photo by: Photo courtesy of Kansas Athletics

Kansas sophomore Caroline Bien measures a ball during the Jayhawks' five-set loss to No. 1 Texas on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022 at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena.

A battle of two teams ranked at the fringes of the top 25 went the distance, but No. 25 Purdue outlasted No. 23 Kansas in five sets at the Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena Thursday night, dealing the Jayhawks their first loss of the campaign.

KU staved off match points for the Boilermakers with a series of challenges but ultimately fell on a pair of late attack errors, allowing Purdue to claim the fifth set by a 17-15 margin, and a 3-2 victory overall (17-25, 25-19, 16-25, 25-19, 17-15).

Purdue freshman Chloe Chicoine, PrepVolleyball’s No. 1 recruit in the nation, led all players with 21 kills to go along with 12 digs. KU’s Reagan Cooper and Caroline Bien weren’t far behind with 18 and 17 kills, respectively, and London Davis and Toyosi Onabanjo reached double digits as the Jayhawks outhit Purdue .267 to .229. However, the Boilermakers got critical points when it counted, and KU committed 13 service errors.

The Jayhawks led by a wide margin for most of the first set and went up 8-4 in the second on four kills from Ayah Elnady ahead of a Purdue timeout, but the Boilermakers flipped the script, using a run that featured six straight points to go up 21-15 and eventually claim the game at 25-19.

Bien scored nine of her kills in a single set — the third — as KU again took the lead overall, but Purdue pulled away from a late 15-15 tie, hitting .481 in the fourth set overall, to force a fifth. After 11 ties and five lead changes in a frame that featured 12 combined attack errors, the Boilermakers came out on top.

Camryn Turner racked up 57 assists and 14 digs; Elnady and Raegan Burns had 12 digs apiece.

The Kansas Invitational continues with another challenging match between KU and No. 19 Marquette Saturday afternoon.