For Kansas University’s volleyball team, the emotions were all on the surface.

The Jayhawks displayed anxiety, hope, fear, optimism and shock Sunday as the 64 teams receiving invitations to the NCAA Tournament slowly were unveiled. Kansas was not one of them.

The NCAA selection committee denied the Jayhawks despite a respectable 19-10 record, a sixth-place finish in the Big 12 and a history of the conference being well-represented in the NCAAs.

“We were hoping we could trust the history of the Big 12 conference,” KU coach Ray Bechard said. “We’ve always had at least six, and that didn’t happen.”

Instead, it was five, with Kansas on the outside looking in. Nebraska, Kansas State, Missouri, Texas and Texas A&M all will begin first-round action later this week. Kansas will begin looking toward next year, with four seniors calling it a career just a little bit earlier than they had hoped.

“I didn’t expect it to be so fast,” senior Jennifer Kraft said. “Deep down I was wishing we were going to go to the tournament and that Saturday wasn’t my last match ever. But it was.”

The top 16 seeds in the tournament were announced as first- and second-round hosts, with Nebraska getting a No. 3 slot. USC was the No. 1 seed overall.

The Big Ten received eight selections, including three teams with identical conference records as Kansas. Northwestern, Michigan State and Indiana all had .500 conference seasons.

“They probably make the choice to take none of them or all of them,” Bechard said. “They chose to take all of them.”

With the rejection came the what-ifs about five-game losses to Missouri and Texas A&M at home, and a five-game loss to Texas Tech on the road. All three setbacks were a few bounces away from being a Kansas victory. Any one of the three could’ve put KU over the hump and into its first-ever NCAA Tournament.

“The A&M match is the match that would’ve tied us with them for fifth,” Bechard said. “They got to take us both if that’s the case.”

The Jayhawks finished with a 10-10 conference record, but earned just one victory against teams ahead of them in the standings, a 3-0 win over Texas on Nov. 2.

As each of the five teams ahead of Kansas was slowly revealed Sunday :quot; Texas A&M first, then K-State, then Missouri, Nebraska and Texas :quot; the Jayhawks hopes slowly dwindled.

“The bottom line is, if you win 10 matches in this conference and finish in the top six in this conference, you’ve always gone,” Bechard said.

Not this year.

As the selection show came to an end, a teary-eyed KU squad huddled together, cried, “Rock Chalk Jayhawk KU” one last time.

“Hopefully,” Kraft said softly, “hopefully next year.”