Kansas 2022

[bluepenquin]

Kansas is coming off an 16-11 season where they made a successful run to the Sweet 16.  They return 5 starters - losing Jenny Mosser and Carolyn Crawford.  However they get back 2020 starter Ayah Elnady and add Florida transfer Lauren Dooley.  The core of this team are Sophomores - so this group has 3 more years together.

Roster (depth chart):

Setter:
Camryn Turner (SO)
Katie Dalton (FR)

Outside:
Caroline Bien (SO)
Ayah Elnady (FR)
Karli Schmidt (SO)
Rhian Swanson (FR)
Riley Foltz (JR)

Middle:
Rachel Langs (Super-SR)
Lauren Dooley (GR)
Gracie Van Driel (SR)
Kim Whetstone (JR)
Kaiti Parks (FR)

Opposite:
Anezka Szabo (Super-SR)
London Davis (SO)

DS/L:
Kennedy Farris (JR)
Molly Schultz (SO)
Brynn Kirsch (FR)
Molly McCarthy (FR)
Bryn McGehe (FR)

[bluepenquin]

Kansas with an exhibition match tonight against Drake - would love to hear from anyone able to attend.

[bluepenquin]

Kansas announced within the last couple weeks of the hire of Brian Tate as the Volunteer assistant coach.

This is an interesting hire. Brian was an assistant VB coach for 7 years with Rockhurst - one of the better DII VB schools in the country. The last 2 years he was the Associate Director/Recruiting Director for Dynasty - probably the #1 VB club in Kansas City at this point. He has also been coaching one of the top club teams in the country these past two seasons that included Skylar Pierce, Carlie Cisneros, Ryan McAleer and 2025 players Abigal Mullen and Reese Messer.

Hopefully he can make an impact on in-season coaching and future recruiting.

[digs]

Aug 19, 2022 10:18:46 GMT -5 bluepenquin said:

Kansas announced within the last couple weeks of the hire of Brian Tate as the Volunteer assistant coach.

This is an interesting hire. Brian was an assistant VB coach for 7 years with Rockhurst - one of the better DII VB schools in the country. The last 2 years he was the Associate Director/Recruiting Director for Dynasty - probably the #1 VB club in Kansas City at this point. He has also been coaching one of the top club teams in the country these past two seasons that included Skylar Pierce, Carlie Cisneros, Ryan McAleer and 2025 players Abigal Mullen and Reese Messer.

Hopefully he can make an impact on in-season coaching and future recruiting.

Tate is absolutely a coach on the rise. Great temperament, really freaking smart, and a great eye for real-time, in-game adjustments. Great add by the Jayhawks.

[bluepenquin]

Kansas with their 4th commit for 2024 - Kenzie Dean out Iowa. 6-2 (or 6-3) OH.

This is a strong class which now includes:

Heidi Devers - L (Dynasty) she was playing up with the 17-1 team.
Reese Ptacek - MB (Northern Lights)
Grace Nelson - OH (1st Alliance)
Kenzie Dean - OH (Club Ignit)

[bluepenquin]

Nice start to the season - straight set win over Utah Valley (25-10, 25-14, 25-19). Not sure how good Utah Valley will be this year - they ended last year being the #80 team per Pablo.

Molly Schultz had 5 aces in a 1st set run - 7 for the team in the 1st set, pretty much led to that lopsided score.

The next two matches will give a better tell on this team (game is being streamed).

Bien did play center back on the back row - and had 1 back row attack (a kill). Elnady started as the other OH and looked good. They subbed her out at the end of the last 2 sets (lots of players played).

Freshman Molly McCarthy came into serve for Dooley. I have a feeling that Brynn Kirsch is going to make an impact as a DS at some point this year.

Szabo with the big line - 11K at .846.

Davis and Van Driel didn't play - both players are likely to see playing time this year.

Dooley's stats may not look great, but she had a pretty big impact.  Really effected Utah Valley at the net.

[bluepenquin]

One thing I found odd - Utah Valley seemed to think it was a good idea to keep serving Bien. Bien didn't have a great offensive game, so maybe that was part of the strategy? Generally, I think it is a bad idea to maximize your opponent being in system off the serve.

[bluepenquin]

Great start to the season - beating Utah 25-22, 16-25, 25-20, 25-23. Utah isn't as good as they were last year with Drews, but they are still a tough team and playing them on the road.

KU really struggled with that 2nd OH - but Elnady with a huge kill late in the match.

Szabo with 12K and 7 blocks - she has looked outstanding in the first two matches. When she attacks with the ball in front of her, she is very effective. Too often last year and still sometimes today, she is contacting the ball behind her head. Been since Payne that they have had a RS hit for a high %, if that continues - KU is a much better team this year.

Shout out again to FR Brynn Kirsch they need to get better on the back row, and I think she is going to help a lot this year.

[basil]

pretty cool win for Kansas

hopefully they can keep their place in the top 25 this season

[bucky415]

Good start for Kansas, beating Utah and Utah Valley at altitude. I hope Jardine has better days ahead for Utah, after a bit of a tough one today! The experience at middle, especially with Dooley, plus Szabo, plus Bien as a go to on the outside, I should have rated KU to start. I will correct that! They may not beat Texas, but they will be good!

[bluepenquin]

Kansas beats LMU (28-26, 30-28, 25-12).

This is no doubt a great start to the season. Here is why I think this tells some good things for KU in the future.

Set 1 - LMU hit .520 and KU still won. Near as I can tell, LMU played about as well as they could play. In Set 2, there was some bad serve receive going on with Bein and Elnady that got KU in a big hole. Trailing 24-20, they came back to win the set. At this point, LMU was done - as they played badly in the 3rd set.

Szabo was great again, doing most of her damage in the 1st two sets. Bien didn't have a good match and KU was able to win anyway. The offense was very balanced - hitting % in parenthesis for the 5 attackers:

Dooley - .765
Szabo - .588
Langs - .429
Elnady - .375
Bien - .034

Kansas is getting great production from their MB/RS (the 3 Seniors). That is telling me that a couple things are happening; 1) Serve Receive has been good, much better than the past several years, 2) Cam Tuner is darn good.

Things that need improvement:
1) Serve receive consistency. They are getting a boost from their FR DS's. Bien is generally great. Tough to consistently win w/o being very good at this.
2) Floor defense. They just aren't getting enough balls up on attacks. I think they have the talent to improve here.

Don't know if they can sustain the hitting from the MB/RS positions, but...

On a sour note - looked like someone is in a boot. I am thinking it was Van Driel?

[slxpress]

Aug 27, 2022 16:09:27 GMT -5 bluepenquin said:

Kansas beats LMU (28-26, 30-28, 25-12).

This is no doubt a great start to the season. Here is why I think this tells some good things for KU in the future.

Set 1 - LMU hit .520 and KU still won. Near as I can tell, LMU played about as well as they could play. In Set 2, there was some bad serve receive going on with Bein and Elnady that got KU in a big hole. Trailing 24-20, they came back to win the set. At this point, LMU was done - as they played badly in the 3rd set.

Szabo was great again, doing most of her damage in the 1st two sets. Bien didn't have a good match and KU was able to win anyway. The offense was very balanced - hitting % in parenthesis for the 5 attackers:

Dooley - .765
Szabo - .588
Langs - .429
Elnady - .375
Bien - .034

Kansas is getting great production from their MB/RS (the 3 Seniors). That is telling me that a couple things are happening; 1) Serve Receive has been good, much better than the past several years, 2) Cam Tuner is darn good.

Things that need improvement:
1) Serve receive consistency. They are getting a boost from their FR DS's. Bien is generally great. Tough to consistently win w/o being very good at this.
2) Floor defense. They just aren't getting enough balls up on attacks. I think they have the talent to improve here.

Don't know if they can sustain the hitting from the MB/RS positions, but...

On a sour note - looked like someone is in a boot. I am thinking it was Van Driel?

I assume after Utah the most competitive non conference opponent is UCF? Wichita State had a decent record last year, and I'm sure there's some instate feelings associated with the match, especially on the Shockers' side. I notice Jhenna Gabriel's Runnin' Rebs come to town as well, although I don't think they have much firepower on that team.

And then you guys open conference play with Texas at home on September 21.

When do you feel is a realistic time to compare this Jayhawk squad with last year's? 

[bluepenquin]

Aug 27, 2022 16:29:11 GMT -5 slxpress said:

Aug 27, 2022 16:09:27 GMT -5 bluepenquin said:

I assume after Utah the most competitive non conference opponent is UCF? Wichita State had a decent record last year, and I'm sure there's some instate feelings associated with the match, especially on the Shockers' side. I notice Jhenna Gabriel's Runnin' Rebs come to town as well, although I don't think they have much firepower on that team.

And then you guys open conference play with Texas at home on September 21.

When do you feel is a realistic time to compare this Jayhawk squad with last year's? 

Going into the season - the expectations were Kansas would be better than last year's team.  Last year - Kansas ended up Pablo #35 and barely made the tournament, needing to win a couple of 4 and 5 set matches against K-State.  Then had a great 2 match run to make the sweet 16.  The realistic goal this year is improvement and finishing 2nd in conference.

The question is when is it realistic to compare this team to the 2015 team.  I know, this is very doubtful - but then it wouldn't be as improbable as 2015 ended up being going into 2015.  2015 KU lost their all-American to graduation.  They had the 3 Sophomores - Rigden was fairly unknown and only played around 50% of the time as a Freshman.  Payne was the 2nd MB behind their all-American and moved to RS for the start of 2015.  And Havilli was the returning starting setter, but not considered a Top 25 recruit.

Bien is more highly regarded at the time than any of those 3 greats from 2015.  Improbable as it may seem - this team is looking to be led by 3 Sophomores (Bien, Turner, Elnady), but with a lot more depth surrounding them.  

[buttery]

Hi! I’m a long-time lurker on VolleyTalk, but never ever made an account until now. I’ve been a Jayhawk fan my whole life since I grew up in the area, but really started following KU Volleyball after their appearance in 2015. Before that I had never watched volleyball at all. Last year was really exciting to see them in the Sweet Sixteen.

I live in Boston now, but had the opportunity to see the scrimmage against Drake when I was visiting home. So I’ll write some of my thoughts and just some thoughts as they start their season:

In set one, the Jayhawks got themselves in quite a big hole early (something like 8 points maybe?), but was nice to see them rally back. Set 3 went to extras, and Kansas ran out of subs so Szabo went to the back row and actually came-up with a nice pancake to take the Jayhawks to match point. I was impressed by Drake’s floor defense, which doesn’t surprise me that much because Hallie Hillegas is a assistant coach there. It sucks that Crawford transferred, she plays with such a competitive edge,p but Dooley fits in well with this team and is probably about as physical at the net - she utilized open hand throw attacks a lot it seems and they run her quicker out of the middle compared to Langs. Can confirm Van Driel seems to be injured, so little depth at MB (Whetstone played sets 2 and 3, and this is a compliment to Dooley and Langs, but there is a heavy drop-off). Elnady started set one, but it seems when they use Schultz to DS they hide her in serve receive. In set two, the Jayhawks got out to a pretty quick start and went to a 6-2 with Dalton and Davis. They also subbed Elnady for Schmidt too, which I brings me to my next big observation: Schmidt looked REALLY good in serve receive. I think she probably got served 10 times in the night and there was only one bad pass (though it was a pretty mean float serve that died in front of her), but she got it up and Dalton made a nice one arm stab to the pin that led to a Bien took off the block. The rest of Schmidt’s passes I’d say Turner didn’t have to move. It’ll be interesting to see how Bechard decides on the other outside hitter spot throughout the season - I feel like over the years he just rides whoever is hot with positions that aren’t necessarily solidified (MB battle in 2017 comes to mind). I think that Schmidt is the most terminal, hits the best out of the back row, (and obviously the most physical) between her, Bien, and Elnady; so if she can pass it’d be big for KU. I think she’s the most fluid in system as well. Surprised not to see her more often this last weekend. It’s also critical if they want to run a 6-2, which I imagine they may at some point. I think Dalton is a strong player from what I saw - Turner is a great setter, but her rise has seemed to throw a wrench on a lot of setter recruiting success (I really liked McGhie actually, and I Dalton is probably too talented to just be the secondary setter for 3 years of her career). It’s nice that they have seasoned opposites in Szabo and Davis that provide different looks (one lefty and one righty) as well. Really nice to see Szabo has been much more terminal than last year in the first 3 games.

As bluepenguin rightfully mentions a lot, Bien is the most solid passer usually for KU, but in my opinion teams are trying to serve her when she’s a live hitter and have moderate success at it. So fun to watch her - I think her OOS hitting is generally terrific.

Also surprised to be seeing this much of McCarthy - I guess I naively thought she was probably going to be play a limited role at KU because of her family ties to KU, but she was the first serving sub for KU in set one against Drake and made a couple of good digs. I find the back row serving sub strategy for KU interesting - seems since after 2017 with Miller at primary DS for Burse, and Barry as the primary serving specialist, it seems they rotate DSs and serving specialists often. I’m starting to think it’s intentional to provide different looks to opponents, maybe keeping their better serving DS in the cards later into a match (it seems last year Angelo would DS first and then usually they finished matches with Schultz). McCarthy and Kirsch definitely seem to be pretty good though. When looking at KUs “littles”, I’m still underwhelmed by Farris’s serve receive, but I think she provides a lot of seasoned leadership for this team in terms of communication. It’ll be interesting to see how Kirsch especially develops - I could see her being KU Libero sometime in the future (not sure when, maybe as soon as this year).

Final thoughts - definitely excited to see how this team progresses and don’t think there will be any drop-off from Crawford as long as Langs and Dooley stay healthy. The Rigdon/Havilli/Payne era was a little bit of an anomaly, but the KU identity has always been really scrappy floor defense and fantastic blocking, so the players they have fit that mold well. It’s too bad they won’t be tested that much in the non-con season, though if I had to be worried about a game, I’d actually be concerned about Kansas City on the road - seems they always play pretty strong against KU.

[slxpress]

Aug 29, 2022 17:32:37 GMT -5 buttery said:

Hi! I’m a long-time lurker on VolleyTalk, but never ever made an account until now. I’ve been a Jayhawk fan my whole life since I grew up in the area, but really started following KU Volleyball after their appearance in 2015. Before that I had never watched volleyball at all. Last year was really exciting to see them in the Sweet Sixteen.

I live in Boston now, but had the opportunity to see the scrimmage against Drake when I was visiting home. So I’ll write some of my thoughts and just some thoughts as they start their season:

In set one, the Jayhawks got themselves in quite a big hole early (something like 8 points maybe?), but was nice to see them rally back. Set 3 went to extras, and Kansas ran out of subs so Szabo went to the back row and actually came-up with a nice pancake to take the Jayhawks to match point. I was impressed by Drake’s floor defense, which doesn’t surprise me that much because Hallie Hillegas is a assistant coach there. It sucks that Crawford transferred, she plays with such a competitive edge,p but Dooley fits in well with this team and is probably about as physical at the net - she utilized open hand throw attacks a lot it seems and they run her quicker out of the middle compared to Langs. Can confirm Van Driel seems to be injured, so little depth at MB (Whetstone played sets 2 and 3, and this is a compliment to Dooley and Langs, but there is a heavy drop-off). Elnady started set one, but it seems when they use Schultz to DS they hide her in serve receive. In set two, the Jayhawks got out to a pretty quick start and went to a 6-2 with Dalton and Davis. They also subbed Elnady for Schmidt too, which I brings me to my next big observation: Schmidt looked REALLY good in serve receive. I think she probably got served 10 times in the night and there was only one bad pass (though it was a pretty mean float serve that died in front of her), but she got it up and Dalton made a nice one arm stab to the pin that led to a Bien took off the block. The rest of Schmidt’s passes I’d say Turner didn’t have to move. It’ll be interesting to see how Bechard decides on the other outside hitter spot throughout the season - I feel like over the years he just rides whoever is hot with positions that aren’t necessarily solidified (MB battle in 2017 comes to mind). I think that Schmidt is the most terminal, hits the best out of the back row, (and obviously the most physical) between her, Bien, and Elnady; so if she can pass it’d be big for KU. I think she’s the most fluid in system as well. Surprised not to see her more often this last weekend. It’s also critical if they want to run a 6-2, which I imagine they may at some point. I think Dalton is a strong player from what I saw - Turner is a great setter, but her rise has seemed to throw a wrench on a lot of setter recruiting success (I really liked McGhie actually, and I Dalton is probably too talented to just be the secondary setter for 3 years of her career). It’s nice that they have seasoned opposites in Szabo and Davis that provide different looks (one lefty and one righty) as well. Really nice to see Szabo has been much more terminal than last year in the first 3 games.

As bluepenguin rightfully mentions a lot, Bien is the most solid passer usually for KU, but in my opinion teams are trying to serve her when she’s a live hitter and have moderate success at it. So fun to watch her - I think her OOS hitting is generally terrific.

Also surprised to be seeing this much of McCarthy - I guess I naively thought she was probably going to be play a limited role at KU because of her family ties to KU, but she was the first serving sub for KU in set one against Drake and made a couple of good digs. I find the back row serving sub strategy for KU interesting - seems since after 2017 with Miller at primary DS for Burse, and Barry as the primary serving specialist, it seems they rotate DSs and serving specialists often. I’m starting to think it’s intentional to provide different looks to opponents, maybe keeping their better serving DS in the cards later into a match (it seems last year Angelo would DS first and then usually they finished matches with Schultz). McCarthy and Kirsch definitely seem to be pretty good though. When looking at KUs “littles”, I’m still underwhelmed by Farris’s serve receive, but I think she provides a lot of seasoned leadership for this team in terms of communication. It’ll be interesting to see how Kirsch especially develops - I could see her being KU Libero sometime in the future (not sure when, maybe as soon as this year).

Final thoughts - definitely excited to see how this team progresses and don’t think there will be any drop-off from Crawford as long as Langs and Dooley stay healthy. The Rigdon/Havilli/Payne era was a little bit of an anomaly, but the KU identity has always been really scrappy floor defense and fantastic blocking, so the players they have fit that mold well. It’s too bad they won’t be tested that much in the non-con season, though if I had to be worried about a game, I’d actually be concerned about Kansas City on the road - seems they always play pretty strong against KU.

I enjoyed this. Lots of detail, and a lot of personal observations. 

As someone who writes a lot of ridiculously long posts, I will tell you that paragraphs are your friend. You have some, which is absolutely helpful, but when it's this long, more help to make it more readable. I'm not saying I'm always great about it, either, but I know from a reading perspective huge paragraphs of text make it more difficult. It didn't stop me from reading the post, and I'll look forward to your next one as well, so please don't take this as a personal attack. It's not a blaring car horn from behind you at the stop light. It's someone giving it a little tap to let you know the light turned green.

Do you have any thoughts on what you'd like to see how out of this team at this early juncture? Conference finish? Tournament seeding? Tournament finish? I know it's all a guess, and if you don't have one, that would be perfectly fine.

You feel like this year's team's strengths are floor defense and blocking as well? What are you expecting in terms of service pressure from the line? You mention switching the DSes. Is there a backrow grouping that is your favorite?

I hope you end up loving participating on this site. bluepenquin is a rock star. It'd be nice to see another knowledgeable KU fan.