Volleyball sees best win of season

By Josh Bowe

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Normally, coach Ray Bechard stands up as he addresses the media after a match, but tonight he needed to sit down. And who could blame him?

Bechard jumped and fist-pumped more than he has all season after sophomore outside hitter Jenna Kaiser sealed the comeback in the Border Showdown. Kansas beat Missouri in five sets after trailing 12-7 in the fifth set.

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Photo by Jon Goering

Sophomore hitter Karina Garlington comes up with a dig during the fourth set against Missouri on Wednesday at the Horejsi Family Athletics Center. Kansas defeated Missouri to send the match to a fifth set.

It was a defining moment for the Jayhawks, and even more so for Kaiser. Kaiser’s second consecutive kill came after her hitting error put Missouri up by one and serving for match point.

“Coach’s always tell us to keep swinging, especially when it’s match point,” Kaiser said.

There was certainly no time to mull over a mistake in the fifth set; the set was tied seven times with two lead changes. The Tigers took their first lead at 6-5 and extended it to a five-point lead at 12-7. Bechard was proud of his players for keeping their heads up with Missouri so close to victory.

“It would have been easy to pack the tent at 12-7,” Bechard said. “They got their very best server [Julianna Klein] serving for the match, and we passed a good ball and hit a good ball.”

The Jayhawks had a picture-perfect start and ending. Kansas came out behind the energy of the home crowd to play its best set of the season, winning 25-12 in the first set.

“Sets one and four we played about as well as we played all year,” Bechard said. “Then you gut it out in set five.”

But the main reason it came down to a fifth set were the atrocious sets two and three. After hitting .424 in the first set, it looked as if someone switched the uniforms. The Jayhawks hit .118 in the second set and an even worse -.053 in the third. After set three, with all the momentum riding with the Tigers, it looked as though the Jayhawks were on their way to losing their third match in a row.

“If we have a not-so-great set, we tell each other we get another chance to play right here,” Kaiser said. “We each have a chance to do our own jobs and make our team better.”

Kaiser’s teammates heard the message. Kansas dominated set four, holding Missouri to as many kills as it had errors in a 25-13 set victory.

“It was a Jekyll-Hyde match from the standpoint that we controlled the beginning and the end and they controlled the middle,” Bechard said. “I’m just glad we were part of the end.”

Even sweeter than a set-five comeback is doing it against your archrival. Even though this match counts as one victory, Bechard knows it means more than that to Jayhawks fans.

“There’s Jayhawk fans overseas or somewhere that are monitoring. The most important thing for them is ‘What’s the score between Missouri and Kansas in the Border Showdown?’” Bechard said.

A look at the numbers to see why Kansas won is staggering. Missouri leads the Big 12 in digs, yet Kansas out-dug them 92-68. The Tigers, however, accumulated 20 total blocks, but Kansas had 25 more kills than the Tigers. Five Jayhawks had double-digit kills, a season-high.

But senior middle blocker Savannah Noyes, who has played Missouri for the last time, said even though she didn’t play her best match, only one stat mattered to her: victories.

“I’m just glad that we could win in our gym,” she said. “And that’s really all I wanted.”

— - Edited by Becka Cremer

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