It’s officially gut check time for Kansas.

The volleyball team has only three matches remaining this season. Each against a team with a winning record. Each critical to the team’s slim chance of making it into the NCAA tournament.

The final stand starts Saturday, on the road in Austin, to face the No. 4 Texas Longhorns.

“They’ll (Texas) put a lot of pressure on you with their serve and their attack and their block,” coach Ray Bechard said. “We’ve seen it before, but its how we manage it on our side of the net.”

At least the Jayhawks’ last match was against Nebraska, one of the premier teams in the Big 12.

Although Nebraska and Texas are different teams, Bechard thinks that the Jayhawks can transfer some of the strengths from last week’s match to Saturday night’s match.

“You see some of the same physicality,” Bechard said. “The speed of the game is similar, I think those opponents back-to-back do help you.”

Although it isn’t as sound in fundamentals as a team like Nebraska, Texas offers some of the best athletes in the conference. Texas just flexed its muscles against that same Nebraska team on Wednesday night.

The Longhorns punished the Cornhuskers in four sets. They accumulated 25 total blocks and junior All-American Destinee Hooker stole the show from Nebraska’s All-American Jordan Larson with 24 kills.

Kansas has to catch Texas sleeping after a huge victory, but sophomore outside hitter Karina Garlington doesn’t want to take that chance. She said the Jayhawks have to focus on their team, not the Longhorns.

“We have to focus on what we did really well,” Garlington said of the Nebraska match. “We worked on digging, and trying to convert aggressive swings off of that.”

A bye week certainly helps. The players received their first day off on Monday and were able to forget about volleyball, albeit just for one day.

“We finally get to see what other students get to do.” Garlington said with a laugh.

Garlington also mentioned the bond between her teammates. Even though the team had the entire day off, she said the team members were still together, hanging out and enjoying their break.

But the task at hand is beating Texas. Freshman setter Nicole Tate understands the importance of the match and knows what the Jayhawks have to do starting against Texas.

“We just have to stay after them, it’s a must-win match,” Tate said. “We’re ready to play them. They’re big, but they can go down.”

The players seemed cool and collected when talking about what’s in store for them to end the season.

But Garlington shared a sense of urgency with her teammates about the match against Texas.

“We know this is a doable deal if we just can create that kind of high level,” Garlington said. “We know that they’re going to make plays, but we can make plays too.”

— — Edited by Jennifer Torline