The Kansas volleyball team has found every conceivable way to take a match to five sets in the first two weekend tournaments of its season, but it has now lost three such matches in a row.

After rallying from down 2-0 in the match and scoring the first three points of the final set, the 14th-ranked Jayhawks allowed nine straight and ultimately fell 3-2 (17-25, 21-25, 25-21, 27-25, 12-15) to No. 12 Creighton at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin, on Sunday night.

KU dropped to 1-3, after previously losing in five sets to top-10 teams from Penn State and Wisconsin within the six days prior to its defeat against Creighton.

Freshman opposite hitter Jovana Zelenović led the Jayhawks in kills for the second straight match, this time with 16 kills on .250 hitting, and fellow freshman Selena Leban added 10.

KU’s lineup shuffling continued, with Cristin Cline returning to the setter spot midway through the first set and recording 33 assists after she had given way to Katie Dalton for the previous two contests, as well as freshman Aurora Papac stepping in at middle blocker for Aisha Aiono for most of Sunday’s match. Libero Ryan White and outside hitter Grace Nelson tallied 15 and 14 digs, respectively.

Creighton got 30 combined kills from outside hitters Ava Martin and Destiny Ndam-Simpson, and Kiara Reinhardt added 11 on 22 swings from her middle-blocker spot.

After Leban made it 7-7 with a first-set kill (on one of Dalton’s two first-set assists), KU conceded seven points in a row and did not get closer than four points away from the Bluejays for the rest of the frame.

As the closer score suggests, the Jayhawks kept the second game tighter for longer. Creighton’s Jaya Johnson took part in two blocks and added a kill as part of a 5-1 run that gave her team a 12-9 advantage, but KU got within one point again on consecutive kills by Zelenović and Papac at 16-15. Later, with the Jayhawks trailing 22-20 and serving, Eloise Brandewie’s solo block on Papac and a kill by Martin turned the final stretch in Creighton’s favor. KU staved off one set point on an attack error by Martin, but Cline committed a decisive service error.

The Jayhawks began their comeback in the third set, even after conceding another pair of midgame runs to the Bluejays. KU trailed 17-15 but evened the score on kills by Reese Ptacek and Rhian Swanson, then jumped ahead and forced a timeout by Creighton after an attack error by Ndam-Simpson and a service ace from Heidi Devers.

The Bluejays bounced back to tie it again, but KU used a second run of four straight points to reassert its advantage and then got its final two points on Zelenović’s kills.

The fourth set extended all the way into extra points after a sloppy stretch. KU was gifted a tying point on a service error that made it 23-23 before the teams traded attack errors. Creighton had a match-point opportunity up 25-24 on another kill by Martin, but Cline set up Ptacek for a kill and then the two combined to block Martin before Leban earned a service ace (with a reception error charged to Sydney Breissinger).

The momentum did not continue in the Jayhawks’ favor when they entered the decisive fifth game. They led 3-0 on their fourth and final ace when Johnson earned Creighton a crucial kill, which prompted what turned out to be another eight points with Breissinger serving, including back-to-back kills by Brandewie. KU wasn’t totally out of contention and crept back in at 13-11 with an attack error by Kiara Reinhardt, but a final kill from Swanson wasn’t enough to offset the Bluejays’ last two points from Ndam-Simpson.

KU will face Creighton again in a road match on Sept. 21 as part of the Omaha Tournament. In the meantime, the early-season tests will continue for the Jayhawks at Purdue, beginning with a matinee at 2 p.m. on Wednesday against Bowling Green.