Kansas State volleyball lost to No. 8 Kansas in five sets in a hard-fought battle of the Sunflower Showdown on Thursday.
“We played some of our best volleyball in stretches, we just need to continue to do it more often and control the things we can control better,” head coach Jason Mansfield said to K-State Athletics. “We showed tonight that we can compete against top teams.”
It was the fourth consecutive match K-State played reaching five sets. The Wildcats dropped to 6-10 overall and 4-3 in conference while Kansas moved to 15-1 and 6-0.
During its five-set match run, K-State won three straight coming into the match, carrying momentum into Lawrence.
The momentum helped the team to an early lead in Set 1, winning 25-19. Junior middle blocker Brenna Schmidt had three of the five blocks in the first set which helped sway points to K-State.
In Set 2, K-State’s seven attack errors gave a highly-ranked team too many free points, allowing the Jayhawks to win Set 2, 25-15. Kansas went on an 8-0 run to stretch out its lead.
In Set 3, K-State gained match control back with a 25-22 win, taking the victory in a back-and-forth set with 13 total tie scores and three lead changes. Senior outside hitter Aliyah Carter had six kills in the set, leading the way for K-State.
During sets four and five, the Jayhawks tightened things up offensively and defensively, justifying their top-10 ranking by winning 25-20 and 15-10.
While K-State didn’t come away victorious, the team had positive takeaways.
“I feel like we continue to improve and that’s what we need to keep moving forward,” Mansfield said. “… I’m really proud of our fight, especially after Liz [Gregorski] went down,”
K-State lost graduate Liz Gregorski because of injury in the third set. Gregorski is part of the trio of K-State players with over 170 points on the season.
With Gregorski down, Carter stepped up and produced a match-high 15 kills, moving her into third all-time in K-State history. She passed K-State Hall of Fame honoree Dawn Cady.
Kansas’ win was its seventh straight win in the Sunflower Showdown. K-State will have a chance to avenge its loss on Nov. 24 in Manhattan.
Up next K-State will face another ranked opponent Oct. 24 as No. 20 Utah comes to Manhattan.
