If someone would have told Kansas University volleyball coach Ray Bechard that his team would be 5-1 heading into its first home match tonight against Oral Roberts, he would have taken it.

The Jayhawks — who perennially have started the past few years by beating up on lower-level nonconference teams, which Bechard said hasn’t always prepared KU for the brutal play of the Big 12 Conference — beefed up their preseason schedule big-time this year.

Yet their record has suffered just one blemish, and it wasn’t to No. 13 Minnesota, which the Jayhawks knocked off, 3-2, last weekend at the Nike Invitational in Minneapolis, Minn.

“We did win some games at the Minnesota tournament, but those wins can be short-lived if you don’t value how they came about,” said Bechard, whose team knocked off Minnesota, Marquette and Dayton. “We need to continue to build on those opportunities.”

The Jayhawks will have that opportunity at 7 p.m. tonight, when they play host to the Golden Eagles (2-4) at the Horejsi Center.

The Jayhawks say they are confident because they have won two of their last three matches in the fifth game, after their first loss of the season at Northern Illinois.

“We didn’t come to play that game,” senior outside hitter Sarah Rome said. “Sometimes that happens, but we’ve played really well since then. Maybe we learned something from that.”

But Rome said she wouldn’t mind if the Jayhawks decided not to have a tight match tonight.

“It’ll be awesome playing at home,” she said. “We love playing at Horejsi. Our fans our great, and we’re really excited.”