Usually a weekend off would call for rest and relaxation, but not for the Jayhawk volleyball team.

Kansas will have its bye in the schedule this weekend, after a tough five-set loss to Texas A&M on Wednesday night. This weekend will either give the Jayhawks more time to mull over the heartbreaking loss or give the team ample time to prepare for its border rival on Wednesday.

Sophomore outside hitter Jenna Kaiser said she thought it would be the latter.

“I think we will be very focused and ready for Missouri,” Kaiser said. “You can’t not be ready for Missouri; it’s the Border Showdown.”

It will be a weekend that coach Ray Bechard can hammer out some of the issues that have plagued the Jayhawks all season. Kansas’ biggest issue has been its starts this season. The Jayhawks have lost the first set in 10 of the team’s 16 matches this season. Eight of those 10 matches have seen Kansas fall 0-2 to start a match.

“Maybe we’ll have an online vote, see what everyone thinks,” Bechard said jokingly about how to fix the Jayhawks’ first-set issues.

While Bechard has never questioned the Jayhawks’ effort this year, he said it had become clear that the consistent struggle in the first two sets was something that might be harder to solve than the team first thought.

But the players know it is on them to fix the problem. Sophomore outside hitter Karina Garlington said she wished that Kansas would start playing at the beginning of each set.

“We can’t wait to be down five points before we start playing Kansas volleyball,” Garlington said. “We need to start playing Kansas volleyball from point one.”

Kaiser said it was the execution that seemed to slow Kansas down. She said the team needed to attain the higher level of execution needed to win in the Big 12 Conference.

“We’re all frustrated,” Kaiser said. “So we’re just going to focus that into productive energy on the court.”

— — Edited by Jennifer Torline