photo by: Kansas Athletics

New KU volleyball coach Matt Ulmer speaks at his introductory press conference on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena.

Kansas volleyball coach Matt Ulmer isn’t new to replacing accomplished veterans.

Seven experienced players, including six starters, turned pro following his 2023 season at Oregon, in which the Ducks had gone on an Elite Eight run.

“It was just like total turnover on the roster, as far as what you saw on the court, but we had a lot of really good young talent that just hadn’t had their chance yet,” Ulmer said on his inaugural “Hawk Talk” radio show on Monday. “Then we added a couple grad transfers to just kind of plug in the holes.”

The revamped Oregon roster made it back to the Sweet 16 and went the distance against No. 1 overall seed Pittsburgh before falling in five sets.

Now Ulmer, who has been on the job for a month following the retirement of longtime head coach Ray Bechard and is two weeks into spring practice, faces a similar task at KU.

The Jayhawks lost seniors Caroline Bien, London Davis, Ayah Elnady, Bryn McGehe, Toyosi Onabanjo and Camryn Turner following their second-round exit against Florida in the NCAA Tournament. (Elnady transferred to Northwestern for her final year of eligibility; freshman Zoey Burgess also transferred to Arizona State.)

Ulmer inherits a group heavy on underclassmen, even as he acknowledges that some players still on the team, such as libero Raegan Burns and middle blocker Reese Ptacek, the Big 12 freshman of the year, and to a lesser extent outside hitter Rhian Swanson and middle blocker Aisha Aiono, have gotten playing time.

“But for the most part they haven’t had their chance yet, and I think for them, they’re just chomping at the bit with their opportunities,” he said. “So (we’re) doing our best to prepare them for that opportunity that’s going to come, and it’s going to come fast, and it’s going to be against really good competition — but then also adding a few more pieces, I think just to help our team be the most well rounded it can be.”

The rest of the returning talent includes liberos/defensive specialists Heidi Devers, Brynn Kirsch and Molly McCarthy; middle blocker Ellie Schneider; outside hitters Kenzie Dean and Grace Nelson; and setters Katie Dalton and Ellie Moore.

Freshman opposite hitter Kate Hayhurst, signed by Bechard, enrolled early as well; setter Taylor Cook was supposed to do so but ended up flipping to Missouri.

Now the work of adding pieces is well underway for Ulmer and his staff. Already on campus and practicing with the team is Cristin Cline, a rising redshirt sophomore setter who averaged 10.26 assists per set in 2024 at Oregon, as the Jayhawks look to fill the void left by Turner.

“I thought she did a great job,” Ulmer said. “She was all-region, and she was all-rookie team in the Big Ten Conference. I really thought she came into her own as the season progressed. It’s hard to be a freshman setter, you know, that first year, but she did a really nice job for us.

“She went in the portal right away and then said ‘Can I come with you?’ And I said, ‘Yes, you can.’ That was kind of how that went.”

Ulmer wasn’t able to discuss any more of his additions in detail because they haven’t yet signed, but as he did at Oregon, he is working to plug holes with graduate transfers.

Libero/DS Ryan White, formerly of Oregon State, announced her commitment to KU on Feb. 9; she had previously signed to play for Ulmer at Oregon on Nov. 30. Here’s what he said in a press release at the time: “Adding Ryan to our team is a major win. She brings a ton of experience and energy to our locker room. She is also someone our teams have respected playing against, and know, firsthand, the positive impact she can make in a match. Ryan is an elite passer and defender with a desire to be elite at everything she does.”

White, originally from Richland, Washington, did not play in 2024, but in her three-year career with the Beavers she played extensively in 86 career matches; as a junior in 2023 she averaged 3.73 digs per set.

Two days after earning White’s pledge, Ulmer got another commitment from a former Pac-12 (and Big Ten) adversary, outside hitter Audra Wilmes of Washington. After redshirting in 2021, Wilmes posted an average of 2.08 kills per set across three seasons of action.

photo by: Kane Nguyen/OSU Athletics

Oregon State libero Ryan White plays for the Beavers in this undated photo in Corvallis, Ore.

photo by: Red Box Pictures

Washington’s Audra Wilmes (1) serves against Nebraska on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024, in Seattle.

Tessa Dodd won’t make it to Lawrence until 2026, but the reigning Gatorade Wyoming Volleyball Player of the Year, a 6-foot-4 opposite, also flipped her commitment from Oregon to Kansas.

Ulmer on Monday teased a “really exciting freshman recruit that committed a couple days ago that I think everybody’s going to like, fans and staff included,” and added, “And we’re not done yet.”

He said that beyond certain key physical skills, he looks for an archetype of player that “is just a stone-cold competitive killer on the floor but then can laugh at themselves when they make a mistake or something funny has happened.”

It’s been a busy time for recruiting in general, and particularly for Ulmer’s newly appointed recruiting coordinator Arica Nassar, who made the move from Oregon. (The rest of his staff consists of another Oregon assistant in Erika Dillard, former Grand Canyon men’s volleyball coach Matt Werle, and Bechard-era holdovers Maggie Bowen and Tori Miller-Hohlios.) Ulmer estimated that he’s had 11 athletes on campus for visits over the course of two weeks and added that the Triple Crown Volleyball NIT in Kansas City, Missouri, which wrapped up on Monday, made for the busiest high school recruiting weekend of the year.

It’s all part of laying the groundwork for a program he believes can be a title contender.

“I really don’t think there’s a limit to what we can do,” he said. “… I just think, on a national scene, national picture, I don’t know why we can’t be competing for championships year in and year out. So I think the support is there, I think the fan support is there, I think (sport administrator Nicole Corcoran and athletic director Travis Goff), the vision that they have for volleyball is just ‘Let’s go. Let’s do it.'”

He said the external response has been just as positive: “I think that’s been probably the most encouraging thing so far, is just the excitement from recruits, club coaches, directors. They’re ready for this. We’re going to build.”

Fans will have a chance to see the earliest stages of the Ulmer era in April. He expects the team to host spring exhibition matches on April 5 and 19 with a tournament in Kansas City in between, then travel to face Nebraska on April 26.