Kansas Jayhawks crush Colgate in NCAA Volleyball Tournament Round 1, play UF next

It’ll be No. 3 seed Kansas versus No. 6 Florida on Saturday night for a spot in the Sweet 16 of college volleyball’s NCAA Tournament.

Sparked by 12 kills from Ayah Elnadi and 11 from Toyosi Onabanjo, the No. 12-ranked Jayhawks (25-4) swept unseeded Colgate (19-11) in three sets Friday in a first-round contest played before 1,910 fans at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena.

The loud, energetic crowd, just short of a sellout, included KU basketball center Hunter Dickinson, Jayhawks athletic director Travis Goff and a handful of KU football players.

SEC school Florida (22-7) defeated (16-13) North Carolina State in the other Round of 64 match in Lawrence on Friday, setting up a KU-Florida Round of 32 contest to begin at 6:30 p.m. Saturday back at Horejsi.

“We at this time of year obviously are in a survive and advance mentality,” KU coach Ray Bechard said. “There are some things we did very well tonight and some things we’ll need to clean up as we advance.”

Kansas also swept Colgate in the Duke Tournament, held in September in Durham, North Carolina.

“I thought Colgate played pretty close to their ceiling,” Bechard said. “When you come in here and play without much to lose and they are an organized, experienced team, congratulations to them.”

KU rolled to a 25-18 victory in the first set, then rallied from a late four-point deficit (21-17) to take the second set 25-23. The Jayhawks led the third set 20-13 and held off a Colgate rally to win 25-22.

“We were in an aggressive mindset,” Bechard said. “We served well. Our transition offense was very good and we had good balance offensively so we’re excited about advancing to tomorrow night against the Gators.”

KU’s London Davis had eight kills, while Caroline Bien had seven and Reese Ptacek six.

Raegan Burns had nine digs and five assists. She kept some points alive by handling hard kill attempts from players on Colgate’s front line, such as Abby Shadwick, who had 13 kills. Milan Bayless and Tiana Owens had seven kills apiece for the Patriot League champs.

The Jayhawks were able to watch a bit of the Florida-N.C. State match that took place before KU-Colgate took the floor. The Gators prevailed 25-18, 25-21, 25-13 over the unseeded Wolfpack.

“It is kind of pressure. They won the match they are supposed to win, so it was like, ‘OK now we’ve got to put the pressure on and win the game we are supposed to win,” said KU setter Camryn Turner, who had 36 assists Friday.

“Florida is a really good team,” Turner added. “They’ve got some good pieces but we’ve also seen really good teams this year so I feel like we are excited.”

Noted middle blocker Onabanjo, who had zero errors vs. Colgate for a hitting percentage of .733 with five blocks: “Florida has cannons (for) arms so it’s going to be interesting to see how we’re going to be able to put our hands across the net and get some blocks but also how we’re going to work offensively because they are also massive (on the) block as well.”

Bryn McGehe contributed nine digs for KU.

Kansas on Saturday will play a home match in the tourney’s Round of 32 for the second consecutive year. Last year, KU beat Omaha 3-0, then fell to Penn State in a five-set heartbreaker at Horejsi.

This year’s Round of 16 will be held at the home of the highest-seeded team in the regional. Louisville is seeded 1 and Stanford 2 in KU’s regional. Both would have to lose in either the first or second round for KU to play host to the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight ... if KU beats the Gators.

Louisville will play Northern Iowa for a spot in the Sweet 16 on Saturday.