Texas Escapes Kansas In Five Behind 21 Lexi Sun Kills

  0 Carly DeMarque | October 12th, 2017 | Big 12, College - Women's Indoor, News

Match Results

  • #6 Texas def. #8 Kansas 3-2, (21-25, 27-25, 18-25, 25-10, 18-16)
  • Texas improves to 13-2, 5-0 Big 12, Kansas falls to 16-3, 5-1 Big 12
  • Lawrence, Kansas
  • Attendance: 1,302
  • Match Stats

Texas and Kansas squared off as undefeated Big 12 foes with the Longhorns emerging victorious on the road in five sets.

The first set saw Texas jump to a quick 3-0 lead off a kill from Ebony Nwanebu and two Kansas errors. Jada Burse sparked a small run for the Jayhawks, followed by kills from Zoe Hill and Madison Rigdon along with a triple block from Hill, Kelsie Payne and Rigdon. The score went back and forth until Kansas took a 17-11 lead over the Longhorns. A kill from Chiaka Ogbogu stopped the run and sparked a three-point run to bring the score to 17-14. Kansas kept pushing ahead, leading 20-14 as Texas chipped away at small two-point runs to hold off three match points before Burse ended the first on a kill 25-21.

The second set was a battle, four ties started off the match before Kansas took a small lead over Texas at 13-10. This Kansas lead continued late into the match at 21-18 but kills from Micaya White, Ogbogu and three Texas blocks brought the Longhorns to a 23-22 lead. Kansas fought back to take a match point off a kill from Burse but a Lexi Sun and White kill from Texas ahead 26-25 before a White/Ogbogu block stopped the second 27-25.

The third set started off back and forth before Kansas took an 8-6 lead. Texas tied things back up at 9-9 and started another trade-off of points. With the score at 16-16, Kansas went on a monster 9-2 run to close off the set on kills from Hill and Texas attacking errors. Payne and Rigdon each added another two kills apiece to help the Jayhawks take the 2-1 match advantage.

The fourth started much the same, back and forth early with the score tied at 4-4, a 9-0 run sparked the next section of the match with Sun starting things off with a kill. The runs for Texas only continued as they held Kansas to a low 25-10 fourth set, forcing a fifth.

A 3-0 run for Texas began the final set with an error from Kansas and Nwanebu/White kills. Rigdon stopped the run with a kill but Morgan Johnson added another point for Texas with a kill. Three Rigdon kills brought the score to a 4-4 tie early but a Nwanebu kill and ball handling error from Ainise Havili brought the Longhorn lead to 6-4. Texas proceeded to forge ahead to a 10-7 lead but small plays from Kansas brought them back in contention at 12-12. With the score tied late at 16-16, Texas rattled off two points to end the match 18-16 off a kill from Sun and a Kansas attacking error.

Sun led the Longhorns with a career-high 21 kills on a .475 hitting clip while adding nine digs and seven blocks. White contributed another 19 kills and 14 digs for a double-double. Ogbogu slammed down 11 kills and 10 blocks to record a double-double. Setter Ashley Shook dished out 52 assists and 12 digs to add another double-double to Texas’ tally. Cat McCoy and Claire Hahn picked up 22 and 14 digs, respectively.

Rigdon slammed down 20 kills and 11 digs for a double-double while Payne accomplished the same feat with 16 kills and 14 digs. Burse posted another 13 kills while setter Havili dished out 50 assists and 14 digs for a double-double. In the backcourt, Allie Nelson and Tori Miller each picked up 28 and 13 digs, respectively.

Havili made Kansas history in the loss, as her 50 assists propelled her over Andi Rozum’s old record of 4,772 assists. Now Havili has 4,801 assists in her career.

Press Release

Courtesy of Texas Athletics

No. 5 Texas Volleyball (13-2, 5-0) defeated No. 9 Kansas (16-3, 5-1), 3-2 (21-25, 27-25, 18-25, 25-10, 18-16) on Wednesday evening at the Horejsi Family Athletics Center to remain undefeated in Big 12 play.

Freshman Lexi Sun led Texas with a career-high 21 kills, only committing two errors on 40 swings for a .475 hitting percentage. She also added nine digs and seven blocks.

Senior Chiaka Ogbogu recorded her first double-double of the season, recording 11 kills (.286) and ten blocks.

Sophomore Micaya White also recorded a double-double with a season-high 19 kills (.237) and 14 digs.

Senior Cat McCoy led the Longhorns with 22 digs, while sophomore Claire Hahn recorded a career-high of 14 and freshman Ashley Shook added 12.

Shook recorded a seventh double-double of the season, with her 52 assists falling one short of a career-high 53.

As a team, Texas held Kansas to a season-low .156 hitting percentage while outblocking the Jayhawks 14.0 to 8.5.

Texas opened the first set 3-0 at a sold out Horejsi Family Athletics Center, with the two top ten teams then trading points through a competitive start to the frame. But with Kansas having opened a five-point lead at 17-12, Texas drew within three on three occasions, but were unable to prevent the Jayhawks from closing out the set at 25-21.

White lead the Longhorns’ attack on a narrow Kansas lead beginning the second set, going without an error on seven kills before a UT timeout at 10-13. But the Longhorns were led back by Ogbogu, with her sixth kill drawing Texas within one at 21-22 before having a hand in blocks to overtake Kansas at 23-22 and secure the set at 27-25.

The first lead of over one point in the third set went the way of Kansas at 8-6, with the teams continuing point-for-point before a first timeout of the set from Texas at 13-10. But the Jayhawks found momentum and a 6-1 run for a 23-17 lead after the break, with the home team opening a 2-1 match score advantage as the third set finished 25-18.

It was Kansas that were forced to take the first timeout of the set in the fourth at 9-4, as the Longhorns executed a 9-0 scoring run to move to a 13-4 advantage. Kills from offensive leaders Sun, White, Ogbogu, and Nwanebu enabled Texas to then maintain the lead, finishing the set at 25-10 and tying the match score at 2-2.

By the midway point of Texas’ second fifth set of the season, the Longhorns had edged a narrow 8-7 lead. But despite Texas gaining a match point at 14-13, Kansas won consecutive points to force the Longhorns to defend one. A kill from White saved defeat, and Texas secured the match at 18-16 after Kansas saved one more match point.

Next up, the Longhorns return to Gregory Gym to play No. 19 Iowa State on Sat, Oct. 14. The match will be televised live on Longhorn Network, with a 7:15 p.m. start.

Press Release

Courtesy of Kansas Athletics

In the fifth-straight top-10 matchup for Big 12 supremacy between No. 9 Kansas volleyball and No. 5 Texas, the Longhorns prevailed in a five-set thriller on Wednesday night at Horejsi Family Athletics Center (21-25, 27-25, 18-25, 25-10, 18-16).

Softening the blow of KU’s 19-match Big 12 winning streak coming to an end, senior All-American setter Ainise Havili joined the KU record books as the school’s all-time leader in assists. Havili’s 50 assists against UT enabled her to pass Andi Rozum’s record of 4,772 in the second set and finish the night with 4,801.

Senior outside hitter Madison Rigdon led the Jayhawks’ offense with 20 kills on a career-high 65 swings with 11 digs for ninth double-double of the season. Sophomore libero Allie Nelson tied her career high of 28 digs as Texas was held to its lowest hitting percentage in Big 12 play this season (.254).

The Longhorns (13-2, 5-0) were led by freshman Lexi Sun’s 21 kills on a .475 hitting percentage.

Kansas (16-3, 5-1 Big 12) suffers its first loss in over a calendar year — since Sept. 24, 2016 at Texas.

Kansas made its way to a convincing 25-21 first-set win led by five kill from sophomore outside hitter Jada Burse. Texas began the first set on a 3-0 run, but Kansas answered back with a 4-0 run of its own. The Jayhawks pulled away to a 17-11 lead after back-to-back blocks from Rigdon and sophomore middle blocker Zoe Hill, followed by an ace from Nelson which gave KU a 19-14 advantage.

Havili made history in the second set. Kansas was facing a UT set point, 24-23, she gently guided her 4,773rd career assist to Burse who slammed it for a kill to tie the set at 24.

Havili went back to Burse for another kill and swing set point in KU’s favor, 25-24. But UT claimed the last three points of the set for a 27-25 match-equalizing victory.

Kansas took a 2-1 set lead in the match with a 25-18 triumph in the third set. After 13 early ties in the third on the way to a 16-16 score, Kansas gained some breathing room with a 5-0 run. Payne helped Kansas keeps its late lead as she reached out her foot to kick-dig a Texas attack and keep the ball alive for an eventual kill by Rigdon for a 23-17 lead. Kansas held Texas to a .079 third-set hitting percentage.

Texas ran away with a 25-10 fourth-set win and force the third-straight five-set match between the conference rivals.

In a nail-biting 18-16 fifth-set loss, Kansas featured a terminal attacking effort with 15 of its 16 points coming off of kills on a .400 hitting percentage. Rigdon led KU with nine kills in the fifth set alone. The Jayhawks rallied from a 12-10 deficit to gain match point after back-to-back kills by Rigdon, 15-14.

Following a Texas timeout, the Longhorns staved off match point and tie the fifth at 15. On UT’s first match point, Kansas took advantage of a Longhorn service error — KU’s only non-kill point of the fifth set — for a 16-16 tie. Sun registered her 21st kill of the night to give UT its second match point before a 18-16 victory.

UP NEXT
Kansas has the weekend off before facing No. 25 Baylor on Wednesday, Oct. 18 (8 p.m., FOX Sports Southwest Plus) in Waco, Texas. It will mark the Jayhawks’ third road contest in the last four matches.

POST-MATCH NOTES

• With the loss, KU’s program-record 19-match Big 12 winning streak comes to an end. The streak included clinching the program’s first Big 12 title in 2016.
• Senior setter Ainise Havili now holds the record for career assists at Kansas. Entering Wednesday needing 22 to set the Kansas career assist record, Havili was able to do so in just the second set, finishing the match with 50 assists and a total of 4,801 career assists
• Meeting for the fifth straight time as top-10 opponents, Kansas and Texas have played five-set matches in five of the last seven meetings, including three-consecutive.
• Kansas had three players with double-digit kills —  Madon Rigdon (20), Payne (16) and Burse (13) — and five players with double-digit digs — Nelson (28), Havili (14), Payne (14), Miller (13) and Rigdon (11).
• Havili recorded an assist-dig double-double in 16 of 19 matches this season (50a, 14d tonight)
• Senior right-side hitter Kelsie Payne recorded her third double-double this season (12th career) with 16 kills and 14 digs.
• Senior outside hitter Madison Rigdon recorded her ninth double-double of the season (28th career) with 20 kills and 11 digs. She led Kansas in kills for the eighth time this season.
• Sophomore libero Allie Nelson tied a career-high 28 digs, which was set against Missouri State this season (Aug. 26, 2017).

QUOTES

Senior OH Madison Rigdon

On the match as a whole: 
“I thought we played well together, but there were key moments that we could have done better on our side. We let too many runs go. But I think we played really well together and that’s the best team we have faced all year. It really shows that we came back and we can take a lot from it.”

On the feelings of playing Texas:
“It is tough, but I think we will take stuff away and will take it one at a time. But when it’s time to go there we know we are going to bring the fire.”

On what will be done differently when Kansas plays Texas again this season:
“I would say, not to let them go on runs. When they get a kill we just need to come back with energy and the next point is ours. We just need to play better, longer like Allie said.”

Senior RS Kelsie Payne

On the match as a whole:
“We talked about, as long as we can learn from it then it is a valuable experience. We have a lot of season left to play so hopefully we can take this and learn from it.”

On what was learned from the match:
“Start strong, finish strong. We need to play consistently the whole time.”

On Ainise Havili setting the school record for assists:
“She is awesome. She makes our jobs a lot easier and she works so hard. No one deserves it more than her and we are all so happy for her.”

On what makes Texas’ defense so tough:
“They block. I think that is the tallest, biggest team we have played so we had to adjust to that which I think we did pretty well, from the first to the last set. Just moving our arms around and finding the court better.”

Sophomore L Allie Nelson

On the match as a whole:
“It shows that we match up with top teams. We fought so hard for each other and I think that is a huge take-away from it.”

On the impact of losing the second set:
“I think we could have capitalized on that set and it would have changed the dynamic of the game. But I also think that fourth set was a big momentum shift. We could have fought harder there, we just kind of took a break. We need to play better, longer, and we will learn from it.”

FOLLOW
KUAthletics.com: The official online source for Kansas Athletics, Williams Education Fund contributions, tickets, merchandise, multimedia, photos and much, much more.

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About Carly DeMarque

Carly DeMarque

Carly DeMarque has been involved with competitive volleyball for the majority of her life, playing competitively at the club and collegiate level for 15 years and coaching club for five. Now a retired Division I volleyball athlete out of McNeese State University, she continues her volleyball enthusiasm by stepping back into …

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