The Kansas volleyball team remained unbeaten in the early days of the 2024 season, sweeping in-state foe Wichita State 25-17, 25-21, 25-19 before a sellout crowd at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena on Wednesday night.
With 14 kills on the night, senior outside hitter Ayah Elnady led the way for the Jayhawks, who played their first home match of the year after three wins at the Duke Tournament over the weekend.
Middle blocker Toyosi Onabanjo continued her strong start to the season with nine kills of her own on a .438 hitting percentage, and London Davis got KU’s final two kills of the match on her way to eight overall. Setter Camryn Turner posted her second double-double of the year with 36 assists and 10 digs.
Wichita State kept the second set close, taking a three-point lead midway through and maintaining an edge as late as 19-18 on an attack error by Caroline Bien, but Bien responded with a kill to set off what became a 7-2 rally, finished off by Bryn McGehe’s service ace, to make it 2-0.
The third frame saw the Shockers keep things tight once again, albeit without taking as much of an advantage as they had in the second. Following a media timeout at 15-15, however, Wichita State committed a service error and three attack errors, which combined with an ace by Heidi Devers amounted to a 5-0 run for the Jayhawks.
“(I) thought when we were a little bit out of sync, we found a way to dig ourselves out of it in the second set and a little bit in the third set,” KU coach Ray Bechard said in a press release. “And certainly, that’s going to happen over the course of the year. For us to have that opportunity to do something like that playing at home, it was great.”
The Shockers’ leading attacker on the night was Emerson Wilford, whose 10 kills were offset in part by four errors. On the whole, KU doubled up Wichita State by hitting .264 to its .130.
Besides Devers, fellow first-year Jayhawk Zoey Burgess, the Big 12 preseason freshman of the year, also saw some time on the court, earning three kills on nine attacks to go with four blocks in just two sets played.
KU (4-0) is headed to Milwaukee to face Marquette on Friday and Western Michigan on Saturday before a weeklong hiatus.
“We won’t be back home for a little while, but we’re excited about this place, and I know our team was pretty pumped up to get the band going and (a) good student section tonight, and we sold a ton of season tickets, which we’re excited about,” Bechard said. “The fan base has been great.”
Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World
