photo by: Photo courtesy of Kansas Athletics

The Jayhawks celebrate a point during their four-set, season-ending victory over Texas Tech on Friday, Nov. 20, 2020 at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena.

With every player back from the shortened 2020 season and the biggest roster the program has ever had, Kansas volleyball coach Ray Bechard believes the Jayhawks are well positioned to start climbing back toward the top of the Big 12 Conference.

Memories of consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament and even the program’s first ever Final Four berth in 2015 are still fresh in many minds around the program. And the goal held by those who were around for that run and those who have simply just heard about it is to get back to that level.

“I think the team would be disappointed if they’re not an NCAA Tournament team,” Bechard said told the Journal-World ahead of the 2021 season opener. “I hear that bantered around quite a bit. Is it realistic to say we want to go be Big 12 champs? I think it’s realistic to say we think we can compete with anybody in the league.”

Bechard’s team was picked to finish fourth in the conference by the Big 12 coaches, and freshman Caroline Bien became the second consecutive Jayhawk — and second Caroline in a row — to be named the Big 12’s preseason freshman of the year.

Her presence along with that of returning middle blocker Caroline Crawford will be a key part of the core of the 2021 team.

Those two will be joined by several other key returners: Former UCLA standout Jenny Mosser and sophomore Ayah Elnady on the outside; senior Rachel Langs next to Crawford in the middle; setters Elise McGhie and Sara Nielsen are joined by standout freshman Camryn Turner in being asked to run the KU offense; and seven or eight other players with legitimate experience round out the roster.

Although this group is still a young team by most standards, those underclassmen who played a lot last season and are back for a fresh start gained valuable reps even while taking their lumps last fall.

After going 5-9 against Big 12 foes last fall, the Jayhawks were 7-1 in the spring.

“There’s great value in the momentum we built as we ended last fall and transitioned into last spring,” Bechard said. “You could just see the youth turn into a little bit more experience.”

With so much talent and such a large roster comes quality depth at nearly every position. Bechard believes the Jayhawks have that and will throughout the season provided they stay healthy.

Doing so, however, will create a situation where some might not get to play as much as they’d like. Bechard said the buy-in and team-first approach from all 20 players on the roster, whether a starter or a seldom-used sub, will be crucial to this team’s success.

“Is everybody going to stay on board with here’s what we need tonight and here’s what’s in our best interest,” Bechard asked.

Although some of that will be seen as the season plays out and roles and playing time are more defined, Bechard thinks he already knows the answer to that key question.

“There’s a unique synergy and energy and enthusiasm that’s going on with this group,” he said.

For the second season in a row, KU will play doubleheaders during conference play instead of home-and-home dates with the rest of the conference. Bechard said fewer trips with the pandemic still ongoing was the right move for the safety of all involved. And he thought it was only fair to even out the way the schedule played out last year, with KU traveling to all of the Big 12 teams it hosted a season ago this time around.

Regardless of where they’re playing or what’s at stake, Bechard said this team plans to put all of focus on two words that make up the crew’s core values — grit and grace.

“We’re going to make sure those things are apparent in all the things we’re doing,” he said. “We feel like we’ve got the right people in place, and there’s no reason why we can’t get it rolling again to the level we want it to get rolling at. But we want to do it the right way.”

2021 Kansas Volleyball Schedule

Aug. 28 vs. Loyola Marymount (at Purdue), 1 p.m.

Aug. 29 at Purdue, 1 p.m.

Sept. 2 at Lipscomb, 6:30 p.m.

Sept. 3 vs. Wake Forest (at Lipscomb), 4 p.m.

Sept. 4 vs. Western Kentucky, (at Lipscomb), 12 p.m.

Sept. 9 vs. Delaware, 6:30 p.m.

Sept. 10 vs. Wichita State, 7 p.m.

Sept. 11 vs. Kent State, 1 p.m.

Sept. 16 vs. Kansas City, 6:30 p.m.

Sept. 17 vs. Missouri State, 7 p.m.

Sept. 18 vs. Albany, 11 a.m.

Sept. 24 at Texas Tech, 6 p.m.

Sept. 25 at Texas Tech, 6 p.m.

Oct. 1 vs. Iowa State, 4 p.m.

Oct. 2 vs. Iowa State, 4 p.m.

Oct. 8 vs. Texas, 6:30 p.m.

Oct. 9 vs. Texas, 4 p.m.

Oct. 14 at Baylor, 6 p.m.

Oct. 15 at Baylor, 5 p.m.

Oct. 29 vs. Oklahoma, 6:30 p.m.

Oct. 30, vs. Oklahoma, 4 p.m.

Nov. 4 at West Virginia, 4 p.m.

Nov. 5 at West Virginia, 4 p.m.

Nov. 19 vs. TCU, 6:30 p.m.

Nov. 20 vs. TCU, 6:30 p.m.

Nov. 26 at Kansas State, 6:30 p.m.

Nov. 27 at Kansas State, 6:30 p.m.