photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas outside hitter Caroline Bien celebrates with teammates during an exhibition match against Drake at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena, on Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024, in Lawrence, Kansas.

The 13th-ranked Kansas volleyball team continued to bolster its resume in nonconference play, taking down No. 24 Marquette on Friday and then Western Michigan on Saturday in Milwaukee to advance to 6-0 on the year.

The Marquette match saw the Jayhawks bounce back from dropping the first set to dispatch the tournament host Golden Eagles 3-1, much as they had at Duke a week earlier (the final tally this time was 21-25, 25-16, 25-21, 25-22, 25-15). Against Western Michigan the following afternoon, KU had to battle in three straight sets but won all three (25-22, 25-22, 25-20) to emerge from the weekend unscathed.

“We’ve got a lot of respect for Western Michigan and the brand they play,” KU coach Ray Bechard said in a press release after the second victory. “They are extremely competitive and intense and they take a lot of pride in playing hard. We responded to that and plus a little more. I thought we played really well and read some in-game stuff well to finish off a very, very good weekend for the Jayhawks before 7 or 8 days of preparation.”

Five early kills by Aubrey Hamilton and a late run of three straight points for Marquette consigned the Jayhawks to losing a set for just the second time all season. They came back with an extremely efficient second frame in which they hit .519 and used a 6-0 run capped off by a pair of aces from Caroline Bien — which eventually grew into an 11-3 stretch — to even the score at 1-1.

By the end of the match, four KU players in Bien (10), London Davis (11), Ayah Elnady (14) and Toyosi Onabanjo (12) had reached double-digit kills. Bien added 13 digs, as did setter Camryn Turner, and Raegan Burns had a match-high 20.

Elnady continued apace on the second day with 15 kills, seven of which came in the first set. Bien earned the final two points of that set after WMU had managed to cut KU’s lead to 23-22.

The second frame unfolded somewhat differently, with the Jayhawks and Broncos tied at 20-20 before four of KU’s final five points came on errors by WMU. A late 5-1 run produced the slightly wider 25-20 margin in the third set.

The Jayhawks will host Lipscomb on Sept. 15.