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

KU head coach Matt Ulmer speaks to his team before the fifth set of the Jayhawks' match against Arizona State on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, at the Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena in Lawrence.

The Kansas volleyball team dropped to 10-7 on the season and 1-2 in Big 12 Conference play with a 3-1 loss to TCU (15-25, 23-25, 25-23, 13-25) on Wednesday night at Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

The 12th-ranked Horned Frogs routed the 18th-ranked Jayhawks in the first and fourth sets, with team hitting percentages of .441 and .385, respectively, and split the two closer games in Wednesday’s match to ensure their four-set victory.

KU is now 1-7 against ranked teams and 9-0 against unranked opposition, with another tough match at No. 15 Baylor looming on Friday night in Waco, Texas.

Outside hitters Evan Hendrix and Becca Kelley led the way for TCU in the victory, with Hendrix totaling 20 kills on 38 attacks with no errors (.526 hitting) and Kelley leading all players with 21 kills. Rosemary Archer had 21 assists to Ella Foti’s 20 for the Frogs, while Hendrix added 13 digs to complete a double-double.

KU got a double-double of its own from setter Katie Dalton, who had 30 assists and 11 digs. Dalton has split time in recent matches with fellow team captain Cristin Cline, who tallied eight assists in three sets of action. Libero Ryan White recorded 18 digs, and middle blocker Reese Ptacek led the way on offense with 13 kills as one of three Jayhawks in double digits.

KU started poorly, conceding a pair of early service aces to Samara Coleman before it had even scored a point and going down as many as 11 at 17-6 on an 11-2 run by the Frogs. The Jayhawks gained a little ground thanks to a kill by Ptacek and a block she split with Selena Leban, but TCU used several late attack errors to claim the first set.

TCU jumped ahead early again in the second set, but this time KU had a more substantial response in the form of six straight points to go ahead 10-8, including two attack errors by Alexis Roberson. The Horned Frogs jumped back ahead 15-12 and clung to that narrow advantage. Kills by Grace Nelson and Aurora Papac, plus a block from Papac and Jovana Zelenović, got KU within a point at 22-21, and Coleman gave the Jayhawks a chance with a service error on set point, but Kelley got the decisive kill for the 25-23 result.

The next game went the opposite way, at least in terms of the final score. Otherwise it was dramatically different, with the Jayhawks jumping ahead 9-1, led by five kills from Leban in the span of six points.

The margin narrowed all the way to two when Dalton’s attack got blocked by Sarah Sylvester to make it 14-12, but this time KU was able to keep TCU at arm’s length. The Jayhawks allowed a significant comeback with a 24-19 lead, but Rosemary Archer’s service error on KU’s fifth set point got the Jayhawks out alive.

There was no such intrigue in the final set, the most dominant of all for the Frogs, in which KU hit .118 as a team. Hendrix and Kelley accounted for 11 kills in the set, and at one point TCU led 12-4 with the Jayhawks having just one kill combined.