photo by: Chance Parker/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas freshman Reese Ptacek spikes the ball against Kansas State on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in Lawrence.

The Kansas volleyball team beat rival Kansas State for the eighth straight time, fighting off the Wildcats in extra points in the fourth set to claim a 3-1 victory (25-17, 23-25, 25-18, 28-26) at Morgan Family Arena in Manhattan.

K-State’s star outside hitter Aliyah Carter racked up a game-high 24 kills on 68 total attacks throughout the afternoon, but the well-rounded and efficient offense of KU, with five players tallying at least nine kills, hit .269 overall and emerged victorious.

The Wildcats had a set point and a chance to force a fifth set — as they had previously at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena on Oct. 17 — before an attack error by Aniya Clinton tied the game at 24. K-State managed to stave off a match point for the Jayhawks as well before Camryn Turner assisted on kills by London Davis and Ayah Elnady to close out the match.

“This match is just what you would expect when in-state rivals get together,” KU coach Ray Bechard said in a press release. “I was proud of this group, especially how they competed and executed in the key moments.”

Turner matched her career high with 59 assists on the day. The primary beneficiaries were Davis (14 kills on .448 hitting) and Ayah Elnady (12) to go along with Caroline Bien (a team-high 15) and freshman middle blocker Reese Ptacek (12 on .550 hitting.)

Defensively, Bien, Elnady and libero Raegan Burns recorded at least 20 digs each.

The fourth set was a nail-biter, but otherwise KU controlled much of the two games it won. In the first set it broke free from a 9-9 tie with a 9-2 run driven primarily by middles Ptacek and Toyosi Onabanjo on offense. K-State didn’t get closer than six points for the remainder of the set, which Onabanjo concluded with another kill.

KU dropped a tightly contested second game — a late stretch favoring the Wildcats, boosted by the defense of K-State’s Meg Brown turned a 17-15 lead into a 22-19 deficit for the Jayhawks — but then scored the first 11 points of the third set, 10 of which came with Onabanjo serving, including back-to-back aces.

After pulling off the narrow fourth-set victory, KU improved to 23-3 on the year (14-2 in the Big 12) with two matches to go. The Jayhawks will host BYU on Wednesday for senior night before traveling to Iowa State on Friday.

Arizona State is likely to earn the Big 12 title, having won 16 straight matches and needing just one more victory against UCF on Friday to clinch sole possession of first place in the league. But the Jayhawks can still do plenty to maximize their positioning ahead of the NCAA Tournament selection process.