photo by: Richard Gwin

Allen Fieldhouse serves as the backdrop for a volleyball match between Kansas University and Saint Louis on Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012. The Jayhawks swept the Billikens, 3-0, in their first match on James Naismith Court since 1999.

Kansas volleyball coach Matt Ulmer vowed to sing the national anthem for Friday’s match at Allen Fieldhouse if the Jayhawks could draw 10,000 fans.

KU likely won’t get there — athletic director Travis Goff said on Wednesday that attendance would clear 5,000, but he wasn’t sure if it would be six or seven thousand or somewhere in that range — but Ulmer’s pipes will be tested regardless. He said in a video posted on social media on Thursday that his team had made him promise to sing if the Jayhawks beat TCU — which they did in resounding fashion with a sweep on Wednesday.

So Ulmer, KU’s first-year head coach but a veteran vocalist given that he once sang the anthem on Oregon’s senior night in 2023, will give a repeat performance.

“I won’t embarrass the song or the purpose for it, but I also won’t be getting a record contract,” he said.

It’ll be one unique touch in what will be an experimental night for the program — a “guinea-pig” situation, as Ulmer called it, for Friday’s match at 8 p.m. against rival Kansas State. KU hasn’t played in Allen Fieldhouse since 2013, or regularly since the team moved into its own arena in 1999. But Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena holds just 2,265 fans.

“So I was just really interested to see what the actual fan base is like for volleyball in the area and I think Horejsi doesn’t really give me a good barometer for what that is,” Ulmer said. “… When I go fight some fights, I want to know what I’m fighting for and what actually makes sense for us within the community.”

Athletic director Travis Goff reiterated that KU loves playing in Horejsi and “won’t ever stray from that being the home base,” but that he thinks Friday’s experiment could lead into future opportunities to use the Fieldhouse.

“I think this Friday’s going to show us that there’s opportunity to weave in one to two unique matchups in Allen Fieldhouse and leverage, I think, the greatest sports venue in the country,” Goff said. “And it’s going to demonstrate that we’ve got a lot more demand and a lot more interest in Kansas volleyball and the sport of volleyball than what Horejsi can contain.”

Kansas State was certainly an optimal choice of opponent for this test run, at least based on the turnout senior outside hitter Rhian Swanson expects from her own family.

“My family always comes,” said the McPherson native, “but I’m having so (many) more family members be able to come. They got tickets just because it’s the K-State-KU showdown, and half of them went to K-State, so they’re ready to see both sides of it.”

KU has won eight straight meetings with the Wildcats, half in Manhattan and half in Lawrence. The Jayhawks enter Friday’s match in essentially a three-way tie for third place in the Big 12, looking to continue their recent winning streak and their climb toward a top-16 seed ahead of the NCAA Tournament. If they can reach the top 16, they can host NCAA Tournament matches, which Goff said would still take place at Horejsi due to “the intimacy of that and the home-court advantage.”

Kansas State is 10-6 overall and 3-5 in league play and lost consecutive matches at Baylor and TCU last week, but has had a full week without another contest ahead of Friday.

As familiar as these teams are with each other (though perhaps less so now given Ulmer’s arrival and KU’s roster turnover), they’ll be playing in a new venue. Ulmer compared it to some of the large arenas KU visited over the course of its challenging nonconference schedule — and would have to play in again if it made a deep run in the NCAA Tournament — and added, “This is the best way that we can simulate that on campus.”

“It just feels huge,” Swanson said. “It’s crazy. Our court in Horejsi, it’s so compacted you feel like the fans are right next to you, which I love that feeling personally — some people couldn’t. But I think it’s definitely going to be different with the benches out and the bleachers and everything like that, but during our first practice, it was just like, ‘Wow,’ it just feels so big. So we’ll see.”