The Kansas volleyball team again dragged a higher-ranked foe into a five-set match on Friday night — this time at its opponent’s home venue — but couldn’t seal the deal.

The Jayhawks fell 3-2 (16-25, 25-18, 18-25, 28-26, 10-15) to Wisconsin at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin, as they pulled off clutch plays in extra points in the fourth set but gave up a match-deciding 5-1 run to close out the fifth.

Opposite hitter Jovana Zelenović led KU with 15 kills on a team-best hitting percentage of .250, while outside hitter Selena Leban earned a 14-kill, 10-dig double-double. Ryan White and Logan Bell also reached double-digit digs.

Setter Katie Dalton tallied 38 assists in her second straight start as head coach Matt Ulmer used a lineup that far more closely resembled what KU deployed in its five-set loss to Penn State on Monday than what it had in its five-set victory over Vanderbilt two days earlier. On the whole, though, the Jayhawks still hit just .156 to Wisconsin’s .269.

The battle with the Badgers, which was Wisconsin’s season opener and part of its Opening Spike Classic (although KU had already played twice as part of last week’s AVCA First Serve event), came with a ready-made storyline because of the presence of Mimi Colyer.

The 6-foot-3 senior outside hitter had spent her first three seasons with Ulmer and his staff at Oregon, where she was a second-team All-American. Colyer played up to that level in taking down Ulmer’s new team on Friday, as she recorded 26 kills on .339 hitting and 10 digs. Una Vajagic, another outside hitter who hails from Zelenović’s hometown of Novi Sad, Serbia, added 13 kills and 14 digs, and middle blocker Alicia Andrew had two solo blocks and eight block assists. Two additional players recorded double-doubles for the Badgers, who totaled 77 digs on the night.

Wisconsin kept KU at arm’s length for much of the first set, largely because of kills by Colyer assisted by Charlie Fuerbringer, which accounted for eight of the Badgers’ first 12 points. After Leban cut the Jayhawks’ deficit to 17-14, Wisconsin scored eight of the next 10 to claim the set.

KU responded by scoring the first five points of the second game, capped off by a block by Leban and Reese Ptacek. Led by Leban, the Jayhawks stretched their advantage as far as nine points on a pair of occasions and cruised to the 25-18 win.

Again momentum swung back to Wisconsin, although KU had a chance to go ahead in the third set before the Badgers dominated late. The Jayhawks had overcome a slow start to tie the score at 10-10 and 14-14, then pulled ahead on attack errors by Colyer and Grace Egan. However, despite two timeouts by Ulmer, Wisconsin scored a whopping nine straight points, capped off by Andrew’s solo block, to stop KU in its tracks.

The fourth set featured by far the highest drama. Neither team led by more than three points at any juncture, but Ptacek’s kill at 23-23 gave the Jayhawks their first of three set points, all of which Wisconsin staved off (with two kills by Colyer and a service error by Bell). Eventually, back-to-back blocks gave KU the victory and evened the tally at 2-2.

In the decisive final set, the Jayhawks trailed 10-9 off a kill by Zelenović, but Leban committed consecutive attack errors. Later, down 14-9, Ptacek forestalled the loss with a kill, but Andrew and Madison Quest blocked Leban to advance Wisconsin to 1-0.

KU, meanwhile, fell to 1-2, and its early-season grind continues on Sunday in Madison when it battles No. 12 Creighton at the Kohl Center.