Kansas coach Ray Bechard had a few extra words of motivation for his team before Saturday’s game against No. 18 Oklahoma. The Kansas basketball team had beaten Pittsburg State Thursday, the women’s soccer team had defeated Missouri Friday, and the football team had rolled over Nebraska earlier Saturday.

“I told them it was time for them to hold up their end of the bargain,” Bechard said.

After Kansas’ 3-2 (30-26, 28-30, 20-30, 30-27, 15-10) come-from-behind upset against No. 18 Oklahoma, one thing was clear: Bechard’s team listened.

Playing in front of 1,089 fans at the Horejsi Family Athletics Center, Kansas snapped a six-match losing streak by defeating a ranked opponent for the first time since Sept. 7, 2006 — a 3-0 victory against No. 16 Brigham Young. Kansas hadn’t beaten a ranked conference opponent since defeating No. 20 Kansas State on Nov. 5, 2005.

“The kids were so happy in the locker room, and that’s what its all about. They needed an opportunity to celebrate,” Bechard said. “They’ve been working extremely hard and we haven’t been getting the results we wanted lately — until tonight.”

Kansas improved to 11-14 and 4-11 in the Big 12, while Oklahoma fell to 18-7 and 10-5 in the Big 12.

The comeback

Trailing two games to one, and behind 20-15 in game four, it looked like Kansas might be on its way to its seventh straight loss. But Kansas showed some grit and went on an 11-6 run, and senior middle blocker Natalie Uhart, who finished with 14 kills, served up an ace to tie the game at 26-26. Uhart added a kill on the next point to give Kansas a 27-26 lead, and after two Oklahoma errors, junior middle blocker Savannah Noyes closed out game four with a kill.

“I think we wanted to win so bad it hurt, and we got it done,” Uhart said.

After the dramatic game-four win, Kansas still had to finish off game five. With the game tied at 9-9, Kansas won three straight points on kills from senior right side Emily Brown, Noyes, and freshman outside hitter Jenna Kaiser to take a 12-9 lead. Kansas cruised from there to take a 15-10 game five win.

Kaiser, who finished with a team-high 18 kills, said the team badly needed a victory.

“It felt so good, because we’ve been working so hard on everything,” Kaiser said.

In addition to the Uhart’s 14 kills and Kaiser’s 18 kills, freshman outside hitter Karina Garlington had 12 kills and senior middle blocker Caitlin Mahoney had 11, giving Kansas four players with double-digit kills. Brown added 38 assists and 15 digs, while sophomore Katie Martincich had her team-leading 12th double-double of the season with 23 assists and 16 digs.

“You look back at this and it’s just a blur of teamwork and six people working together to make it happen, so we’re thrilled about that,” Bechard said.

And whenever Kansas needed a play, somebody was there to step up for Kansas.

“What’s nice about that, though, is there’s not just one person on the team that gets plays done,” Uhart said. “Everybody is contributing and doing their job and working their butt off.”

Kansas appeared poised to take a two games to zero lead early in the middle of game two. But Kansas let a 15-11 lead slip away and dropped game two 30-28. Oklahoma dominated game three 30-20.

“We came out flat in game three, but let’s give Oklahoma a little credit,” Bechard said.

— Edited by Matt Erickson