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

Kansas head coach Matt Ulmer talks to the team during a timeout against TCU in Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.

Updated 6:17 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025:

The Kansas volleyball team has learned its NCAA Tournament fate.

The Jayhawks made it in as a No. 4 seed and by the skin of their teeth earned the opportunity to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. They will face High Point at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena on Thursday at 6:30 p.m., with the other half of their four-team pod consisting of No. 5 seed Miami going against Tulsa. The winners of each match will face off on Friday at 6 p.m.

This is KU’s third consecutive season as an NCAA Tournament host, the first two under the retired Ray Bechard and this year under Matt Ulmer.

“It’s a great accomplishment,” Ulmer said. “We have the best fans. It’s such an amazing environment. Any chance we get to add another match to be in front of our crew at Horejsi, we want to have it.”

He added: “We only returned one point scorer from last year’s team, so to be able to be in a position where we’re hosting, I think that says a lot about how hard this team has worked and the effort that everybody’s put in to get back to this point.”

KU is in the Nebraska Quadrant of the 64-team bracket, and if it advances past the first weekend — which Ulmer has previously cited as a goal for his team, after KU lost in the second round each of the past two years — it will likely have to face the Cornhuskers, who are the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament.

The Jayhawks’ season began with 14 straight nonconference matches, all away from home and many against the nation’s top teams. They took their lumps during this opening stretch as Ulmer tested out a variety of different lineups with his new personnel. That included four five-set losses, all of which came against top-20 teams, as KU exited nonconference play with a 9-5 record against its brutal schedule.

The fifth-set struggles continued in the Jayhawks’ conference opener as they fell to Arizona State, the eventual conference champion with a 17-1 league record. But after opening 2-2 with a grim road loss at TCU, KU hit its stride, beating then-No. 15 Baylor in five at the Ferrell Center to kick off a stretch of 10 wins in 11 games.

The Jayhawks avenged their defeat against the Frogs with a sweep at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena and later knocked off another ranked foe in Colorado. The lone blemish was a five-set loss to rival Kansas State, snapping an eight-match winning streak against the Wildcats, in KU’s first volleyball match in Allen Fieldhouse in 12 years. The Jayhawks did manage to avenge it when they cruised past K-State in straight sets on Nov. 15.

The sequence that dealt the most significant blow to KU’s hopes of hosting included back-to-back sweeps at Utah (which finished 12th in the 15-team Big 12) and BYU (sixth) as part of a grim road trip through the Beehive State. But the Jayhawks weathered that adversity and completed a season sweep against Iowa State before taking down UCF 3-1 on senior day. KU came in second in the conference with a 13-5 league record — where it had been predicted to finish in the preseason — and did enough to remain in the top 16.

While Ulmer said he thought it was 50/50 whether the team would host, winning both matches to finish the regular season was crucial to build momentum going into the tournament, whether the Jayhawks would have to go on the road or have the benefit of hosting.

“If we wanted to be in position to host, we had to win both matches this week,” Ulmer said. “I like where we’re at, and again, this time of year, you’re only going to play good teams and people that are used to winning.”

The Jayhawks have consistently ranked among the best defenses in the league and, in some categories, in the country. They limit opposing hitters to .174 and the Big 12’s second-lowest totals of opponent assists and kills per set. Freshman middle blocker Aurora Papac is second in the league with 1.37 blocks per set, although the Jayhawks have deployed her less of late. Libero Ryan White averages 3.93 digs per set.

The offense has been more of a group effort with Rhian Swanson, Jovana Zelenović, Grace Nelson, Reese Ptacek and, especially recently, Selena Leban chipping in. The freshman opposite hitter Zelenović is also one of the league’s most dangerous servers with a team-high 43 aces on the year. The setter position has been an interesting one, with senior Katie Dalton and redshirt sophomore transfer Cristin Cline each seeing significant time, with Dalton occupying the primary role for much of conference play.

High Point (No. 83 in RPI) enters the NCAA Tournament after sweeping Radford and UNC Asheville to earn an automatic bid from the Big South tournament. It’s a program that Ulmer and his staff are familiar with after Ulmer’s Oregon Ducks faced the Panthers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season, a 3-0 win for Oregon.

“I think when I watch some film, hopefully I’ll recognize some people and see what they’re doing,” Ulmer said. “But again, it’s going to be about us. When we play our best game, we’re a pretty good volleyball team. So, I think it’s just about bringing our best version forward.”

The Panthers are 18-9 overall and 12-2 in league play. Sophomore outside hitter Élodie Lalonde leads the way with 3.74 kills per set, while freshman middle blocker Maya Bukovcan gets 2.20 on .390 hitting to go with 1.12 blocks. High Point has deployed a pair of setters in Remy Catojo and Allie Gray.

If KU, No. 15 in RPI, advances past the first round and gets the opportunity to face No. 19 Miami (Tulsa is No. 36), it will encounter a considerable challenge. Flormarie Heredia Colon is one of the most potent attackers in the country and averages 6.25 kills per set on .287 hitting. In the Hurricanes’ last match against North Carolina on Saturday, Heredia Colon swung 92 times with 36 kills and 21 errors.

While KU has had its fair shares of ups and downs throughout the season, Ulmer likes where the team is currently and knows it has had the experiences, thanks to a difficult nonconference schedule, to make a deep run in the postseason.

“I think we’ve become pretty tough over the course of the season, which is something that we really needed to become grittier and become tougher,” Ulmer said. “Everybody’s going to be bringing their best right now, and you got to be able to weather the storm and be able to score against great blocks and great defenses and be able to make tough defensive plays and serve under pressure.”

photo by: Sarah Buchanan/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas volleyball players and fans stand for the national anthem leading up to the matchup against Arizona at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena on Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025.

photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

KU senior Rhian Swanson spikes the ball past the hands of Iowa State’s Morgan Brandt during the Jayhawks’ match on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, at the Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena in Lawrence.

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

Kansas libero Ryan White makes an over-the-shoulder dig against TCU in Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.

photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

KU freshman Jovana Zelenovic tips the ball over the net during the Jayhawks’ match against Iowa State on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, at the Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena in Lawrence.