Three of the top 10 collegiate volleyball teams in the nation — including the newly minted No. 10 Kansas Jayhawks — will descend on Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena this week for a high-stakes edition of the Jayhawk Classic nonconference tournament.
KU will host No. 6 Purdue on Thursday, unranked Tulsa on Friday and No. 9 Creighton on Saturday in a three-match gantlet that will demonstrate just how prepared Ray Bechard’s squad may be for the Big 12 schedule ahead.
Led by familiar faces like outside hitter Ayah Elnady (3.57 kills per set and 15 service aces this year), middle blocker Toyosi Onabanjo (3.26 kills per set on a 5.08 hitting percentage) and setter Camryn Turner (11.26 assists per set, one of the top marks in the nation), KU has opened the season 7-0 while losing just two sets combined.
But the Jayhawks, who were picked to win the Big 12 in the league’s preseason poll, will first be welcoming to their home arena the only team that managed to beat them there during last year’s regular season.
Purdue needed extra points in the fifth set to do it, but still took down KU in a 3-2 marathon on Aug. 31, 2023, the last time the Jayhawks would lose there before a similar match against Penn State knocked them out of the NCAA Tournament three months later.
Chloe Chicoine and Eva Hudson combined for 36 kills for the Boilermakers in last year’s matchup against KU and are both back this season, while senior Raven Colvin is a force at the net, the only player in the nation averaging more than two blocks per set. Like KU, Purdue enters the Jayhawk Classic undefeated, with wins against the Big 12’s Kansas State, Utah, and Houston already in the books, and having recently defeated a previous No. 10 team, Kentucky, 3-1 in Dallas on Saturday.
The Boilermakers swept the Jayhawks in West Lafayette, Indiana, in 2021, when many of KU’s top players were freshmen. KU’s last victory over Purdue was in 2017.
The Jayhawks’ 2021 team had better luck against one of this weekend’s opponents, Creighton, knocking the Bluejays out of the NCAA Tournament that year, and KU leads the series 10-3 overall.
Creighton will come to Lawrence with two losses on the year for a 7-2 record, but both were in five-set road matches against current top-five teams in Louisville and Nebraska. Four players are tallying at least two digs per set for the Bluejays defensively, and outside hitter Norah Sis, a past Big East player of the year, is averaging 3.84 kills per set.
In between its two ranked matches, KU can’t overlook Tulsa, which it will face for the first time in 12 seasons. Though it was picked 10th of 13 teams in the American Athletic Conference preseason poll, the Golden Hurricane has won eight of 10 matches to start the year, albeit while suffering a sweep at the hands of Baylor in one of its two battles with a ranked opponent. Tulsa enters off a 3-2 loss to Oklahoma in which it had initially led 2-0 before suffering the reverse sweep at home.
Brayden Hipp was named the AAC’s setter of the week following her 31-assist, 15-dig performance as Tulsa beat No. 22 Arkansas in five sets last Thursday. She and freshman Brittany Bacorn have both served as setters for the Golden Hurricane. Southern Illinois transfer outside hitter Tatum Tornatta has only started seven matches but is averaging a team-high 2.79 kills per set, though middle blocker Tytiana Johnson has the top hitting percentage at .424.
Challenging as it is, the Jayhawk Classic constitutes the heart of a six-match homestand for KU, which will open Big 12 play against UCF on Sept. 25.
Kansas setter Camryn Turner sets the ball during an exhibition match against Drake at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena, Saturday, August 24, 2024 in Lawrence.
Kansas middle blocker Toyosi Onabanjo hits the ball for a kill during an exhibition match against Drake at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena, Saturday, August 24, 2024 in Lawrence.
Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World
Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World
Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World