Via Kansas Athletics
LAWRENCE, Kan. – The No. 9 Kansas volleyball team defeated the Iowa State Cyclones 3-1 on Wednesday night at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena, as senior Ayah Elnady led the Jayhawks en route to her career 1,000th kill. She finished with 16 kills while tying her career high of 18 digs.
Senior setter Camryn Turner added her own milestone as she reached 1,000 career digs in addition to her 49 assists on the evening. This marks Turner’s second career milestone of the season, previously surpassing 3,000 career assists on September 19.
“I thought we played some of our better volleyball and we disrupted them defensively,” said Kansas Head Coach Ray Bechard. “We had five players in double digit digs and Bryn McGehe with 14. I remember one got her in the chest and it was a play-on ball, big rally, so I just think we started ramping it up defensively and converting some opportunities.”
In the first set, Iowa State came out early and grabbed a 6-4 lead. Kansas took a timeout after Iowa State extended their lead to 11-7. Out of the Kansas time, the Cyclones stayed ahead, pushing out to a 19-13 advantage. The Jayhawks battled back to narrow the Iowa State lead back down to 20-18 behind kills from freshman Zoey Burgess and Elnady. Kansas came back to tie the set up at 21 and Iowa State was forced to call a timeout to stop the Jayhawks’ momentum after an 8-2 run starting back at the 19-13 Cyclone lead. The Jayhawks were able to nab a 23-21 lead after back-to-back Iowa State errors, forcing another timeout from the visiting side. Kansas took the first set 25-21, ending the set on a 12-2 run led by seniors Elnady and Caroline Bien on the attack.
The second set saw a more sound performance by the home side, as the Jayhawks ran up an early 9-5 lead where Elnady earned her 1,000th career kill. Iowa State exercised their first timeout early, and out of the break, the hard-hitting Jayhawks would push their advantage even further to 14-9. The Cyclones called their second timeout after the Jayhawks extended their lead to 17-10 off back-to-back kills by Elnady. Big offensive performances by Elnady and senior London Davis aided the Jayhawks to go up 2-0, taking the second set by a steep 25-15 final score.
It was a tightly contested battle early on in the third set as back-to-back kills by Davis gave Kansas the 6-4 edge. The Jayhawks continued to battle to 13-11 behind an Aisha Aiono smash. A 4-1 Jayhawk run forced a Cyclones timeout as Kansas extended their upper hand to 17-12 behind continued stellar Davis performance. After the break, the Cyclones came back and whittled Kansas’s lead two points. Iowa State continued to climb back and cut its deficit down to 22-20, forcing the Jayhawks to take its first timeout. After an unsuccessful Kansas challenge, Iowa State tied up the set 23-23 before eventually taking the third set 25-23.
The fourth set would start back-and-forth before the Jayhawks would see back-to-back plays from Davis and an ace from Raegan Burns taking a 6-3 lead. At the media timeout, the Jayhawks have taken a 15-11 lead following a kill by Elnady. Following a Cyclone timeout, Kansas extended their lead to 20-13 thanks to a big 7-2 run. Kansas took the fourth and final set and took the match 3-1 over the Cyclones of Iowa State.
Bien ended the night with a double-double, finishing with 12 kills and 14 digs while hitting .440 in the process. Elnady was both the kills (16) and digs (18) leader for the Jayhawks, while Ptacek led the way in blocking with four total on the night.
Up next, the Jayhawks will be back in action at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena for a Saturday, October 26 matchup against No. 21 Utah. First serve is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on ESPN+, with live, in-match coverage on Kansas’ StatBroadcast and social media platforms.
