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 6:04 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 Ray Bechard and this year under Matt Ulmer. KU is in the Nebraska Quadrant of the 64-team bracket, and if it advances past the first weekend — which Ulmer has 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.

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. 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.

This story will be updated.