, scoring four points between them to put the Jayhawks ahead 5-1. With Garlington, the outside hitters kept Kansas ahead late into the set, still in the lead at 19-14.

Texas senior Jennifer Doris and junior Amber Roberson came back with a string of unanswered kills to tie the set at 19-19. Faucette kept the rally going with five kills in quick succession to win the set 25-23 and the finish the match 3-1 for Texas.

The Jayhawks will play their final home match Wednesday, Nov. 24 against in-state rival Kansas State. In their previous meeting, Kansas lost 3-1 to Kansas State in the first match of conference play, in Manhattan.

“I think this will really give us that competitive fire again, that you need at the end of the season,” Tate said. She said the team was excited to play Kansas State and then Oklahoma on Saturday. “I think that’s definitely the way to get some momentum going next week.”