K-State volleyball has a Wednesday tradition that has little to do with volleyball. Before practice, head coach Jason Mansfield brings the Wildcats together for trivia, giving his players a chance to take their minds off school and helping them build culture and connection off the court.

For Mansfield, those moments reflect something bigger about this team. All 16 roster players are athletes he recruited to K-State, and he believes that familiarity has helped form the closest group he has coached in Manhattan.

“This is by far the closest group of 16 players that, seemingly, all get along,” Mansfield said. “I think the connection they have with each other is really special and something that they’ll remember when volleyball is done. More than a lot of the matches they played.”

At 6-0, K-State had already posted its best start since 2013, but two nonconference tests remained in Omaha — No. 20 Creighton and Omaha. Before those matches, the players had already begun finding their own reasons to believe in what this team could become. 

Addison Massey – Freshman, Pin 

Addison Massey left her hometown of Las Cruces, N.M., early to pursue volleyball at K-State, trading familiarity for a new state, team and community. She arrived in Manhattan eager to compete, but the adjustment challenged her confidence before she found her rhythm.

“It was definitely the first week when I got here,” Addison said. “I was really, really nervous and I was stressing because I wasn’t competing in the way I normally do, and I was struggling in the volleyball aspect. But then the team was very, very welcoming.”

Her teammates made it clear she could lean on them.

“If I had any questions, I wasn’t scared to ask because they were so open about it and were like, ‘Oh, you can ask me anything,’” Addison said. “When it came to practices, if I had a question about a drill, I wasn’t scared to ask because again, they were like, ‘Hey, I have your back, you can look to me.’”

That support helped Addison find confidence, and she saw the same quality in the team after K-State dropped the first set against Nevada and came back to win. 

“It showed that we have a lot of grit,” Addison said. “A lot of teams, I feel like if they lose the first one, they’ll kind of shut down a little bit. And we didn’t shut down at all. We came back even stronger.”

That confidence carried into Omaha. Against No. 20 Creighton, Addison recorded a career-best 20 kills and 15 digs, marking her first career double-double. She finished the weekend with 36 kills, 18 digs and five blocks, earning a spot on the Big 12 Starting Seven alongside teammate Cadence Lundgren.

Now, Addison has another part of her game she is eager to test in Big 12 play: serve receive.

“Definitely my serve receive because it’s something I’m very passionate about,” Addison said. “Because I think if you’re good at serve receive, you’re going to get on the court. So I think it’s going to be a little bit of a test to see if I can keep up with everybody.”

Reagan Fox – Senior, Pin 

Reagan Fox has spent enough time with K-State volleyball to know that no two teams feel the same. Now, as one of the older players on a young roster, she has watched the culture she and Mansfield have worked to build take shape.

“I think every year is different,” Reagan said. “No matter who stays and who goes, it’ll always be a different vibe from the years past, depending on how well you did that past season and what the chemistry was like that year. But I think Jason and I have built this culture up to close to what we want it to be.”

This year’s youth could have created uncertainty. Instead, Reagan sees it as one of the team’s defining traits.

“This year these girls are so young, and some people think of that as a bad thing, but I’ve kind of loved it this year that they’re so fiery, and they’re just so willing to learn and they’re so open to new things,” Reagan said.

That energy has changed how the Wildcats approach opponents, too. Reagan said K-State refuses to let its focus shift to the team on the other side of the net.

“We could have gone into Nevada looking at their record, and I don’t think that’s something that we did at all,” she said. “We try to just look at every team the same and work on running our system and how we run things on our side, rather than conform to whoever’s on the other side.”

Away from volleyball, Reagan said a trip to Lake Tahoe gave the team a chance to enjoy being together without thinking about the next match.

“It was beautiful,” she said. “It actually didn’t look real at all. We had a very nice restaurant. It’s fun to dress up. Sometimes we’re in K-State stuff every day, so it’s fun to feel like a girl again.”

Fuka Sekita – Senior, Libero 

For Fuka Sekita, finding a home in purple came through the little things that followed her transfer to Manhattan.

It was the people in the stands who learned her name and encouraged her after matches. It was her teammates who welcomed her into a locker room culture that felt different from what she had experienced playing volleyball in Japan. And it was the chance to spend time with her teammates before matches — something she had not experienced in the same way before.

“I would say the people is really different,” Fuka said. “When I got here the first time, everybody was so welcoming to me, and I was like, ‘Oh, I love these people,’ especially the volleyball girls and coaches. But also the people who live in this town, Manhattan. Whenever they come to watch the games, they’re like, ‘Fuka, you did a great job.’ Like, try to talk to me. It just makes me feel so safe to stay here.”

That connection extends into the locker room, where Fuka has found a team culture that contrasts with what she knew in Japan.

“I just love staying in the locker room with the girls before the game, getting ready with the girls,” Fuka said. “In Japan, we don’t have that culture. Before the game, we have to, like, shut up, you know. We have a really strict relationship between the girls. So I really like just spending the time with the girls.”

Fuka has also enjoyed the details of the game, particularly testing herself against difficult topspin serves. Against Oklahoma on Aug. 22, one server gave her a memorable challenge.

“I was like, ‘I never had this speed of serve in my life,’” she said. “But that was really fun to receive that service. Even though I had mistakes, it was still fun to receive that service.”

Now, Fuka is preparing to test herself against the Big 12 while working toward her goal of playing professionally.

“I just want to test myself for all the skills and my mentality because I want to go pro, so I think the Big 12 conference, all the games are gonna help my skill and as an athlete and as a person and everything,” Fuka said.

Away from volleyball, Fuka said she would bring her middle sister to K-State. The two share a love of volleyball, and Fuka said she wants her sister to see what volleyball has done for her and to experience the community she has found in Manhattan.

For Fuka, that connection to her sister reflects the sense of belonging she feels at K-State — a place where volleyball remains at the center, yet the people around it have made Manhattan feel like home.

Emerson Van Lannen – Junior, Setter 

Last season, Emerson Van Lannen had older teammates to look up to. This year, with K-State’s roster much younger, she has found herself stepping into a leadership role of her own. 

“As a person, I feel like I’m stepping into a little bit of a more leadership role,” Emerson said. “We have a very young team, so it’s me, Reagan, Tatum and Fuka. There’s not as many upperclassmen as there were last season, so I think that stepping into that role was kind of bigger for me this year.”

One of those role models was Liz Gregorski, Emerson’s cousin, who spent one season with her at K-State.

“Liz was the best role model I think I could have had,” Emerson said. “So although we only had one year together, she taught me so much about volleyball and about life. Honestly, I can’t give her enough praise.”

Now, Emerson gets to pass along some of those lessons. Her leadership, however, does not always have to be serious. She said her connection with Reagan has grown into one of the team’s strongest relationships, both on and off the court.

“We’re best friends on and off the court, so it kind of makes it easy to transfer that connection that we have off the court onto the court, especially because we just try and have so much fun together,” Emerson said. 

That same mentality carries into the team’s approach to the Big 12.

“We’re going into it just having no expectations and just kind of being able to have that play-free mindset,” she said. “And I think that’s something that’s really going to help us.”

Away from volleyball, Emerson said one of her favorite memories came during a trip to Silver Dollar City.

“I’m not a big fan of roller coasters, but I did try some,” Emerson said. “And it was just a really good day, and we were all kind of together and got to let go of the volleyball side a little bit and just kind of be ourselves.”

The test comes, and the Wildcats answer

The connection K-State built through the first six matches faced its biggest test in Omaha.

The Wildcats entered the weekend 6-0. By Saturday afternoon, they had beaten No. 20 Creighton 3-1 and Omaha 3-1, finishing the non-conference season undefeated at 8-0. The results mattered, but so did how K-State got there. After the Omaha win, Mansfield said the team’s ability to respond was one of the weekend’s biggest takeaways.

“I challenged them in between the second and third sets to have a bounce-back like we’ve had at different times this year,” Mansfield said. “I thought they did that.”

The 8-0 start marks the second time in program history that K-State has finished the nonconference season undefeated, joining the 2012 team. The eight-game winning streak is also the Wildcats’ longest since 2018, when K-State opened that season 10-1.

But the record resets today. K-State opens Big 12 play at 5 p.m. against UCF in Orlando, Fla., beginning an 18-match conference schedule. For a young team that has spent the opening weeks learning to trust each other, stay connected and respond as a unit, the next test begins now.